Keto Pecan Pralines Recipe
These Keto Pecan Pralines are creamy and sweet with toasted pecans throughout. My Pecan Pralines Recipe cooks in about ten minutes and is ready to eat in under an hour. They are low carb, sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free, keto, and a THM S.
Ever since my husband and I went to New Orleans for our first anniversary pralines have been one of my favorite treats. I was thrilled to come up with a low carb sugar-free version.
My first attempt was good, but not great. Those were too crunchy. More like Candied Pecans. Those are great for salad. One of my favorites is fresh baby spinach with strawberries, feta, and some of my chopped candied pecans.
But this creamy pecan pralines recipe is just like the ones sold in New Orleans. Ever since our 1st anniversary trip to NOLA I’ve occasionally ordered Aunt Sally’s Pralines online. Now I don’t have to. There are several types of pralines throughout the world. These are the best.
When I decided to play around with my original recipe today I had high hopes and they were fulfilled.
How to Make Pecan Pralines
To make pralines you basically make a caramel type sauce, add the pecans, and let them set. It is easier than you think and my method doesn’t even require a candy thermometer.
Just cook some of the butter with sweetener and cream. Add the rest of the butter, vanilla, salt, and your toasted pecans. Drop spoonfuls onto parchment paper and let them cool. That’s it!
How do I know when my keto pecan pralines are done?
The photo above is a good representation of the color you are looking for when cooking this praline recipe. You want the mixture to get thick, turn golden, and smell fragrant.
I do not use a candy thermometer because it is hard to temp such a small amount of caramel. If your caramel looks like my photos you are good!
How do I toast pecans?
I simply put a cookie sheet of pecans in a 400-degree oven for 5-8 minutes. I check them frequently. Nuts are pricey and I’ve burned enough to know not to forget about them.
You want to take them out with the edges get slightly darker and they smell fragrant. If you taste one the flavor should be stronger than with a raw nut.
How to store pralines:
I recommend storing these at room temp and eating them within 2 days. If you want to store them longer you can refrigerate them but they will get a little firmer and the sweetener may crystallize turning them whiteish. They are still delicious!
American cream-based pralines
French settlers brought the recipe to Louisiana, where both sugar cane and pecan trees were plentiful. During the 19th century, New Orleans chefs substituted pecans for almonds, added cream to thicken the confection, and thus created what became known throughout the American South as the praline.
Pralines have a creamy consistency, similar to fudge. They are usually made by combining sugar (often brown), butter, cream or buttermilk, and pecans in a pot over medium-high heat, and stirring constantly until most of the water has evaporated and it has reached a thick texture with a brown color. This is then usually dropped by spoonfuls onto wax paper or a sheet of aluminum foil greased with butter, and left to cool.
‘Pralines and Cream’ is a common ice cream flavor in the United States and Canada. In New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pralines are sometimes called “pecan candy”. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praline
If you love this Creamy Pecan Pralines Recipe make sure to also take a look these:
Pecan Praline Brownies – fudgy brownies topped with a rich praline topping
Pecan Praline Ice Cream – homemade vanilla ice cream with ribbons of praline running through
Pecan Praline Cookie Bars – just like a pecan pie, but a bar instead
Chocolate Pecan Pralines – the classic but with chocolate
Keto Toffee – layers of chocolate around a crisp nutty toffee
Did you realize yet how much I love these pecan pralines?
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Video
Keto Pecan Pralines
Ingredients
- 1 cup pecans toasted
- 5 tbsp butter divided
- 6 tbsp light cream (or heavy cream)
- 1/3 cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Combine 4 tbsp of the butter with the sweetener and cream over medium heat. Stir until sweetener is dissolved.
- Cook until it is a deep golden brown. As soon as it reaches that deep color (right before burning) remove from the heat and immediately add the other 1 tbsp butter and vanilla. Stir until smooth.
- Add the salt and toasted pecans. Drop by spoonfuls onto on wax paper. Refrigerate just until firm.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally Published March 9, 2016. Revised and Republished March 16, 2020.
What do you consider as light cream?
Light cream is pretty common the US. It’s found near the heavy whipping cream. It has 20% milkfat. Heavy cream has 35-38% milkfat. Either will work.
These look good. I’m going to make them
Save yourself some time and just make a double batch! These little gems are absolutely perfect for sugar cravings.
Have made these many times and they are by far my favorite keto pralines!❤️
Love this recipe! my sweetener mix is 1/2 erythritol and 1/2 xylitol though. and I use mini muffin cups to portion control better. there are no fail!
I tried making the candy using Splenda and cooked it over med low heat, stirring all the time. My mixture reverted back to butter, no candy. Please tell me what I did wrong.
You used Splenda. The recipe says other sweeteners do not work for candy.
Amazing praline candy! I didn’t have pecans on hand so I used walnuts just to see what they would taste like and turned out delicious. I can only imagine how they will taste when I make them with pecans! Concerning sweetener, I used finely granulated monk fruit. The texture was just a wee bit grainy but still so good in flavor. I have some allulose on the way so I’m going to try half that and monk fruit next time. Thank you!
These are SO GOOD!!!!
I used a monk fruit/Allulose mix and these are perfect for me, not too chewy and not hard (not sure what the originals are supposed to be like).
I think I took my caramel a little bit further, but was cautious with my pecans and did them in the air fryer at ~210F for 4 mins, shaking every minute. I’ll try them a bit longer next time.
I couldn’t be bothered spooning drops so chucked my pecans into a dish, spread them out and poured the caramel straight over the top, cutting into portions once cooled. Highly recommend making these!!
So YUMMY! I had to be careful not to eat them all at one time.
I fell in love with pralines when I moved to New Orleans in ’96. These taste just like the ones I can get in the French Quarter. They’re better of course because they don’t have sugar in them. I can eat them guilt (and glucose spike) free.
I haven’t made these yet but they look so yummy! One and only time I have ever had pralines was when I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. They were amazing so I cannot wait to try these!
I’ve made these multiple times because they are so different and satisfying compared to a lot of low-carb or keto recipes. I’ve tried different sweeteners in place of your Joy Filled Eats sweetener with interesting results. When I made them with Swerve, they had an “icy cup” texture. Remember those? Now I only make them with your recommended blend. I like it so much that I use it for all my low-carb baking regardless of what the recipe calls for. I love how it has no after taste, creates good texture and isn’t too sweet. I am genuinely so grateful for this sweetener blend recipe. Thank you!!
This recipe made ones that were pretty close to the regular kind I’ve made before. They were really good.
FYI, I used half and half and land o lakes light butter (the kind in the green tub) to help cut calories and used half Lakanto Golden and half Lakanto Brown. They worked out great. I also used a candy thermometer and pulled them at 236 degrees (different sweeteners have different temps though; my first attempt I used allulose and at 236 I ended up with slightly burned caramel instead of a praline [which when coated with melted Lilly’s Chocolate Chips serendipitously made pretty yummy candy bars]).
Great recipe! They are sooo good you think you are eating something you shouldn’t. Have used heavy cream and half n half, they both do fine.
I used Swerve confectioners sugar (the same measurement the recipe called for) and it turned out great!!!