This is one of my all-time favorite and most requested recipes. These nuts are lots of fun to make, and you’ll feel like a real candy maker as you triumphantly tilt your first batch out of the pan. Whole almonds get cooked in a syrup, simmering until the sugar crystallizes and clings to them, creating a crackly caramelized coating. This recipe can easily be doubled.

　　

Ingredients

makes 1 1/2 cups (250 g)

　　1/4 cup (60 ml) water

　　1/2 cup (100 g) sugar

　　1 cup (135 g) whole almonds, unblanched and untoasted

　　1/8 teaspoon coarse salt, preferably fleur de sel

　　

Step 1

Mix the water, sugar, and almonds in a large, heavy-duty skillet. Put the pan over medium to high heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the sugar dissolves and the liquid boils.

　　

Step 2

Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking and stirring for just a few minutes, until the liquid crystallizes and becomes sandy. Very soon the crystals of sugar on the bottom of the pan will begin to liquefy. Stir the dark syrup at the bottom of the pan over the nuts to coat them. Continue to stir the nuts and scrape the syrup over them until the almonds are glazed and become a bit glossy and shiny. (Sometimes I remove the pan from the heat while they’re cooking to better control the glazing, so they don’t get burned.) Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the almonds with the salt. Tip them onto an ungreased baking sheet and allow them to cool completely. As they cool, break up any clusters that are stuck together.

　　

Mixing Them In

Step 3

Chop the Pralined Almonds coarsely, then add them to 1 quart (1 liter) of ice cream in the machine during the last minute of churning.

　　

Variation

Step 4

Substitute 1 cup raw (unroasted and unsalted) peanuts for the almonds to make Pralined Peanuts.

　　

Storage

Step 5

Pralined almonds can be stored for up to 1 week in an airtight container at room temperature.

　　The Perfect Scoop