Valencia · 14 h · Vegetarian · Dessert · For confident cooks
Turrón de Alicante
In German: Turrón
For 20 servings · US units
Hard white nougat with toasted almonds, honey and vanilla, pressed between wafers
Turrón de Alicante is the firm, brittle white nougat from Alicante, set between two sheets of wafer paper and built from honey, sugar, egg white and a generous quantity of toasted almonds. In Spain it belongs to Christmas like nothing else, and in German-speaking countries it simply goes by the name white nougat. It asks for a little patience — the mass needs to set overnight under a weight — but the next day you cut bars that earn their place beside any coffee or festive dessert.
Ingredients
- 10½ ozAlmondsblanched and toasted, partly whole, partly ground
- 2¾ ozHoneybase of the sugar mass
- 7 ozsugarfine or icing sugar
- 2Egg whitevery fresh, beaten until very stiff
- 10large rectangular baking wafers for base and topPaper-thin, neutral-tasting sheets of starch and water used as an edible base for sticky sweets such as turrón or macaroons.Substitute: There is no edible substitute; baking parchment lightly dusted with cornflour stops the sweet from sticking but must be peeled off before serving and leaves a less smooth base. Vietnamese rice paper for spring rolls is a different product and does not work here.Read more
- 1 tspVanillaseeds from the pod or as essence
- ½ cupwaterfor the syrup
- 2¾ ozkeeps the mass smooth and prevents crystallisation (optional)A thick, clear sugar syrup made from starch, only mildly sweet, that keeps sugar from crystallising.Substitute: Light corn syrup behaves almost identically. Invert sugar syrup or a mild honey also work, but they are sweeter and brown faster, and honey adds its own flavour.Read more
- ½ tspcinnamon stickfolded into the beaten egg white (optional)
- 3 tbspCocoa powderfor a dark version, folded into the egg white (optional)
- 2⅛ ozPistachiosas an extra nut alongside the almonds (optional)
- 1¾ ozdried, folded in at the end (optional)Small, red, very tart berries, sold fresh, frozen, or dried and sweetened.Substitute: Lingonberries, fresh or as a compote, come closest in tartness and colour, but they are smaller and softer and break down sooner; compote is already sweetened, so use less sugar.Read more
Method
- Scald the almonds briefly in hot water, slip them out of their skins and let them dry thoroughly.
- Toast the almonds in the oven at 390 °F or in a dry pan until pale gold, then let them cool completely. Grind half of the cooled almonds (150 g) finely and leave the other half whole.
- Line a baking tray with wafer paper, edge to edge, so that no gaps are left; alternatively, lightly grease a turrón mould.
- Bring the honey, sugar and, if you like, the glucose syrup to the boil with the water and cook down to about 255 °F. For an easier route, melt the honey over a water bath and stir in icing sugar.
- Beat the egg whites until very stiff and fold in the vanilla, along with cinnamon or cocoa powder if you want them.
- Pour the hot sugar mass into the beaten egg white in small amounts, stirring constantly, and keep beating until the mixture has cooled — this can take up to 25 minutes.
- Work in the whole and the ground almonds, adding pistachios and cranberries if you are making the version in a mould.
- Spread the mass evenly over the wafers straight away, cover with more wafer paper, lay a tray on top and weigh it down.
- Let the turrón set for 12 to 24 hours, then cut it into bars of roughly 3 x 5 cm and store them layered in an airtight container.
Tips and variations
For a dark version, beat cocoa powder into the egg white. If you would rather not cook a syrup to 125 °C, melt the honey over a water bath and stir in icing sugar; glucose syrup keeps the mass supple and prevents crystallisation, and half a teaspoon of cinnamon folded into the egg white adds aroma — this mass is beaten cold for 25 minutes. Instead of the classic almonds on wafer paper, you can set a mixture of pistachios, almonds and dried cranberries in a turrón mould without wafers. Serve the bars in thin slices on a plate with coffee — at Christmas, alongside the other sweets on the table.
Allergens
Contains: Eggs, Tree nuts
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
