Praline Pastry & Chocolate Shop Launches Locally-inspired ‘Signature Selection’Chocolate Gift Boxes.

Praline’s Vanilla Salted Caramel in a 41% Cacao Barry milk chocolate shell showcases pure and natural gourmet salt flakes produced by O'Neill's Irish Atlantic Sea Salt on the beautiful Beara Peninsula in West Cork. For the Heather Honey & Orange flavour, Norma has paired raw Irish Ivy & Heather Honey from the hives of the Galtee Honey Farm in Burncourt, Co. Tipperary with a flavoursome homemade orange gel.

Raspberry & Passion Fruit features locally grown freeze-dried raspberries sourced from Ballyhoura mushrooms in Ballylanders, Co. Limerick - where Norma was born - combined with a zingy passion fruit purée and a Cacao Barry white chocolate ganache. Praline’s classic mouth-watering Toffee Apple is filled with caramel-flavoured white chocolate ganache and topped with an apple jelly created using award-winning pressed juice from the Traas family-run, The Apple Farm, in Cahir, Co. Tipperary.

The shop’s signature Praline & Coffee flavour - a ganache made with 35% single-origin Cacao Barry milk chocolate from Papua New Guinea infused with freshly roasted coffee from Mean Bean Coffee Co. in Waterford - is topped with a crunchy hazelnut praline layer. And, Jasmine & Poppy Seed sees 55% Cacao Barry dark chocolate ganache flavoured with Belfast-based Suki Tea Makers naturally infused Jasmine dragon pearls perfectly complemented by a crunchy poppy seed layer.

A ‘Signature Selection’ Chocolate Gift Box containing all six flavours (one of each) in 100% biodegradable packaging is available to pre-order online at www.praline.ie for €13.00 (plus €10.00 for delivery nationwide), with a larger version containing twelve chocolates (two of each flavour) priced at €25.00 (plus €10.00 for delivery nationwide).

To ensure delivery in time for Mother’s Day on Sunday 27th March, orders must be placed online before 5pm on Monday 21st March 2022. The ‘Signature Selection’ range will then continue to be available to order online for delivery nationwide for the remainder of the year.

Commenting on the launch of the ‘Signature Selection’ range, Praline Pastry & Chocolate Shop’s Owner & Chocolatier, Norma Kelly, said: “Running my own pastry and chocolate shop has been a dream come true for me. When the pandemic hit it gave me the opportunity to evolve the business from being a sit-down café to one which is now focused on takeaway, freeing me up to pursue my passion for chocolate. When I first started working with it during my training for the UK and Irish World Chocolate Masters, I discovered just how versatile it is. There are so many different flavour dimensions, perfect for pairing with the fantastic local larder that I'm lucky enough to have at my disposal. In creating the ‘Signature Selection’, I wanted to produce a range of chocolates with a real sense of place to the Ballyhoura region and I think these six flavours really showcase the local ingredients and do justice to the incredible producers that I get to work with.”

In addition to Praline’s assortment of chocolates, the shop, which first opened its doors in 2017 as a patisserie & cafe, is also offering you the chance to spoil your mother with their own take on a luxurious Afternoon Tea Box, full of tempting homemade treats.

The Afternoon Tea Box contains Araglen Free Range Egg Mayonnaise (on Praline’s signature Brown Soda Bread) and Baked Ham & Homemade Tomato Relish (on Stapleton’s Sourdough) sandwiches (x2 of each flavour). These are accompanied by Homemade Fresh Fruit Scones (x2) with Vanilla Cream and Folláin Raspberry Jam, Iced Coffee & Walnut Tea Cake (x2), and a Raspberry Mousse on a crispy White Chocolate base (x2). And if all of that doesn’t already have you licking your lips in anticipation, lucky recipients will also enjoy Praline’s hand-rolled Milk Chocolate Truffles (x2).

The homemade Afternoon Tea Box comes in fully recyclable packaging and is priced at €32.00. It is available to pre-order online at www.praline.ie for local collection only from Praline's premises at Mitchelstown Shopping Centre, Co. Cork on Saturday 26th March (between 9am and 4pm).

About Praline Pastry & Chocolate Shop & Owner, Norma Kelly

Owner Norma Kelly’s pastry skills have been honed from a very young age, starting when she was just a little girl pulling up a chair to stand beside her mother or grandmother as they regularly prepared cakes and tarts together at home.

She left school in Mitchelstown in 2002 for the bright lights of Dublin to begin her training as a Pastry Chef. Norma holds a degree in Culinary Arts with a Pastry Major, a Masters in Food Product Development & Culinary Innovation, and a diploma in Third Level Education.

She worked as a Pastry Chef in Dublin and further afield, including some time in the south of France before returning to DIT as a Lecturer, where she taught pastry for almost ten years until she returned home to follow her dream and open her own pastry and chocolate shop.

Praline first opened its doors in 2017 as a pastry shop and cafe, serving a selection of individual homemade French pastries and cake slices from its counter as well as freshly made sandwiches and a selection of hot and cold beverages.

In 2020 the business evolved into a pastry and chocolate shop - the realisation of a childhood dream for Norma - with the addition of small batch handmade artisan chocolate truffles and bars to its offering.

Norma’s passion for pastry runs deep and she regularly trains for Irish and European chocolatier competitions. In 2015 her hard work and dedication was rewarded as she was named winner of the ‘Best Moulded Praline' category at the Cacao Barry UK and Irish Chocolate Masters. More recently, in 2019 Praline was awarded Gold and Silver at the Blas na hEireann Awards for its Praline Opera Pastry and Chocolate Fudge Cake respectively.