Well, after a few weeks of "lurking" I've finally got myself registered on this and the "Caterer's corner" postings.

A customer wants me to make him about 200 kgs of Torrone, a.k.a. Italian nougat, a.k.a. white nougat. Before giving him a quote I made myself a few trial batches. After three trials I'm still not getting there, this is my recipie so far:

400 gr water
160 gr honey
200 gr corn syrup
880 gr sugar
-boil to soft crack 130 C

-whip 110 gr eggwhite
-pour over syrup, whip until cold
-fold in 400 gr chopped nuts
-pour into silicone paper lined tray, weight down for 12 hrs.


My first attempt was way too soft, so I cut back on the water almost 20% to it's currrent 400 grs. Second batch "grained out" on me, so I dropped the syrup temperature to its 130 C. Third batch, well, it's still gooey. I'll wait another 8 hrs begfore giving it the heave-ho.

Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

By Foodpump (Foodpump) on Wednesday, November 03, 2004 - 10:13 pm: Edit

After combing through a few more recipie books and 4 more attempts, I think I've got the problem solved. Waay too much water, no more than 5% of the sugar weight, Syrup temp should be at hard crack, around 145 C. Secondly, my thermometer was off by about 5 degrees, just enough to make a difference. Thirdly, a few recipies called for pouring some of the syrup at soft ball stage (120C) on the stiff egg whites, boiling the remaining syrup to hard crack and then adding it.
So my 7th trial batch worked, if I'm lucky, I can duplicate it again (and again and again...)then if I'm really lucky, I can make it work on the 30 qt mixer....

By Cheftoni (Cheftoni) on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 11:00 am: Edit

Did you want a hard torrone or a soft? You had said it was too soft...? I would like to make a soft one (chewy, not gooey), but have been having the same problem. Could I use your guidelines for a soft one...or when you finally fixed everything, it was for hard?

By Pastrydog32 (Pastrydog32) on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 07:35 pm: Edit

I saw a recipe for Torrone in Mario Batali's "The Babbo cookbook" that called for the nougat to be folded into whipped cream when it was done whipping. Before it sets maybe you could try folding 25-35% WHIPPED CREAM TO THE RECIPE, or buy Mario's book. I'll see what else I can find.

By Foodpump (Foodpump) on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 11:15 pm: Edit

What I wanted was a Torrone that I could cut with a set of roller cutters and a knife. They are still a little soft, bendy, but not brittle. They will suck up humidity and get softer if you let them, and I never bothered with the rice paper and weight business. After combing through several books and recipies, I adopted the two step syrup recipie.
This was my final recipie:

100 gr water
450 gr sugar
700 gr corn syrup

100 gr whites

400 gr lightly toasted nuts, coarsly chopped, and slightly warm

Bring syrup to 121 celcius, meanwhile
whip whites to soft peaks.
Add 1/4 of this syrup to the whites and continue beating, return pot to stove and boil to 149 celcius, add to whites and whip stiff.
Fold in warm nuts, turn out onto parchment paper lined tray, cover with another sheet of parchment, roll smooth with a rolling pin.

Now, a word of warning. This is a small recipie, made for a 5 qt Kitchenaide. I haven't tried it out on a 30 qt machine, and the Torrone may sieze up before you can scrape it out into a sheet pan. You'll probably hear me screaming if I break the whip for the Hobart....