Monday, December 21, 2009

Torrone

It took me 2 attempts to get this one right. The first attempt, I carried out in great haste, shuffling between making the torrone and whipping up a potato salad for an office party. The potato salad turned out fine; the torrone, quite unsurprisingly on hindsight, failed miserably. Of course, it did not help that I did not have a candy thermometer and was left guessing after the needle on my meat thermometer burst its scale.

I went out to buy a candy thermometer the next day.

So round 2 was definitely more precise. I stirred patiently, waiting for the sugar/honey/water mixture to approach the appropriate temperature benchmarks, whipped the egg whites into stiff peaks and gently folded in the roasted nut mix. Not too difficult afterall. The torrone had set well.

Cleaning up though (removing the hardened candy mixture from my baking equipment) was quite a nightmare. I had intended to make several batches, but with all the hassle I gave up. So to those who would have received pistachio-almond torrone as a xmas gift, my apologies.