Walnut Pralines with Nut Ganache
Nutty indulgence in an elegant form – cast, filled and crowned with half a walnut
When the days grow shorter and the leaves turn golden, the season of sweet little treats begins for me. My kitchen then often smells of roasted nuts and melted chocolate – a heavenly combination! Today I'm sharing a very special praline recipe with you: walnut pralines that are a real eye-catcher, both in taste and appearance.
These pralines are not just any pralines. They are little works of art – cast in a mold that looks like a real, halved walnut. Filled with a velvety walnut ganache and coated with fine milk chocolate. As the crowning touch, half a perfect-looking walnut sits enthroned on every praline, rounding the whole thing off – both in taste and aesthetics.
The combination of creamy chocolate, nutty filling and the elegant look makes these pralines ideal as a gift or as the highlight with a cup of coffee. The slightly bitter note of the walnuts harmonises wonderfully with the sweetness of the milk chocolate – an irresistible pairing!
Whether at Christmas, as an autumnal gift to bring along, or simply as a little reward in between – these pralines make an impression. And the best part: you can easily make them yourself!
Ingredients
Walnut paste
Walnut ganache
PRALINE SHELL AND DECORATION
Step by step
Roast and caramelise the walnuts
Roast the walnuts
Preheat the oven to 170 °C fan. Once the oven has reached temperature, spread the walnuts on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast them in the oven for 10 minutes. This gives the walnuts a more intense flavour. Then let the walnuts cool on the tray for 20 minutes.
Start the caramel
Put 70 g of granulated sugar into a bowl. Now you need a pan and a whisk. Place the pan on the stove. Then add a little granulated sugar to the pan; there should only be a thin layer of sugar spread over the entire bottom of the pan. Set the stove to level 8 and wait until the sugar begins to turn translucent. Only then do you start stirring with the whisk.
Flat whisk 25 cm
Work in the remaining sugar
Once almost all of the granulated sugar has dissolved and turns a golden colour, you can add another small amount of granulated sugar and stir it in. If the sugar turns too dark too quickly, turn the stove down a little.
Gradually add the remaining granulated sugar to the pan. In the end, all the sugar crystals should be completely dissolved and you get a nice golden-brown caramel.
Pour out the caramel and let it cool
Pour the finished, still very hot caramel onto a sheet of baking paper. I put the caramel straight onto the same tray as my previously roasted walnuts. Let both (caramel and walnuts) cool at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.
Cast the praline shells
Wash and polish the mold
In the meantime, you can already start casting your walnut praline mold. First wash your walnut praline mold by hand under lukewarm water and then dry the mold well with a kitchen towel. Then take a piece of cotton wool and polish out each individual praline with it. The better the praline mold is polished, the more shine your praline will have in the end.
Walnut praline mold 18 pralines
Temper the milk couverture
Next you need tempered milk couverture. If you've never tempered a couverture or chocolate before: in our post on tempering you'll find everything worth knowing and a detailed step-by-step guide.
Felchlin Couverture Grand Cru Grenada 38 % 0.5 kg
Brush the mold
Once your milk couverture is fully tempered, you can brush your walnut praline mold with it. Each individual praline needs a thin layer of chocolate. In addition, brushing helps to make sure you don't later have air holes in the praline shell.
Walnut praline mold 18 pralines
Felchlin Couverture Grand Cru Grenada 38 % 0.5 kg
Silicone brush, 20 cm
Fill to the brim with couverture
Once you've brushed all the walnut pralines with a thin layer of chocolate, you can now use a metal horn to scrape off the excess chocolate on the praline mold.
Then use a ladle to fill all your pralines to the brim with chocolate.
Metal horn
Tap and pour out again
In the next step, tap your praline mold using a rubber mallet or the back of a spatula so that the couverture can spread evenly everywhere. Then turn your praline mold 180° and pour the excess chocolate back out of the mold. In the end there should only be a thin rim of chocolate.
Clean the surface and chill
Scrape off the excess couverture with a spatula. Then turn your walnut praline mold over again and use a metal horn to make the praline surface as clean as possible. Then put the finished cast praline mold in the fridge for 5–10 minutes.
Metal horn
Spatula Medium
Make the walnut paste yourself
Nuts and caramel into the blender
While your praline mold is in the fridge, in the meantime already prepare the walnut paste.
For this you need a powerful blender. Put all your roasted walnuts into the blender. Then add the caramel that has hardened in the meantime. Break the caramel into small pieces so that it blends more easily. Now blend everything for a few seconds.
Blend until a paste forms
After a few seconds you can already briefly push everything away from the edge with a rubber scraper and keep blending (repeat this step several times). At first you'll get a very dry mass. The longer you blend your walnut paste, however, the more viscous it becomes, and in the end you get a lovely walnut paste. Here it really is crucial that you have a sufficiently powerful blender. If your walnut paste is still too dry or crumbly in the end, you can also add a little sunflower oil to the mass.
Rubber scraper Black, small long
Fill off the paste
In the end you should get a creamy walnut paste. For the ganache you also need some of this walnut paste, so put the required amount (30 g walnut paste) straight into a bowl and put the rest into a piping bag.
Disposable piping bag Transparent 20 pieces
Rubber scraper Black, small long
Half-fill the pralines with paste
Take your praline mold out of the fridge and half-fill each individual walnut praline with approx. 5 g of walnut paste.
