Spanish Turron Candy

[pringle007]

Does anybody have a description of Turron Candy? I googled it, and got Spanish Turron Candy, but got no real descriptions, just places to buy it. Does anybody have a recipe??

[Wholemeal Crank]

Looks like the general principle is just nougat with nuts. There's a description of turron history and varieties here here and I found a recipe here. I have not made this recipe but have several times played with nougat recipes from the TimeLife Candy book.

[Darienne]

Turron sounds so much like Torrone that I googled both words together. From Wikipedia:

Turrón (Spanish), torró (Catalan), or torrone (Italian) is a nougat confection, typically made of honey, sugar, and egg white, with toasted almonds or other nuts, and usually shaped into either a rectangular tablet or a round cake. It is frequently consumed as a traditional Christmas dessert in Spain and Italy. There are also some varieties in Latin America and the Philippines.

Greweling has a recipe for Torrone which I have never tried, but perhaps others have. I always have made the Montelimar version of nougat.

[baroness]

Comparing packaged goods, the turron is generally stiffer/harder than the Italian torrone.

Homemade torrone is transcendent; so different from the little cardboard boxes...

[Marmalade]

I've made the Greweling version several times with great success and it was excellent. However, broke some of the whisk wires on my kitchenaid from all the beating, which takes a beating (no pun intended) on your whisk. Stopped making it for that reason! You can see my experience here.

[rena]

Thanks Marmalade for your description on how to make nougat. I've been wanting to make nougat for a while. I don't know if I want to break my whisk though

Rena

[cmflick]

I've made a modification of the Greweling nougat countless times. The first modification was not to cook it to 311F as Greweling calls for. When I did that the nougat was very hard and shattered when I tried to cut it. I can understand how cooking the sugar to 311F could damage a whisk. I routinely cook it to 290F and get a soft nougat that is excellent both in texture and taste. And importantly, it can be cut fairly easily. I also only put almonds and pistachios in the nougat, rather than the whole list of nuts and dried fruits that Greweling uses. The other lesson that I have learned is not to make nougat on days that are humid at all. I usually make nougat in the winter when the humidity in the house is pretty low. Otherwise, I've had problems with the nougat getting too soft and running.

[Darienne]

Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I have made the Montelimar probably four times now. Each time was a fantastic success! Almost eerie. As in 'when will our luck run out?'

However, we did heat the sugars to 155C/311F degrees each time with no problems of any kind. And we did use the entire list of inclusions except for the pears. And we did make it in both the summer and winter. No, I don't mean we are expert geniuses either.

IMHO having two people working together makes life much easier, especially when making something like nougat which is so difficult to get out of the bowl with only two hands. I am lucky to have found someone with whom I can work so well.

We have a confection date next Wednesday. Hmmmm...nougat sounds good.

[rickster]

Is the Grewling montelimar a hard nougat? I was looking to try making some torrone, but it seemed from the recipe in Grewling that his torrone recipe yielded a hard nougat, but the instructions on cutting the montelimar made it seem as if it might be softer.

I was looking to make a torrone with a softer texture, similar to what you find commericially. I guess I could just cook it to 290F as an alternative.

Edited December 4, 2009 by rickster (log)

[Darienne]

Is the Grewling montelimar a hard nougat? I was looking to try making some torrone, but it seemed from the recipe in Grewling that his torrone recipe yielded a hard nougat, but the instructions on cutting the montelimar made it seem as if it might be softer.

I was looking to make a torrone with a softer texture, similar to what you find commericially. I guess I could just cook it to 290F as an alternative.

How hard is hard? The Montelimar was soft enough to dip into chocolate, so I wouldn't have described it as a good 'chaw'. But I wouldn't call it 'soft' either.

Hmmm...it was soft enough that one or two of the dipped pieces, being insufficiently dipped, developed little worms coming out of them. That's pretty soft, I think.

Edited December 4, 2009 by Darienne (log)

[NickLam]

I worked in Turron country for a while and there are basically 2 types of Turron's in Spain. One is Turron de Xixona (Jijona) and Turron de Alicante. The former is a soft confection made of ground almonds which is soft and melting in the mouth. The Turron de Alicante is a hard one that is similar to Nougat and some artisanal ones are made only with honey.

Personally, I loved the Xixona one as it reminded me of peanut 'cakes' I love eating during Chinese New Year. The nougat like one was too sticky and chewey for my taste, but, the 100% honey Nougat Fougue from France (Available from Etoile d'Or in Paris) was simply amazing and melt in your mouth.

Here's a Turron Recipe in the Alicante Style, a bit sweet, but thats turron!

(You will need 2 pots)

450 Lavender Honey - U need to cook this to 121 degrees celsius

200 Water

600 Sugar

100 Glucose - U will need to cook this mixture to 157 degrees celsius

100 Egg Whites

30 Powdered Sugar

10 Egg White Powder

200 Whole Hazelnuts

100 Pistachios

350 Almonds - Roast these nuts and keep them hot for your sanity. If cold nuts meet hot sugar+egg whites....you can only guess what will happen!

(1) Cook honey to 121 degrees

(2) Cook sugar to 157 degrees

Its a bit hard to have these 2 at the target temperatures at the same time, but the trick is to cook the sugar on a higher heat than the honey.

(3) Make an 'Italian Meringue' in a mixer with whisk attachment first with the honey, then with the sugar.

(4) Beat and cool it till 60 degrees celsius.

(5) Use a heat gun at the side of the bowls to maintain this temperature if necessary

(6) Toss in hot nuts and mix very gently until evenly distributed, using heat gun to ensure it is nice and hot

(7) Spread into frames, cover with acetate and roll evenly with a heavy rolling pin

Have fun!

[rickster]

What I was thinking of for instance was that Spanish turron will shatter if you drop it on a counter. It looked like the Grewling torrone recipe was similar, since he suggests breaking it into pieces, not cutting it, as I recall. It seemed like the montelimar was soft enough to cut.

Edited to add: I guess the Spanish turron I have had is the Alicante style

Edited December 4, 2009 by rickster (log)

[Darienne]

What I was thinking of for instance was that Spanish turron will shatter if you drop it on a counter. It looked like the Grewling torrone recipe was similar, since he suggests breaking it into pieces, not cutting it, as I recall. It seemed like the montelimar was soft enough to cut.

Edited to add: I guess the Spanish turron I have had is the Alicante style

OK. That hard. No, the montelimar would never shatter. Not shatterable, so to speak. Nor even breakable. Definitely cuttable.