Sweet Praline
Praline
Dear praline! Sweet praline! Filled with such delicious sweet goodness. It is definitely one of the ultimate sugar fixes and really does brighten ones mood! It’s so versatile too! You can eat praline chunks on their own! Or you can alternatively crush your praline and sprinkle it on your vanilla ice-cream. Aah! Pralines and cream! So delicious!
Making praline sounds easy, looks easy, but in practice can have a couple of unforeseen glitches in the road. However once mastered, you’ll never forget it, sort of like riding a bicycle. The most common problem I find with making praline, is at the “waiting for the mixture to boil stage”. T-e-n whole minutes in cooking-land is a very long time indeed, causing the mind to wonder, contemplate lifes’ mysteries and such, however during this “waiting for the mixture to boil stage”, colour change can be virtually instantaneous, due to the high temperatures involved. And once it does start to change colour, if left on the heat, boy oh boy, does it turn black fast! So Always! Watch! And once it is starting to look golden take it off immediately, because it will still continue to change colour. In the end, you can always put a saucepan back on the stove, but you can never, reverse burnt sugar. Nor will you be able to ignore the inevitable burnt sugar smell that comes with it!
Praline
Ingredients: 1/3 cup blanced almonds, ½ cup caster sugar, ¼ cup hot water
Steps: Preheat the oven to moderate, 180 degrees Celsius. Place the blanched almonds on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool on tray.
Place caster sugar and hot water in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved, (takes about 3 minutes). Then increase the heat and boil the mixture for approximately 10 minutes or until it has just turned a light golden colour (stirring occasionally). Immediately take the saucepan off the heat as soon as it has turned a light golden colour, as the mixture is still very hot and will continue to darken even once the heat has been removed. As the bubbles subside you will be better able to see the colour of the mixture, and if required, you can always put it back on the heat again.
Once bubbles have subsided pour over the almonds and leave to set for an hour. Once set you can break the praline into chunks or process in a food processor to a fine powder to sprinkle over ice-cream and other desserts!
Tip! Do NOT take your eyes off the saucepan while the sugar mixture is boiling! Firstly it is very hot and that’s how accidents happen. And also, when toffee is about to burn, it really is an instantaneous, one minute clear, next minute… progressively more brown, *burnt fumes*, turning black, situation. This is not the time to live on the edge!
