Chocolate Torrone Recipe - An Italian in my Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

What is Italian nougat made from? ›

Torrone, the classic Italian nougat, is easy to make at home. Nougat is a sweet confection made of whipped egg whites, sugar and/or honey, and nuts. In this traditional torrone recipe, the honey-sweetened candy is flavored with orange and almond flavors, and packed with toasted almonds.

Torrone can be purchased in a variety of forms including bars, cubes, rounds, blocks, and bite-sized pieces. There is hard and crunchy (friable), and soft and chewy (morbido/tenero), torrone.

The city of Cremona in Lombardy has long proclaimed itself as the home of classical torrone. It maintains that the sweet was served there for the first time at the lavish banquet after the marriage of the Tuscan-born mercenary Francesco Sforza to Bianca Maria Visconti on October 2, 1441.

The statistic indicates that Ferrero's Kinder Chocolate is the most popular candy bar in Italy, holding the highest market share in the country. This success has resulted in a thriving industry worth millions of euros.

Torrone is a traditional Italian nougat candy made from egg whites, honey, and toasted nuts - almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts, or a combination. The main difference between hard and soft torrone lies in the texture and consistency of the candy.

Italy's version of nougat is called the torrone. Torrone is a form of white nougat that is very similar to soft nougat in many ways yet there are some differences. One difference between French nougat and torrone is that torrone is finished off with white icing on top after it has been made.

Translation of torrone – Italian–English dictionary

nougat [noun] a sticky kind of sweet containing nuts etc.

Torrone is often served with an after-dinner amaro (bitters), a sambuca (a sweet anise-tasting digestivo), or a liquor, such as Strega.

“Nougatine” refers to a clear or light-brown nut-based bark obtained by cooking sugar until converted into caramel. (Not to be confused with nougat which is a sweet made from egg whites, sugar, honey and nuts).

What is a fun fact about torrone? ›

The most romantic story is that it was invented in Cremona, in northern Lombardy, in the 15th century to commemorate the marriage of the Duke of Milan's daughter. Cooks molded the sweet in the shape of the city's famous towers, called torrione, and the rest was history.

The difference in making hard and soft torrone is in the cooking time and the amount of egg whites used hard torrone is cooked up to ten hours whereas soft torrone is cooked for no more than three hours.

A popular and fine Italian chocolate is “cioccolato di Modica,” made in Sicily. The tradition of chocolate making in Sicily came about centuries ago when the natives were taught the traditional process by Spaniards, beginning by collecting cacao beans (more about their influence on Sicilian Cuisine in this post).

The three Italian 'capitals' of chocolate are Turin (North), Perugia (Center) and Modica (South). Italian peculiarity is the 'marriage' between chocolate and hazelnuts, whereas Modica's chocolate is special due to its unique and old fashioned production process.

Modica's chocolate

Although it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the Val di Noto in 2002 because of its important baroque architectural historical centre, Modica is known around the world for its chocolate.

Halva is probably one of the oldest sweets in the world, and nougat shares its genuinity and its real, authentic flavour. The difference is that halva is made either with a flour base or a nut butter base, whilst nougat uses egg whites to achieve its chewiness and mellow, creamy mouthfeel.

Torrone is often served with an after-dinner amaro (bitters), a sambuca (a sweet anise-tasting digestivo), or a liquor, such as Strega.

They are loaded with fiber, proteins, and vitamins from natural sources. Nougat bars with fruits such as raisins and cranberries and nuts like almonds may also help lower cholesterol with the healthy natural fats and enzymes in them. Now you can look at nougat bars as more than a quick fix.

Torrone is a nougat confection usually served at Christmas time, primarily made of honey, beaten egg whites, almonds, wafers, hazelnuts and vanilla. Torrone may be commercially made or prepared at home: the most famous are those from Cremona, Alba, Siena and Benevento.