Love Heart Mixed Nut Pralines

These were a quick experiment which I was very happy with! Using a silicone muffin, ice and chocolate mould I created a basic praline and poured it into heart shaped moulds ready for Valentines Day. You can pick up moulds in a variety of shapes such as love hearts from any major department store or kitchen shop.

* Look for a mould which is OVEN safe as Praline is extremly hot. Do NOT lick the spoon or touch the toffee with your fingers.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Nuts (pistachio, walnuts, cashews, macadamias, almonds)

Method

• Dissole sugar in water over a low heat, stirring until sugar disappears
• Bring to a light boil and don't touch until the bubbles turn golden
• Remove from heat
• Stir in nuts quickly
• Pour or spoon, as quickly as possible, mixture into the moulds
• Leave to cool before pressing out of moulds
• Careful not to touch the top as it will maintain a beautiful gloss if kept free of fingermarks

Using Praline

The below photo shows some different uses for praline. I only used a small amount of my mixture in my heart shaped silicone moulds, so I poured the rest into a baking dish lined with baking paper. Allow it to naturally spread it so it will form a shiny, smooth surface. I then placed it over a dish and smashed it with a meat hammer to make small pieces that I could use to decorate chocolates for Valentines Day. I have also used this same praline recipe with walnuts to put on top of cupcakes.

* If you don't have the moulds to make love hearts, you can make these in a cupcake case and draw love hearts on top with a chocolate piping bag to make them romantic! For kids, cover the top with coloured hundreds and thousands.