New Orleans Creole Pralines

Pralines are New Orleans in candy form. The French brought the technique from their homeland, the Creoles made it their own with local pecans, and the praline vendors of the French Quarter turned it into an art form. I can still hear them calling from the corners of Jackson Square when I was a boy visiting the city with my grandmother Evangeline.

The secret to a proper praline is patience and attention. You are making candy, and candy demands respect. The sugar must reach the right temperature, then the mixture must be beaten at precisely the right moment. Beat too soon and the pralines will not set. Beat too long and you will have a pot of crystallized sugar that refuses to drop. But hit that window, that perfect moment when the mixture loses its shine and turns creamy, and you will understand why praline vendors have been making their living on these streets for two hundred years.

At Lagniappe, we send every guest home with a praline wrapped in wax paper. It is our way of saying thank you, the little something extra that the word lagniappe means. My grandmother used to say that the best gifts are the ones you make with your own hands. A praline is exactly that: butter, sugar, cream, and pecans transformed by fire and time into something that tastes like love.