The arrival of torrone, the delicious honey and nougat confection, means the holiday season is coming in Spain and Italy. We have had torrone many times before, but we have never seen the kind of torrone we recently encountered in Naples, which was sold by the slice, covered in chocolate, and at first glance, even looked like ice cream cake. Turns out this is “Torrone dei Morti” or “Torrone morbido”- “dead torrone” which is a traditional All Saints’ Day dessert with a base of cocoa. Neapolitan pastry shops were filled with this version of torrone at the end of October, in any number of nut, chocolate and fruit varieties. Our favorite was the gianduja, or hazelnut and chocolate blend, as seen below. Getting a slice of torrone will run you less than 1€ a slice, so you have every incentive to try many varieties. When we were in Naples we didn’t realize that this version of torrone was season-specific, so we don’t know if it will be on display at other times of the year. We hope it is! We looked for a recipe in English – and we finally found one – but Google Translate can help you out with some of the Italian versions.
Tag Archives: Torrone
Pastry Post Doc: Torrone dei Morti in Naples
Filed under Holidays, Pastry Post-Poc, World Eats
Finer Things Club: Torrone for the holidays
As the holiday season draws to a close, we are finishing up the last of the Christmas goodies – including one of our favorites torrone. It’s a pretty simple confection made of egg whites, honey, almonds and sugar. Popular across Southern Europe, this almond nougat is known as Turrón (Spanish), torró (Catalan), or torrone (Italian).The origin of Turron is Arabic, and was created by moors in the town of Jijona, in Valencia, Spain. Spanish turron comes in 2 basic varieties – soft Jijona or turrón blando, and hard Alicante or turrón duro, similar to peanut brittle.
Torrone is most commonly consumed around the holidays – La Florentine is one of the most popular varieties in the US, and has individually-warpped portions of soft torrone in Vanilla, Lemon and Orange flavors. You can even get La Florentine torrone online, though it is pretty commonly available in larger grocery stores. Delicious Days even has a recipe to try on your own, even though it seems pretty tricky.
Filed under Finer Things Club, Holidays, World Eats