Homemade Pralines
Candy making at home! Our Homemade Pralines are sweet, nutty, creamy candies that are simple to make and make a wonderful gift for the candy lover in your life!
Bring on the homemade candy! With so many unnecessary additives to candies in the stores, we are always looking for ways to make our own, at home. Our latest candy recipe does just that as it’s made with simple ingredients without any added corn syrup or dyes. Our Homemade Pralines are our take on this sweet Southern candy!
What are Pralines?
Here in the US (especially in the South), Pralines are a sugary, nutty, creamy candy made from white and brown sugar, cream, butter, and pecans (or other nuts). With a butter flavor and a soft tender texture plus the crunch of the pecans, these candies are a simple sweet delicious treat that those in the South know well. However, if you travel to Europe and ask for a praline in Belgium you’ll get a soft-centered chocolate, or in France something more like a candied almond.
Ingredients Needed
- Pecans—Pecans are our go-to nut for a classic praline, but you can also use hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts. Toast them for even more flavor and added crunch!
- Sugars – Both brown and white sugar are best for this recipe, although you can use just all white. We love the added depth of caramel-y flavor that the brown sugar adds.
- Half and Half and Butter– Both add to the melt-in-your-mouth buttery texture of the final candy.
- Baking Soda – This is a key ingredient in any good praline because not only does baking soda help the sugars dissolve to ensure you don’t have a grainy praline, but it also helps keep them a softer and more tender candy instead of a hard candy.
- Salt – Just a pinch!
Helpful Tools
(Amazon affiliate links)- You can find all of my kitchen essentials here!
Kitchen Scale – Weighing ingredients is one of the best ways to ensure accurate and consistent results. That’s why a kitchen scale is one of my most used kitchen tools. They’re fairly inexpensive and will be worth every penny!
Thermometer– A super important tool for all candy making. This will help you ensure that you’ve reached the soft ball stage of the candy making process (more on that below). You don’t have to have one (see recipe notes), although it will definitely make this (and future candy making!) a lot easier.
Baking Tray – Lined with either parchment paper or a silicone mat, this is what you’ll drop your little praline candies on to harden.
Saucepan – We use a 3-quart saucepan to give plenty of room for when those sugars start to bubble.
Whisk – Helpful, but not entirely necessary as you could also use a fork.
Mixing Bowls – We love these glass mixing bowls and use them for everything!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Heat Sugars and Cream
Add the white and brown sugars and the cream to your saucepan and heat over medium to dissolve the sugars and bring it all up to soft ball stage of 235 degrees F. Don’t worry – if you don’t have a thermometer you can still check for this stage, see the recipe notes for how!
Soft Ball Stage: This is a stage in the candy-making process where the sugar mixture has reached 235 degrees F. At this point, the sugar syrup has cooked off most of the liquid and now contains about 90 percent sugar, making it thick and sweet. This is the end stage for candies like fudge, Italian meringue, and pralines.
Pro Tip
Butter the sides of your saucepan before adding the sugars and cream. This will prevent sugar crystals from forming on the side of the pan and will help prevent a grainy texture of the pralines.
Add Butter and Pecans
Once the sugars have hit the soft ball stage, remove the pan from the heat, add the butter, and gently mix it in to fully melt, then add some toasted pecans.
Add to Tray
Now it’s time to add spoonfuls of the Homemade Pralines to your parchment-lined baking tray to let them set.
Pro Tip
When you drop the sugary pecan mixture onto the parchment paper is important to ensure that they set correctly. After adding the pecans, wait 2 minutes before adding the pralines to the tray. If you add them too soon, they will spread and won’t set fully, but you can’t wait too long because if they fully cool, they won’t drop as well onto parchment.
Once cooled and set, you have Homemade Pralines!
Recipe Tips
While candy making is super fun, it’s important to keep in mind that heating sugar to higher temps can also be dangerous because boiling sugar burns can be some of the most painful. That is why we encourage you to use a larger saucepan with high edges to allow room for the sugars to bubble up, and also wear long sleeves and be extra careful with kiddos around in case of any popping sugar while it comes up to temperature.
The soft ball stage in candy making is 235 – 245 degrees F. Once you go beyond 245, you’ll be in the firm-ball stage, and unfortunately, you cannot go back. This will result in a candy that’s much more caramel-like than fudge-like. That’s why it is very important to monitor it with a thermometer.
You can make pralines without a candy thermometer by using an ice bath method to test the sugar syrup (this is how candy makers did it before the invention of a candy thermometer). To test to see if your sugar mixture has hit the soft ball stage, use a bowl with ice water to test a small teaspoon of the sugar syrup by dropping it into the ice water. If it dissolves, it’s not at the soft ball stage yet. But when it forms a small soft pliable ball in the water that when removed from the water is no longer a ball, it has reached the correct temperature.
If your sugar and pecan mixture seizes during mixing or is too thick to drop on the baking tray, just add a little bit of hot water to loosen it. The texture will be a little different, a little more granulated, than if it doesn’t seize, but they will still be delicious.
Just the right amount of crunch from the pecans and creamy sweetness from the set sugar!
Other Homemade Candy
Great Gift Idea!
These Homemade Pralines store so well that they make a great homemade holiday gift because they hold up well enough to be shipped to the candy lover in your life!
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar 200 g
- 3/4 cup white sugar 153 g
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 3 g
- 3/4 cup half and half
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 cups pecan halves 8.3 oz
- pinch fine ground salt
Instructions
- Toast Pecans: Add pecans in an even layer to a parchment paper lined baking tray. Toast in the oven at 350℉ for 7 minutes, stirring at half way mark. Add pecans to a small bowl and set aside. Meanwhile, prep all of your ingredients and line another baking tray with parchment paper. Keep parchment and tray from pecans for the pralines.
- Heat Sugars and Cream: Add sugars, baking soda, salt, and half and half to a saucepan. Whisk to combine and heat over medium heat, whisking often. Use a thermometer to monitor heat and heat to the soft ball stage of 235℉.
- Add Butter and Pecans: Once the temperature of the sugar syrup has reached 235℉, remove from heat and add butter. Stir to melt butter, 1 minute. Add the toasted pecans and stir just so all of the pecans are coated.
- Cool Slightly: Once the pecans have been added, let the mixture cool slightly for 2 minutes. Stirring again after 1 minute.
- Drop on Trays: Use a spoon to drop scoops of the pecans and sugar syrup onto parchment paper. Let cool to set for 10-15 minutes.
- Enjoy!
This recipe lives up to its name. So easy! And delicious. 🙂