Turrone – Soft Italian nougat
Matthew McAuliffe • 1 January 2018
My family cannot get enough of Turrone! It’s incredibly easy to make and very popular around the holidays, but we eat it all year round and it makes really cute gifts if you want to do a hamper for someone. We make a lot of it to use up all the spare egg whites I have left from all my cakes. Each region of Italy has their own variation of Turrone and the recipe can be adjusted very easily; whether you want to add vanilla, liqueur, chocolate, they’re so many different ways. This is our family recipe -hope you enjoy.
Ingredients:
- 150g Water
- 500g sugar
- 300g honey
- 75g egg white
- 750g mixed nuts – pistachio, hazelnuts, almonds, you can even add candied fruit
Equipment:
- Sugar thermometer
- A mixer
- Rice paper or greaseproof paper
- Prepare your syrup by combining the sugar and water and getting it to a temperature of 140 degrees. Melt the honey in a sauce pan and bring it to 120 degrees.
- Put your egg whites in a mixer and begin to whip them to firm peaks and then add the sugar syrup a trickle at a time followed by the honey. Continue to whip for 10 minutes.
- Toast your nuts on a baking tray in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees and then add them to your egg mixture while it’s still hot, along with any fruit you wish to add.
- Once your mixture is cool, remove it from the whisk and gently fold with a spatula to smoothen the mixture. Alternatively if you have a flat agitator part for your mixer, you can use that instead.
- Remove from the bowl and spread it on a baking tray lined with your rice or greaseproof paper. It will take some time smoothing the mixture out because it becomes so stiff. Once you’ve smoothed it out place another sheet of paper on top and using a rolling pin spread it out even more to a thickness of about 3cm
- Leave to set for 2 hours and then cut into rectangle slabs. Make sure you keep this stored in a tin in a cool place.
Deliciously creamy white chocolate combined with mascarpone, what’s not to love! This baked white chocolate cheesecake is incredibly easy to make and is the perfect dinner party dessert! I like to team this with my homemade baileys ice cream but equally it goes just as well with a few raspberries and some raspberry coulis.
A traditional Italian Christmas cake, this light and fluffy sweet bread is full of festive flavours and a really delicious alternative to the typical English Christmas cake. It’s great with a cup of tea, or spread with mascarpone – and any leftovers make great bread and butter pudding.
Having now realised I’ve been baking for ten years, I thought i would share with you all my little tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way. I know a few people have said to me that they find baking quite daunting, so hopefully these useful tips will help you bake with ease.
I thought I’d post a savoury recipe, one that’s perfect for this cold weather. It’s actually my dad’s recipe too
