Pralines: The Accidental Confectionery

It's 1671 and here you - Clement Lassagne - are the personal chef of Marshal César, duc de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin. A sugar industrialist, an ambassador serving King Louis XIII, expecting nothing but perfection! It's a rush, it's a stress to get the food perfect. And you've got a clumsy apprentice accidentally dropping a bowl of almonds and spilling a pan of hot burnt sugar. Can't start over again; there's no time; you don't have more ingredients.

What are you gonna do?

So you literally throw together the mixture and serve it. And what do you know? The Marshal just LOVES this concoction! And so the first pralines are created

There exists several more versions as to how Lassagne got his inspiration. From children caramelizing almonds in suger over a candle to the chef putting sugary sweets into little parcels of irresistible treats that the Marshal could present to women he was courting. These parcels would be labeled with his name. But whatever the origins, we know that the original pralines were roughly a sweet confection made of whole individually coated in caramelized sugar.

Pralines were one of the favorite recipes the French settlers brought over to the Americas when they began colonizing Louisiana. But they had to alter the original pralines recipe due to the shortage of almonds. Cooks began using pecans or hazelnuts as a substitute and the pralines became sugary and creamy.

HAZELNUT PRALINES TWISTWRAP IN CUBE
Individual smooth hazelnut pralines
with crunchy hazelnut pieces in a
milk chocolate shell.

Rich in history, modern day pralines have evolved from the basic ingredient of sugar and nuts. The powder which results when grounded is used in many cakes, pastries and ice cream; when mixed with chocolate, the result is called praliné in French. Praliné is colloquially known, in English, as chocolates – those various centres coated with chocolate.

However you like your pralines – original almond and caramel, mixed with other concoctions, or as a chocolate, you're sure to enjoy one. Close your eyes and you'll easily imagine yourself in Lassagne's kitchen savoring the delicious aroma and sweet taste of his invention 400 years ago!

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