Tada, today I’m introducing a specialty that actually comes from Spain and has been adapted in Latin America with local products: turrón. In Germany, we would probably call this nougat. Turrón traditionally consists of a honey-sugar syrup that is mixed with egg whites and almonds. This “paste” is then pressed into relatively flat bars and then cut into pieces or cubes. I use the version with peanuts (maní), which are much cheaper to buy in Uruguay and are also native to the country. The Uruguayans have simply replaced almonds with a local product: peanuts. Turrón basically comes in two varieties: “duro”, i.e. hard turrón, or “blando”, i.e. the softer verrsion. I opted for the hard version. You should definitely be prepared to take at least 45 minutes to make this delicacy and you will need some arm muscle. However, I think it’s well worth the effort.
I have decided to theme November: gifts from the kitchen. I really enjoy gifting people with homemade baked goods. I often gift these cute animal cookies; since the last birth was a girl, I made some pink elephants and carried them in a jar (see the picture below). Another good gift is dulce de leche, caramel made from sweetened milk. Today we are going to make fudge with peanut butter swirl and salted peanuts. I made the fudge in a frying pan, so it didn’t take that long. The fudge pictured below was wrapped in parchment paper and then shipped out of the country. Yes, you can ship it and it will keep. Continue Reading…