La Praluline de Pralus

Thanks to blog reader Pete, Steve and I popped back over to Vieux Lyon on our last full day in the city. Our goal - to stop at the Pralus chocolate/pastry shop to purchase La Praluline de Pralus. The link should take you to the shop page in English if you’re interested in reading more about François Pralus, a winner of France’s coveted Meilleur Ouvrier de France, MOF (essentially a best in their field designation).

Having been generally disappointed with the various praline rose items we tasted (except the tarte from Paul Bocuse), I was given a push by Pete to give La Praluline a try. OK! We headed over the river to the old town on Good Friday afternoon - LOTS of folks out and about on a beautiful sunny day.

Photo compliments of Steve Soper

These babies were literally flying out the door of the shop. We could see the ready and waiting inventory both on the front counter as well in the back kitchen. The sales folk were efficient and friendly, one being the wrapper/bagger and one taking payment with barely a moment to spare until the next customer stepped up.

Once I opened the package I found an informative insert all about this regional specialty. A buttery brioche loaded with chopped pink pralines which, at Pralus, are made with BOTH almonds and hazelnuts chosen from the best producers. I’m in.

Looks like some kind of meteorite or moonscape!

We shared a small slice mid-afternoon just to get a taste (didn’t want to spoil our appetite for dinner, don’t ya know). Crunchy, buttery and delicious.

Just loaded with pralines rose

Due to the brioche butteriness, this keeps well for several days and doesn’t mind a short warm up in a medium oven for a few minutes. If you’re ever in Lyon, give it a try.

Here’s another vision of spring to make you smile.

Praliné et sablés

Some of you know how much I love shortbread cookies (les sablés, en français) and am often playing around with new flavors and ingredients to create something unique and tasty.

There is an ingredient in the pastry world called praliné which consists of toasted nuts coated in caramel that are then cooled and ground into a paste. It is often made with hazelnuts or a 50/50 mix of almonds and hazelnuts, although any nut (nuts in general are referred to as fruits sec, en français) or combination thereof can work.

One of the first sets of recipes we were given in the basic pastry course at Le Cordon Bleu contained a recipe for do-it-yourself praliné or praline paste.  One can buy this particular delight ready made in fairly pricey tubs from companies like Valrhona, but I thought it was high time I made it myself.  Why not?!

What inspired me to take on this project was a recipe for sablés au praliné from Thierry Mulhaupt (a well known patissier chocolatier in the Alsace region) recently published on the French blog La Cuisine de Mercotte.  The recipe for les sablés contains a link for DIY le praliné and I went for it!

Toast 125 g almonds and 125 g hazelnuts in a 325º oven for about 10 minutes. Make a sugar syrup with 165 g of sugar and 45 g of water and cook it to 121ºC (250ºF).  Off the heat stir the warm toasted nuts into the sugar syrup until the sugar crystallizes.  

Then put the pan back on medium heat and stir continuously until the crystallized sugar melts and caramelizes to a golden amber.

I must admit that I should have cooked mine a little longer to bring ALL the sugar to a beautiful caramel stage, but sometimes impatience takes over.  Still - the nuts were looking pretty good.

Turn them out of the pan onto a Silpat, spreading them into a single layer and separating the nuts as much as possible.

Once cooled place them in the bowl of a food processor and whiz away!  

Still a bit grainy above, but I gave it a few more minutes of processing and was pretty happy with the result. All in all it takes a good 8-10 minutes to arrive at the end result.

This stuff will keep in a covered container at room temperature for several weeks.

Next comes the cookie dough.

Dice 300 g cold butter and sand it into a mixture of 300 g all purpose flour, 65 g almond flour and 65 g powdered sugar. Add 175 g praliné and a large pinch of fleur de sel and blend to create a smooth dough.

Divide the dough into five 180 g pieces and form logs about 25 cm long. I made mine into triangle logs for something a little different. Wrap and chill.

When it's time to bake, heat the oven to 325ºF.  Brush the logs with a bit of water, roll in raw sugar and slice into 7-8 mm slices. NOTE: the recipe actually suggests 15 mm slices, however I was going for a thinner cookie.

Place cookies on parchment lined sheet pans and bake about 16 minutes until nicely browned.

I must say these are tasty little morsels. Although the nuttiness is subtle, the butteriness is superb and the texture is melt in your mouth.  And the raw sugar crunch adds just the right touch.

Of course, making the praline paste is a time commitment which I suspect many would choose not to take on, and going the "store-bought" route is fairly prohibitive cost-wise. 

For me it was worth the effort to make my own, especially since so much of this stuff is about tackling something new, experiencing the process and enjoying the tastes that come along with it.

The good news is that once you make it you can use it for other things like ganache or as an addition to mousses or creams.  And remember - it keeps!  Only you can decide.