Praline (nut confection)

Praline is a sweet food made from a mixture of nuts and boiled sugar, eaten as a confection or more commonly, as an ingredient in other confections. In Europe, the nuts are usually almonds, though sometimes hazelnuts. In Louisiana and Texas, USA, pecans are the nuts almost always used, and cream is often incorporated into mixture.

As originally invented in France, pralines were whole almonds coated in caramelized sugar, but in most other countries the word has since come to mean a smooth paste or powder made by grinding up such sugar-coated nuts. In The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium praline may refer to a filled chocolate of any sort. In Great Britain the term can refer either to praline (the filling for chocolates) or, less commonly, to the original whole-nut pralines.

Robert King Wilkerson one of the Angola Three makes pralines he calls Freelines. Wilkerson made pralines in prison while in solitary confinement. He burned paper in soda cans to cook the candies and gathered ingredients from other prisoners and guards.

Origin of the name

The praline (originally spelled prasline) is named after the French soldier and diplomat Marshal du Plessis-Praslin (1598-1675), whose cook invented it. It is said that this same cook, Clément Lassagne, after retiring from the marshal's service, founded the Maison de la Praline: the confectioner's shop which still exists in the town of Montargis some 110 km south of Paris.