Torrone

Honey and whipped whites cooked for hours to a white nougat, set between wafers.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, honey.

Ingredients

• 500 g honey
• 200 g caster sugar
• 60 ml water
• 2 egg whites
• 500 g almonds, toasted
• zest of 1 lemon
• edible wafer sheets (ostie)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Warm the honey in a bowl over simmering water and hold it there, stirring now and then, for 1 hour. It thickens and pales as the water cooks out of it.
2. Whisk the whites with the salt to stiff peaks and fold them into the hot honey, still over the water.
3. KEEP IT OVER THE WATER AND STIR FOR ANOTHER HOUR. The mixture goes from runny to a stiff white paste that holds a peak. This is the part nobody expects and it cannot be shortened — it is a slow dehydration, not a cooking.
4. Separately boil the sugar and water to 150C and beat that into the honey mixture.
5. WHIPPED EGG WHITE IS WHAT MAKES THIS NOUGAT. Giurgiulena takes honey to the same temperature with no egg at all and sets as a dark brittle; the whites here trap air and keep it white and soft enough to bite.
6. Fold in the warm almonds and the zest.
7. Press between two wafer sheets in a frame, weight it flat, and leave it 12 hours before cutting with a hot knife.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes