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.
I made this recipe twice. Both times my butter separated before it turned color. I did use stevia as another comment stated. What went wrong?
Which brand of stevia did you use? I do not recommend swapping out sweeteners in candy recipes because I do not test them out.
I made this last week and it turned out fine. My family requested I make more – so today I tried 3 times and every time today the butter separated and had solid stuff at the bottom. I have no idea what the difference was! If you figure it out, can you let me know too? 🙂 I’m a Louisiana girl who would regularly make pralines in the fall. When making traditional, I always waited until it was cool and dry. Funny thing is, when I made them a few weeks ago it was rainy (because I didn’t know if it mattered with keto pralines) and today was cool and dry! 🙁
I didn’t know the humidity could effect it that much. My only thought was your stove heat may have been a bit different? Do you have a gas stove or electric? If that happens again try adding a pinch of xanthan gum and whisk like crazy. It should reincorporate.
I love the taste…..but…… my crystallized, sweetener. I’ve made , keto/ low carb candies, cookies before and that has never happened before😞 Please tell me what I did wrong…I’ll take tips you want to share.
Thank you!!
Sugar alcohols do tend to crystallize. Did you put them in the refrigerator? That speeds up the process. I love these the most when they are freshly made. After time they can crystallize.
Just made these waiting for them to cool. Does anyone know when you put them in the refrigerator when they’ll be chilled or firm?
Thanks for the recipe my husband and I are both diabetics and I’ve been looking for a recipe with no sugar!! Thank you so much
Oh my goodness!!! These are fantastic!!! I used Monk Fruit Sugar. Came out great!!! I doubled up the pecans and just coated them! So delicious!!! Thank you so very much!!! God Bless!
I used Lakanto granular sweetener as well , Perfectly delicious!! This is from a New Orleans girl!!
Excellent recipe and instructions.
I used Splenda stevia as the sweetener, as that is all I had. It worked well.
I used walnuts instead of pecans, because that is what I had and I substituted the vanilla extract with maple flavouring.
Turned out well and are delish!
Thanks.
This recipe is really good, I’m from Louisiana and it’s pretty close to the original pralines. I did add a hint of sugar free maple syrup to mixture, came out great. Thanks for the recipe 😊
These taste amazing. I’ve made them twice now. Going to try again and use almonds. My concern it the 10 min cook time seems to be conservative. Mine weren’t ready to take off the stove that fast. Do I need to turn up the heat?
I wish there was more stars than 5 to give for this recipe. Hands down the best Keto desert-cookie I have ever eaten. I made these today and just ate 1 ok maybe 2 😉 I couldn’t help myself 🤷♀️ Just so delicious, so flavorful. Caremely flover with crunchy toasted pecan is just divine. I am already hooked. Will make two batches next time. Also would love to try it with the coconut oil. I bet it would be good too.
Thank you so much for the recipe. It is hust incredibely good. 😋😋
Omg!! You are a GENIUS I can not BELIEVE how good this is and it’s super sweet!!! Can not believe its Keto! Mine wasn’t thick enough (I burned the first batch of liquid so I was worried I would do it again so I pulled it off the heat too soon) but stuck it in the freezer and tasted just fine! 5 stars!!
Mine did not caramelise at all and is more like cookie dough – did I not brown the butter enough?
Yes, you should’ve cooked it longer if it’s the consistency of cookie dough. I’m sure it’s still delicious though!
Just bought two large bottles of Allulose (liquid). I know substituting sweeteners is tricky and before I go ahead and perhaps waste ingredients, I wondered if you’d ever tried either this or Sukrin syrup?
I have not. I don’t think a liquid sweetener would work in this. If you decide to try anyway half the recipe (and let us know how it turns out).
Can I use walnuts instead? And what about no sweetner at all, but a lil more vanilla extract
Yes, walnuts are fine. But this won’t work without the sweetener. It wouldn’t thicken and turn into a caramel.
Can I use honey as well?
I don’t think so. Sorry!
This looks delicious! Thank you for sharing!
These are delicious. I used the swerve brown sugar like mentioned above. I made a double batch. Next time I’ll probably cut the sweetener a little too sweet for me but still yummy!
These are amazing! First time trying the recipe today. Came out beautifully and hard to believe these are KETO!
I made the pralines with brown sugar swerve !Amazing!!!melt the butter first!
I have been doing keto a couple of years. This is one of the first keto dessert recipes I tried and is still my very favorite. These pralines are so delicious, so quick and easy to make, and so low in carbs! I’ve taken them to several parties and even though I tell people they are sugar free and there are other options, I never have any left over! Mona