Ganache, sealing and decorating
Cook the walnut ganache
Then make the walnut ganache. For this, bring full cream to a boil with a little Sorbitol syrup and Glucose syrup. As soon as the cream begins to boil, take the pan off the stove and add the milk couverture pieces. Mix briefly into the hot cream and let it rest for a few seconds. Then stir everything together with a whisk until a nice ganache forms.
Felchlin Couverture Grand Cru Grenada 38 % 0.5 kg
Glucose syrup, 350g
Sorbitol syrup liquid, 130g
Flat whisk 25 cm
Stir in the walnut paste
Then add the 30 g of walnut paste and stir everything into a nice ganache.
Fill off the ganache and let it cool
Fill the finished walnut ganache into a piping bag and let the ganache cool at room temperature for approx. 15–20 minutes before filling the pralines with it.
Disposable piping bag Transparent 20 pieces
Fill the pralines with ganache
As soon as your ganache is no longer too warm (ideal working temperature 26 °C), you can fill your walnut pralines with the ganache up to 2 mm from the top edge. Put the finished filled walnut praline mold in the fridge for 30 minutes or leave it at room temperature for about two hours.
Sealing — at most 6 at a time
As soon as your ganache has set, you can now begin to seal your pralines with tempered milk couverture. Careful: don't seal them all at once, because then the chocolate sets too quickly and you won't have time to decorate all the pralines with half a walnut. Only seal a maximum of 6 pralines at a time. To do this, put a little tempered milk couverture onto the praline and scrape off the excess couverture with a spatula.
Place the walnut and unmold
Then place a nice walnut half on each praline. Repeat this step until all the pralines are sealed and decorated with a walnut. Now the finished praline mold needs to go into the fridge once more for 20 minutes, after which you can unmold your walnut pralines.
I wish you lots of fun recreating this! I'd be delighted about a kind comment or a review. Warm regards, Rebecca
Walnut pralines
Ingredients
Walnut paste
Walnut ganache
PRALINE SHELL AND DECORATION
Preparation
- Roast the nuts: Roast walnuts for 10 minutes at 170 °C fan, let cool for 20 minutes.
- Caramel: Caramelise 70 g of sugar gradually in the pan, pour onto baking paper and let cool.
- Shells: Brush the polished praline mold with tempered milk couverture, fill to the brim, tap, pour out, scrape off, chill for 5–10 minutes.
- Nut paste: Blend roasted nuts and broken caramel in a powerful blender into a creamy paste, set aside 30 g for the ganache.
- Filling: Half-fill the pralines with approx. 5 g of walnut paste each.
- Ganache: Bring cream to a boil with glucose syrup and sorbitol syrup, stir in couverture, add 30 g of nut paste, cool to 26 °C for 15–20 minutes.
- Filling up: Fill the pralines with ganache to 2 mm below the edge, chill for 30 minutes.
- Sealing: Seal at most 6 pralines at a time with couverture, place a walnut half on each, chill for 20 minutes, unmold.
Nutritional values per 100 g
Storage & shelf life
Everything for this recipe
Recommended from our baking room — exactly the sizes the recipe was tested with.
Ingredients
Felchlin Couverture Grand Cru Grenada 38 % 0.5 kg
Glucose syrup, 350g
Sorbitol syrup liquid, 130g
Equipment
Walnut praline mold 18 pralines
Disposable piping bag Transparent 20 pieces
Silicone brush, 20 cm
Metal horn
Spatula Medium
Chocolate hammer
Rubber scraper Black, small long
Flat whisk 25 cm
Delivery in 1–2 working days · Free shipping from CHF 100
To make sure they succeed
The better you polish out each cavity of the praline mold with cotton wool, the more shine the pralines have in the end. It's the step people like to skip – and the one you can see later.
The thin layer you brush on first prevents air holes in the shell. Only afterwards is the mold filled to the brim.
Always seal only up to six pralines and place the walnut halves on them immediately. Otherwise the couverture sets and the nut no longer holds.
Frequently asked questions
There are two reasons for this: the couverture was not properly tempered, or the chilling times were not observed. After placing the walnuts, put the mold in the fridge once more for about 20 minutes – then the pralines fall out by themselves. This also works retroactively while they're still in the mold.
Yes. Only tempered couverture contracts as it sets, shines, breaks with a snap and releases from the mold. Untempered chocolate stays matte, turns grey and sticks in the cavity.
The walnut mold has 18 cavities, and the recipe makes 36 pralines. With two molds you work in a single pass – which is much easier, because the paste and ganache don't have to wait. With one mold you either do two passes or halve the quantities.
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Related products
Metal horn
Spatula medium
Felchlin Couverture Grand Cru Grenada 38 % 0.5 kg
Sorbitol liquid, 130g
Glucose, 350g
Whisk flat 25 cm
Silicone brush, 20 cm
Praline mold tree nut 18 chocolates
Disposable piping bag transparent 20 pieces
Chocolate hammer
Rubber scraper Black, small long
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Comments
-
Baumnusspralinen
By: Markus On 2026-05-04Liebe Rebecca?
Dein Rezept ist perfekt gelungen.
Die Mengenangaben sind haargenau für 36 Stück. Sind von selbst ohne Druck rausgefallen.
Wunderschöner Glanz.?
LG MarkusReplied by: Rebecca Odermatt On 2026-05-05
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Baumnuss- Pralinen
By: Martha Kilchmann On 2025-11-09Habe sie so nach Rezept gemacht, aber sie haben sich nicht von der Form gelöst.
Die Couvertuere ist in der schale geblieben sind alle kaputt. Was habe ich falsch gemacht.Replied by: Thomas Ramseier On 2025-11-09
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