20150422 - belgian pralines

Praline Two subvarieties of this confectionary exist:

• French pralines: a combination of almonds and caramelized sugar, harder than American praline.
• American pralines: a combination of syrup and pecans, hazlenuts or almonds with milk or cream, therefore softer and creamier, resembling fudge.

Two other uses exist:

• Praline cookie denotes a chocolate cookie containing ground nuts.
• Belgian pralines are at the most luxury end of Belgian chocolate and consist of a chocolate shell with a softer, sometimes liquid, filling, the most traditional filling of which is any one of a number of subtly different hazlenut, almonds, sugar, syrup and often milk-based pastes which with distinctive types of high-fat, low-melting point chocolate forms a main product of many Belgian chocolatiers.

Belgian soft-centre pralines 

Pralines from Belgium are also known as "(soft-center) Belgian chocolates", "Belgian chocolate fondants" and the somewhat vague "chocolate bonbons" in English-speaking countries — cases of chocolate (if from Belgium usually a quality, branded lower-melting point Belgian chocolate) filled with a soft centre. They were first introduced by Jean Neuhaus II, a Belgian chocolatier, in 1912.

There have always been many types and shapes: nearly always containing a chocolate shell with a softer filling. Confusion can arise over the use of the word praline in Belgium as it may refer to filled chocolates in general known as pralines and it may also refer to a traditional praline filling common in Europe (caramelised hazelnuts (noisettes) or almonds (amandes) ground into a paste, sometimes with whey powder, condensed milk or cream) described as praliné /prɑːliːneɪ/. Belgian chocolates (pralines) are not limited to the traditional praliné filling and often include nuts, marzipan, salted caramel, coffee, a spirit, cream liqueur, cherry or a chocolate blend that contrasts with the outer shell. They are often sold in stylised boxes in the form of a gift box. The largest manufacturers are Neuhaus, Godiva, Leonidas, and Guylian.


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praline