praline

American  

[prah-leen, pray-, prah-leen] / ˈprɑ lin, ˈpreɪ-, prɑˈlin /

noun

• pralines
  plural

1. a French confection consisting of a caramel-covered almond or, sometimes, a hazelnut.

2. a cookie-size confection made especially of butter, brown sugar, and pecans: developed in New Orleans in the early 19th century.

3. a similar confection of nuts mixed or covered with chocolate, coconut, maple sugar or syrup, etc.

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praline British  

/ ˈprɑːliːn /

noun

1. a confection of nuts with caramelized sugar, used in desserts and as a filling for chocolates

2. Also called: sugared almond. a sweet consisting of an almond encased in sugar

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pralines
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of praline

1715–25; < French; named after Marshall César du Plessis- Praslin (1598–1675), whose cook invented them

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Explanation

Praline is a sweet candy made from pecans and a whole lot of sugar. A fudgy, cream-based kind of praline is especially popular in the southern part of the United States. Officially, praline can refer to any confection that combines nuts and sugar. The original pralines were made in 16th century France and named after the nobleman whose cook invented them, coating almonds with caramelized sugar. European pralines are also commonly ground up and used as a filling in cookies and cakes. French settlers in Louisiana swapped almonds for pecans and thickened their praline with cream, a confection that remains popular today.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

praline pralines

The courses begin with three savory bites before transitioning into full-fledged desserts, including a deconstructed version of her signature multilayered mousse cake, with flavors of brown rice and pecan praline.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Cake fillings of almond crunch and toasted pecan praline and candied lemon, while jackfruit and palm sugar bring distinct South-East Asian flavours.

From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026

They include its wild rose vinegar -- priced at 235 kroner for 250 millilitres -- its pumpkin-seed praline spread and mushroom cooking sauce.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2025

Hers is a labor-intensive process, teasing out the dough, lathering on the praline filling, and then letting the cakes rest and rise for several hours.

From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024

Elodie went into realistic details of the wreck of the gold stopping on the praline stuffing of a chocolate.

From The Mountebank by William John Locke

It is now, of course, synonymous with the sandwich; and like beignets, jambalaya and pralines, it is quintessentially New Orleans.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2023

Chocolate bars tend to be preferred by foreigners, while West Africans favor other delicacies, including cocoa pralines, cocoa butter, cocoa powder and chocolate spread.

From New York Times ● Aug. 13, 2022

River Street Sweets pralines from Savannah, Georgia, and the salty-sweet, cheddar-caramel corn mix from Garrett Popcorn in Chicago.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 14, 2020

Some joined Masonic societies, worked fields, sold pralines, and hit jigs at the Cotton Club.

From Slate ● Feb. 28, 2020

Then there are the desserts: cakes, slabs of pralines, divinity fudge.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

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