at Sun, 17 Apr 2005 20:24:25 GMT in <bdh5611jvnrfqpprpfggogjg3e5r543c5p@
4ax.com>, (Michelle in WA state) wrote :

>Just curious: What kind of texture are pralines supposed to have?
>
>I have a box of 'em here, "Kate Latter's" brand, that came -- with
>attendant regional fanfare -- from New Orleans. Maybe I've never had
>pralines before (except in ice cream or something), but for some reason I
>was expecting something quite different. These are basically disks of
>fairly crystalline light-brown sugar with a few pecan pieces in 'em.

The term praline seems to cover a very wide variety of confections, really
the only common thread being that they involve nuts cooked in sugar. In the
southern USA, pralines seem to be either a hard crystalline candy with nuts
in it, or a soft, semi-chewy candy used to bind large nuts. In Belgium,
pralines are generally chocolates with a pastelike nut filling which can
have a texture ranging anywhere from slightly grainy like fudge to super-
smooth like creamy peanut butter. I've also seen the term used to describe
individual nuts with a caramelised sugar coating. So I think the real
answer is, the problem isn't with the candy you got as such, but rather
with the term.



--
Alex Rast

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