Turrón de Alicante

Spain's hard Christmas nougat of toasted almonds set in honey and whipped egg white, between two wafers

Origin: Alicante and Jijona, Valencia, Spain

From the journey of Almond.

Turrón is the confection of the Spanish Christmas, and no festive table in Spain is laid without it. Two great kinds rule: the soft turrón de Jijona, in which the almonds are ground to a smooth, oily paste, and the hard turrón de Alicante, in which whole toasted almonds are set, crunchy and entire, in a brittle slab of honey and egg white between two sheets of edible wafer. Both come from the Valencian towns of Alicante and Jijona (Xixona), whose protected designations guard a craft documented since at least the sixteenth century and rooted, like so much of Spanish confectionery, in the almond-and-honey pastes of Moorish Al-Andalus. The makings are few and ancient: the almonds of the Levante coast, the honey of the Valencian hills, sugar, and egg white. The art lies in the long, slow cooking of the honey and sugar to exactly the right point and the patient beating-in of the egg white, which lightens the mass and lets it set hard and clear around the nuts. Turrón de Alicante is the cousin of the Italian torrone and the French nougat de Montélimar, all three descended from the same medieval Mediterranean marriage of almond and honey, but the Spanish version, packed so densely with whole almonds, is the most nut-forward of the family. Sold in bars wrapped in the wafer that keeps the sticky honey from the fingers, turrón de Alicante is snapped into pieces and eaten through the Christmas season, the reward at the end of the year for the almond harvest of the autumn.

Ingredients

  • 300 g whole almonds (skin on or blanched), toasted golden
  • 300 g honey
  • 150 g sugar
  • 1 egg white
  • edible rice-paper wafers (obleas), to line and top

Method

  1. Toast the almonds in a dry oven at 160°C until fragrant and golden through, about 10 minutes, then keep them warm. Line a small loaf tin or wooden mould with edible wafer.
  2. Warm the honey gently in a heavy saucepan over low heat until it loosens, then cook, stirring, until it darkens slightly and reaches the hard-crack range, about 150°C on a sugar thermometer.
  3. Meanwhile, whisk the egg white to stiff peaks. With the honey off direct high heat, whisk in the egg white a spoonful at a time: it will foam and lighten. Return to very low heat.
  4. In a separate small pan, melt the sugar to a pale amber caramel, then beat it into the honey-and-egg mass. Continue to cook gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick, pale, and pulls away from the sides, 10 to 15 minutes.
  5. Quickly fold in the warm toasted almonds until evenly coated.
  6. Scrape the mixture into the wafer-lined mould, press down hard and level with a wetted spoon or oiled hands, then lay a wafer on top. Weight it down with a board and a tin.
  7. Leave to set, weighted, overnight at room temperature. Turn out and cut into bars or fingers with a heavy, sharp knife.

Notes

Turrón de Alicante keeps for weeks, well wrapped, in a cool dry place; it softens in humidity, so store airtight. Marcona almonds, if you can find them, make the finest turrón. For the soft turrón de Jijona, grind the toasted almonds with the honey mass to a smooth paste before setting.

The Gastrographer

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