This recipe for traditional French praline paste is very easy to make. You do not need any special cooking skills to make it and it is better than ready-made paste.
What is Praline Paste?
Praline paste comes from a French recipe that is made from a combination of ground roasted hazelnuts and caramelized sugar. It can be used as a topping for bread, an ingredient in recipes that call for praline paste, or eaten from a spoon if so desired! It is that good!
Can You Use Other Nuts in Place of Hazelnuts?
This recipe calls for hazelnuts, but you can use other nuts if you choose. You could use half hazelnuts and half almonds to make this praline paste or experiment with other nuts to create a different paste.
How to Start
I measure out the hazelnuts on a scale before I roast them. In the recipe, I give approximations for measuring with cups in case you don’t have a scale.
Roasting the Hazelnuts
The purpose of roasting is to give the hazelnuts a toasted flavor and also to remove the skins. It is quite simple to do:
- Place the measured hazelnuts on a baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees F for 15 minutes.
- Stir them every 5 minutes so that they get brown on all sides.
Removing the Skins
Follow these steps to remove the skins:
- As soon as the hazelnuts are roasted, place them on a thick dish towel so they aren’t too hot to handle.
- Fold the towel over them and squeeze and roll the hazelnuts together until they scrub against each other enough to remove the skins. And don’t worry, all the skins do not have to come off.
- Repeat the process until a lot of the skins are removed.
Place roasted hazelnuts on dish towel 
Fold over towel and remove skins by squeezing and rolling hazelnuts 
Open towel and pick the hazelnuts out of the skin remains 
Don’t worry if all the hazelnut skins are not shed onto the towel
Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet that has a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Do not dump the hazelnuts from the towel to the pan or you will get all the skin residue too. You want the hazelnuts clean for the next step: making hazelnut brittle. The parchment paper will serve to keep the brittle from sticking to the pan.
Caramelizing Sugar
Add the sugar and water to a saucepan 
Heat until the sugar starts to melt and sprinkle little more sugar on top 
Swirl the sugar as it browns 
Remove the caramelized sugar before it gets too brown
Caramelizing the sugar is the only tricky part of this recipe. There are two important rules for success:
- Do not stir the sugar or it will crystalize on the sides of the pan and possibly crystal the entire pan of sugar – which you do not want to happen for this recipe.
- Do not overcook the sugar or it will burn and taste bitter. I take it off the heat when it is a light caramel color.
This is a wet method of caramelizing sugar because a little water is added to the sugar. When I start, I stir the water and sugar together to wet the sugar. Then I do not stir again at all. In place of stirring, I swirl the mixture to distribute the browned sugar. Once it is starting to brown, keep a close eye because it can go from perfect to overcooked in mere seconds.
Quickly pour the caramelized sugar over the hazelnuts 
When cool, break the hazelnut brittle into pieces that will fit into a food processor
Pour the caramelized sugar over the prepared hazelnuts immediately after you remove it from the heat. Then just let it cool and it will make hazelnut brittle that you can break apart for processing.
Making the Praline Paste
Once the caramelized sugar has cooled and hardened, you will see that it formed a hazelnut brittle.
- Break it apart and place it in a food processor.
- Pulse to break up the brittle. It will turn to something that looks like brown sugar (above photo).
- Keep processing until it looks like peanut butter. You may have to start and stop the food processor so as not to overheat the motor. The more the brittle breaks down, the higher its viscosity or resistance becomes, which in turn can put a strain on the motor of some food processors.
- Keep processing and a “loose” paste will form. The longer you process, the more oil is extracted from the hazelnuts which makes a thick but pourable paste. It is ready at this point.
- Store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Passive Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 250 grams raw hazelnuts (a little less than 2 cups)
- 150 grams white sugar (a little less than 3/4 cup)
- 15 grams water (about a tablespoon)
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- Food processor
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Place hazelnuts in a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and pour the hazelnuts into a clean, thick dishtowel. Fold over the towel and rub together the hazelnuts several times to remove the skins. Place the hazelnuts in a bowl and throw away the skins. It is okay if all the skins are not removed.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper (or a silicone baking mat) on a jellyroll pan. Place the hazelnuts in the middle of the parchment paper.
- In a thick-bottomed pan, place 1/3 of the sugar and the water. Stir to wet all of the sugar. Heat it on medium heat to start the melting process. Add a little more sugar. Swirl the pan to wet the sugar. Do not stir. After the sugar heats and starts to melt, add the rest of the sugar and swirl to wet. Keep heating and occasionally swirling as the sugar melts and starts to brown.
- When the sugar turns to a light brown color, quickly remove it from the heat and pour it over the hazelnuts on the jellyroll. Be careful not to let the sugar brown too much or it will get past its optimal point and burn. It is better to go a little lighter because the sugar can change from just right to too dark in seconds.
- Let the hazelnut brittle cool. Then break it into smaller pieces.
- Place the brittle pieces in a food processor. Add the salt. Pulse to break up the brittle.
- Process the hazel brittle on high to turn it into praline paste. It may be necessary to stop processing for a few seconds so as not to overheat the motor. The longer you process, the looser the paste will become until it is similar to a thick, yet pourable peanut butter. Put in a closed container and refrigerate until ready to use.