The French created a delicious way to eat nuts coated in a crystallized caramel that they call pralines. These are the predecessors to the southern version of pralines (pronounced prah-leens) that we know and love, but the european version does not have any butter, milk or cream in the recipe. This delicious snack is made up of raw nuts that are tossed into a skillet with some sugar and a little water, then stirred together until it slowly caramelizes. These nuts are so delicious as is that it’s hard to stay away from them. They can also be ground up into a nut flour and used in cakes, made into a paste to flavor butter creams or most commonly, combined with melted chocolate, cream and butter to create a paste that is used to fill chocolates. So, when a European tells you that a piece of chocolate is filled with praliné, now you know what they mean.
I saw these delicious nuts made for the first time many years ago, when Jacques Torres appeared on one of Julia Child’s cooking shows. In the beginning of the video he made a beautiful chocolate piece for display and in the last half of the show he made these delicious caramelized nuts.
The good thing about this nut mix is that you can use whatever nuts you want, or use a combination of several different kinds. I like to have big bowls of this and my other fragrant nut mix made famous by the Union Square Café. It’s perfect for the holidays because you never know when guests will stop by — and everyone simply loves them. I have even given bags of them away as gifts to many happy recipients.
Over the holidays, I was lucky to receive a goodie box from my friend Ronnie at the Burrell Group in NYC who represents some really fabulous companies. One of the items she sent me was a unique flaked salt made by the Wild Hibiscus Flower Company. What is so unique about this flaked salt is that it has dried hibiscus flowers mixed into the salt itself, which lends a delightful citrus-y tang to the delicately flaked, pink salt.
It’s great to use this to salt the rims on your cocktail glasses, but I wanted to do something a little different with it. I decided to make a huge batch of these caramelized nuts and toss it with this delicious flaked salt.
All I can say is make sure to make yourself a very big batch.
European Pralines
1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
2 cups of nuts, raw and unsalted
1-2 teaspoons of Wild Hibiscus Salt Flakes
Place a piece of parchment on a sheet pan and sprinkle on some of the Wild Hibiscus salt flakes. You can see the beautiful large pink flakes of salt along with the dark colored hibiscus leaves.
Next, add the sugar, water and nuts into your skillet and place it over moderate heat. Stir everything together as the sugar begins to melt.
Continue stirring as the sugar bubbles up slightly an the water begins to evaporate.
After a minute or so, they will begin to take on a golden color, so DO NOT leave them unattended or they will burn. Once the caramelization begins, stir and toss the nuts with your wooden spoon to get them uniformly coated in the caramel sugar. Keep stirring and strive for a nice amber color on all of the nuts. A darker amber color will yield a deeper caramel flavor. Right before you are ready to pour the nuts out onto your prepared sheet pan, evenly sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of the Wild Hibiscus pink flake salt evenly onto the nuts while they are still warm in the skillet. Toss again and then pour them out onto your prepared parchment lined sheet pan.
Use the parchment to toss on the extra salt that you sprinkled on the sheet of parchment. Allow them to cool for a minute or so and then use your hands to carefully break apart the nut clusters. Taste one and see if there is enough salt to satisfy your taste buds, and if you need a little more, add extra. Allow them to cool completely and then place them in a lidded container and store in a cool place in your home—especially if they will not be consumed right away. Look at those sweet, salty nuts…how can anyone stay away…
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