Pink Pralines

Last week, I had five different attempts at making the classic French confection of Pralines Roses (Pink Pralines). They are essentially almonds coated in a pink (or sometime red) crystallised coating of sugar, giving them a knobbly appearance and a crunchy texture.  Not to be mistaken with traditional Praline, (in which you never want the sugar to recrystallise) or Sugared Almonds, which are again different.

You can buy Pink Pralines in the UK, (from MSK food specialists), but on a student budget, I cannot. 

These minute confections are required as decoration on the Pierre Herme creation of Cake Ispahan, which I (badly) made last week.  This is what they're meant to look like:

The bowl on the left is Praline Rose with whole almonds. On the right, similar, but a lower proportion of sugary coating is used to cover crushed almonds.

Having scoured the Google search for how to make "Pink Pralines", to no avail, I then started on the search of "Pralines Roses" and trawling french cookery sites. This was slightly more successful - it did yield recipes, but none of the recipes worked for me. 

To cut a long story of trial and error short, there were two main problems with the recipes which I found:

- There was the type of recipe which only required the almonds to have once "coating" of the sugar solution. This invariably resulted in badly-coated almonds.


- The type of recipe which coats the almonds once, then reheats everything (including the once-coated almonds) in the pan again, for another coating.  This, invaribly, means that the original coating on the almonds melts, leaving the almonds to come out of the process looking no different to when they went in. (Still badly coated). 

So, I had to go my own way with the recipe. Alas, it is still not perfect, but hopefully it's getting somewhere. Here's the final product, which I used to decorate Cake Ispahan with:  (This picture was taken immediately after cooking; the longer you leave them, the more they crystallise and begin to look more like the professional picture).

Notes on making Praline Roses (Pink Pralines):  Please don't use natural food colourings for this. The first three trials I did were with Dr Oetker Natural Red - natural food colourings are perfect if you want to colour white icing and other goods which are not going to be baked/heated. However, as soon as you heat a natural colouring, the colour changes. In this case, to orange.  Also, they tend to have a lingering taste (which is worsened when you have to add more of the colouring to the confection which is being heated, in order to achieve the right colour). Dr Oetker Natural Red has a definite beetroot aftertaste.  I have nothing against natural colourings, but in this precise context, they do not seem to give a good result.

Paste, gel or power food colourings are preferable to very runny ones which tend to increase the cooking time.  (The above images were both achieved with a tiny amount of Sugarflair "Pink").

 The sugar is meant to crystallise, so there's no point doing the standard "washing down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, to prevent crystallisation" during the boiling stage. It does feel slightly wrong not having to do that, though.

Some people suggest reheating the left over sugar from the first coating, to form the second coating. This sometimes works and sometimes does not (going horribly granular and difficult to work with), which is why I've given a recipe which uses a lot of sugar but is closer to foolproof.

I have yet to find a way which ensures a complete and even coating on the almonds. Placing the almonds on a baking tray and dripping the coating over does not work, as the sugar coating will set thoroughly in the pan before you've coated anything.  Throwing the almonds into the pan seems the best way to ensure that everything is coated, but not necessarily "evenly". All ideas welcome!

Pralines Roses (Pink Pralines) 
- A large baking sheet or Silpat
- Icing sugar
- 100g whole, unpeeled Almonds.
400g white granulated sugar
100g / mils water
Pink food colouring

Firstly, toast the almonds in a saute pan, or in the oven for a few minutes.  (Not completely necessary for the following process, but it brings out the flavour). Sift a coating of icing sugar over the baking sheet / silpat you will be using.  Once the almonds are toasted, place them onto the baking sheet/silpat and dredge in icing sugar.

Place the granulated sugar and water in a pan. Add the required food colouring. (Use the end of a cocktail stick or kebab skewer to pick up a tiny amount of colouring and add it to the pan. Combine and judge whether any more is required.).  Now, take half of the contents out of the pan and reserve for the second coating. (This way, both coatings are exactly the same colour. In theory.).

Heat the contents of the pan, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the sugar has dissolved. Add the almonds.  Bring to a boil.  With the baking tray/silpat nearby, keep testing the sugar solution to see if  it has reached the correct temperature, by dripping small amounts of it onto the tray/silpat. When the sugar solution has reached the right temperature, you will notice that the droplets set fairly hard, have a slight golden tinge to them (particularly compared to the first versions which you tested), and you will be able to form a thin strand of sugar between the wooden spoon and the droplets as you drip the solution onto the tray/silpat.  When this stage has been reached, turn off the heat and keep stirring the pan, until the mixture becomes "granular".  Just before it hardens completely, turn the mixture out of the pan, onto the baking tray/silpat.

At this stage, whilst it's still hot, attempt to break up any huge lumps of almonds which have stuck together, or gained vast amounts of coating.   Leave to cool.

After one coat of sugar.

This process is repeated again when the almonds are cool, with the reserved batch of sugar/water. (No need to wash the pan out/change pan in between). For this coating, the already-coated almonds (just the almonds, not any of the possibly extraneous coating from the first batch) should be added when the sugar solution has been heated to the right temperature. (Keep the pan on the heat, add the almonds, coat thoroughly, turn off the heat).  Pour onto tray/silpat covered in icing sugar and separate any large chucks again. 

After two coats, the almonds should be reasonably well-coated. Leave to cool and use as required.