The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and praline fun facts. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Praline fun facts.

praline fun factsPraline Fun Facts: Praline can refer to confections made from nuts and sugar syrup, whether in whole pieces or a ground powder, or to any chocolate cookie containing the ground powder or nuts.

  • Originally inspired in France at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte by the cook of the 17th-century sugar industrialist Marshal du Plessis-Praslin (1598–1675). Early pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar, not dark nougat, where a sheet of caramelized sugar covers many nuts.
  • French settlers brought this recipe to Louisiana, where both sugar cane and pecan trees were plentiful. During the 19th century, New Orleans chefs substituted pecans for almonds. They also added cream to thicken the confection. This created what became known throughout the American South as the praline.
  • The pronunciation of the candy is a bit of a point of contention as well. In New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, where there are many communities settled by the French, the pronunciation is prah-leen, with the longaaah sound, which is closer to that of the candy’s namesake du Plessis-Praslin. Other regions of the country, including parts of Texas, Georgia, and New England pronounce it pray-leen.
  • Belgian pralines, commonly known as “Belgian chocolates” or “chocolate bonbons”, are chocolate pieces filled with a soft fondant center. They were first introduced by Jean Neuhaus II, a Belgian chocolatier, in 1912.

Key Date

  • June 24th is National Pralines Day.

Praline Fun Facts We Missed

If so, please feel free to let us know in the comment section or our food truck forum. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we’ll give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Pralines.

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