Hazelnut Praline Paste

This Hazelnut Praline Paste recipe is a copycat Nutella spread made with 3 ingredients for a delicious breakfast or as a base for a French dessert.

What’s Praline Paste?

A praline paste is a spread made of roasted hazelnuts cooked in homemade sugar syrup and then pulse into a creamy paste.

Hazelnut praline paste is often used in French desserts to flavor custard-like in the famous French praline eclairs or French macaroons.

There are two types of praline paste. Both are made in sugar syrup but use different types of nuts:

• Hazelnut Praline Paste – made from toasted hazelnuts.
• French Praline Paste – the one used in French desserts made from toasted almonds.

How To Make Hazelnut Praline Paste

It’s is very easy to make praline paste from hazelnuts at home. The ingredients you need to make this easy recipe for praline paste are:

• Hazelnuts – roasted hazelnuts are the best, but you can use raw hazelnuts and toast at home.
• Sugar – or brown erythritol to make a sugar-free praline paste.
• Water

Roast hazelnuts

First, select a good quality variety of hazelnuts.

Next, if you are using raw hazelnuts, toast or roast them for 5-10 minutes.

In the oven, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and roast the hazelnuts at 325°F (160°C) on the center rack of the oven.

You can also dry toast hazelnuts in a large non-stick skillet for a few minutes until fragrant.

Peel off hazelnuts skin

Now that your nuts are roasted place them onto a dry kitchen towel and rub them vigorously to remove the skins as much as you can.

That’s ok if some of the skin is left on a few nuts.

Discard the skin and keep the roasted hazelnuts aside in a bowl.

Make the Sugar Syrup

Meanwhile, in a non-stick saucepan, add sugar and water and heat over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and stirring with a wooden spoon or silicone tool.

Keep cooking until the sugar is dissolved, increase to high heat, bring to a rolling boil and keep cooking until golden in color – takes about 9 minutes in total to make a golden syrup from sugar and water.

Use a candy thermometer for precision

If you can, use a candy thermometer, a syrup forms at 350F. If you overpass this temperature, you can burn the caramel.

On the other side, under this temperature, the caramel will never form, and the crystal of sugar will stay in the saucepan.

Now that the syrup has formed, stop the heat.

Cover nuts with caramel

Pour the roasted hazelnuts into the saucepan and stir to coat all the nuts with the sugar syrup.

You can also proceed the other way and pour the caramel onto the nuts, but if the bowl that contains the nuts is cold, the caramelized nuts harden and stick to the bowl.

So I recommend option 1, stirring nuts into the hot saucepan with the caramel.

Cool completely

Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper.

Lay the hot caramelized hazelnut praline into a single layer onto the paper.

Refrigerate

You can pop the tray in the fridge to quickly cool down the nuts or wait for a few hours.

Process

Now that the hazelnuts praline are cold – you can eat them as a snack or place them in a food processor or high-speed blender to form hazelnut paste.

Process for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and repeat until it forms a creamy hazelnut paste.

Add a pinch of sea salt for flavor if desired.

Storage Instructions

Praline paste stores very well in the pantry. You don’t need to refrigerate this praline paste.

Place the paste in a glass mason jar in a cool, dry place, and keep for up to 1 month.

Sugar-free option

Hazelnuts are low-carb nuts that create delicious low-carb desserts.

To make this nut paste sugar-free, simply swap the sugar for erythritol or brown erythritol.

Both options melt as well as regular sugar and won’t add carbs or sugar to the recipe.

Serving ideas

You can use praline paste in many ways.

You can also flavor the paste by adding 1/4 cup melted chocolate or a few teaspoons of cocoa powder and create a hazelnut chocolate spread, similar to my Nutella recipe.

Serve as a spread

This praline paste is perfect to spread on crepes, pancakes or bread like :

French Crepe Recipe 10g

Keto Crepes 1.6g

Almond Flour Pancakes Healthy Pancakes 2.6g

Flavoring desserts

French recipes use praline paste to flavor dessert all the time. Often, praline paste is added in ice cream, custard pudding recipes, or no-bake cheesecake recipes.

Praline paste adds creamy, roasted nuts flavor to dessert, and it’s also gluten-free and dairy-free.

Similar Recipes

Keto Nutella 3.2g

Keto Maple Syrup 0.1g

Keto Condensed Milk 0.9g

Keto Chia Jam Recipe 1g

Have you made this praline paste recipe? Share a comment or review with me, and let me know how it turns out!

XOXO Carine

Recipe Card

Hazelnut Praline Paste

4.88 from 282 votes

Easy Authentic French hazelnut praline recipe. A sweet and smooth praline paste ideal to flavors custard, buttercream, or simply make your own Nutella. 

Author: Carine Claudepierre

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 15 mins

Yield: 20 servings (1 tbsp)

Serving Size: 1 serving (1 tablespoon)

Recipe Macros

Net Carbs 7.8g

Protein 0.1g

Calories 30.2kcal

4.88 from 282 votes

Review Print

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Want My Kitchen Equipment?

Baking Sheet

Measuring Cups Set

Parchment Paper

Kitchen Scale

Non-Stick Saucepan

Silicone Spatula

Vitamix 12-Cup Food Processor

Small Mason Jars

Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

• ▢ 8.5 oz Raw Hazelnuts
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Water
• ▢ 5.6 oz Brown Sugar

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325°F (160°F). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the hazelnuts on the tray.
• Bake the nuts for 8-10 minutes, stirring halfway. When the nuts are fragrant and roasted, remove the tray from the oven and place the nuts onto a clean kitchen towel.
• Rub the nuts with a towel to peel off the skin of the hazelnuts. It's ok if you can't remove all of it, but the most you take out, the smoother the paste will be. Discard skin. Set aside the nuts in a bowl.
• Meanwhile, add water and sugar into a non-stick saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir with a wooden spoon or silicone tool. Keep cooking until the sugar has dissolved, then increase to high heat, bring to a rolling boil and keep cooking until golden in color – takes about 9 minutes in total to make a golden syrup from sugar and water.
• Stop the heat and stir in roasted nuts to evenly coat them with the sugar syrup.
• Pour the caramelized hazelnuts onto a baking tray covered with a piece of lightly oiled parchment paper.
• Place into the fridge for 10 minutes or wait for a few hours at room temperature until the caramel hardens and nuts stick together and forms clusters of pralines.
• Break clusters of caramelized hazelnuts, bring into the food processor or high-speed blender, and process at high speed until it turns into a past. You may have to stop the food processor every 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat until the paste forms. It takes about 2 minutes in total.
• First, you obtain a powder, then crushed nuts, and finally, it will turn into a paste. 
• Store in a mason glass jar in the pantry for up to 1 month.

Sugar: for a healthier recipe, use coconut sugar or unrefined cane sugar of your choice.

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Nutrition Facts

Hazelnut Praline Paste

Amount Per Serving (1 serving (1 tablespoon))

Calories 30.2

% Daily Value*

Sodium 2.3mg0%

Potassium 10.6mg0%

Carbohydrates 7.8g3%

Sugar 7.7g9%

Protein 0.1g0%

Net Carbs 7.8g

Calcium 6.6mg1%

Iron 0.1mg1%

Magnesium 0.7mg0%

Zinc 0.1mg1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.