Roasted, deeply caramelized hazelnuts, with a hint of cacao, blended into a sinfully, sumptuous Hazelnut Cacao Nibs Praline Paste.
Praline Pleasures
Make a caramel, stir in some well-roasted nuts, a handful of nibs, a touch of salt and deliver your tastebuds a taste of heaven. No lie... Hazelnut Cacao Nibs Praline Paste is undoubtedly that.
To be fair, I feel the same about praline in general, but that hit of cacao really elevates. I've also made a batch with coffee beans in place of the nibs and that too is a winner.
Kicking It Old School
There are a few ways to make praline, which can then be ground into a paste. For this batch of Hazelnut Cacao Nibs Praline Paste, I used the labour-intensive way I was taught back in the pastry school. The technique involves:
- making a light caramel with sugar and water
- adding roasted nuts and continually stirring, off-heat, to crystallize
- returning to the heat to caramelize
- cooling, crushing and grinding
Tired yet? It really isn't that much work, but there are ways that don't require constantly stirring a pot of piping hot sugar and nuts. I learned a far simpler way a few years back, when I attended a Melissa Coppel course, that has become my go-to. We'll get into it in a future post.
Praline To Paste
You may choose to enjoy your praline, as is, or transform it into a paste for a number of purposes - high on the list... eating it straight from the jar. No judgement.
Getting it from hard candy to a paste requires a food processor or a melanger/stone grinder. Although a food processor does a decent job, a stone grinder will get your paste to silky, smooth, big-brand quality in under 2 hours. You can see some of the ways I like to use my melanger/stone grinder here.
I've included a video for visual learners. 😉
Ingredients
- 250 grams sugar I used organic cane sugar
- 60 grams water
- 250 grams hazelnuts dry roasted
- 30 grams cacao nibs I used Valrhona cacao nibs (roasted coffee beans work great, as well)
- 2.5 grams salt I used fleur de sel
Instructions
roast the nuts:
- Heat oven to 300ºF. Spread nuts in a single layer on a silicone-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and light brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. If the skins are on, use a clean towel to rub off the skins, while still warm.
make a caramel:
- Add the water and sugar to a heavy duty saucepan, stir to combine and cook over medium heat until it begins to bubble. If using a thermometer, around 120ºC.
make the praline:
- Remove caramel from heat and stir in the warm nuts. Keep stirring vigorously until nuts are coated and sugar crystallized. It will look sandy white.
- Return to heat and stir until it begins to caramelize. Add in the cacao nibs and continue to cook and stir to achieve a dark caramel colour. Remove from heat and spread on a silicone mat to cool completely.
make the paste:
- Once cooled, break into small chunks, using hands or rolling pin and place in a food processor.
- Process to a coarse powder. If you don't own a melanger, continue processing to a smooth paste - you may need to add a little hazelnut oil.
- If using a melanger, turn it on, add the powdered praline, the salt and process until smooth - approximately 2 hours, depending on your desired texture. Strain and store in a clean jar.
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