pralines?

A couple of minutes ago, Adrian and I were just chilling when I took out a box of Max Brenners chocolates Andrea brought for us from Sydney.


This box of chocolate comes with a little menu/catalogue where it labels the type of chocolates in the box.


I chose the "Dark Chocolate Praline with Cornflakes" and Adrian picked the "Praline with Dark Chocolate".

Then he asked, "Hunn, What is praline?"

I thought for a second "I think it's high class chocolates."

He paused and said "o-kay".

For the next 30 seconds, I sat still and I came over to the check what a praline actually means.

Praline is a family of confections made from nuts and sugar syrup. (Source: wikipedia)

As originally invented in France at the Chateau Vaux-le Vicomte by the cook of the 19th century sugar industrialist, Praslin. Pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar, as opposed to dark nougat, where a sheet of caramelized sugar covers many nuts. The powder made by grinding up such sugar-coated nuts is called 'pralin' or 'praliné' in French, and is an ingredient in many cakes and pastries.

In most other countries the word 'praline' is used to mean this powder, or even a paste, often used to fill chocolates, hence its use by synecdoche in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium to refer to filled chocolates in general. In the United Kingdom, the term can refer either to praline (the filling for chocolates) or, less commonly, to the original whole-nut pralines.

After reading this, pralines are not exactly high-class chocolates. There are chocolates which have softer/caramelized texture inside and are covered with another layer of chocolate.


Hehe, I will need to explain this to my confused husband.