Turrón de Chocolate

(pronounced too-rr-on deh cho-co-lat-eh)

According to Wikipedia, turrón is translated into english as a "nougat confection, typically made of honey, sugar, and egg white, with toasted almonds or other nuts, and usually shaped into a rectangular tablet". Knowing what both nougat and turrón are, I have no idea how they got to this comparison. Firstly, there are many, many different types of turrón. Turrón de yema (of yolk), de coco (of coconut), de almendra (of almond), de chocolate (of chocolate), de Jijona, de Alicante, etc. At some point in time, I hope to learn the recipes of all of the above and post them here.

Regardless of what wikipedia says, turrón is a long-standing Christmas tradition in Spain. A more contemporary version of turrón, turrón de chocolate is probably the easiest to make.

Ingredients:

375g dark/cooking chocolate chips (or chopped up block of chocolate)

90g lard or butter

6 large tbsp. almond meal

2 large tbsp. icing sugar

~100g coco-pops (the breakfast cereal)

Method:

Add chocolate chips and lard in a large microwavable bowl, and microwave until chocolate melts (in my microwave it takes about 3 minutes, but usually it varies with different machines).

Mix melted chocolate and lard until smooth

Add almond meal and sugar, and mix thoroughly to ensure no lumps remain.

Add coco pops and mix (I suggest adding the cocopops slowly, otherwise the bowl tends to get very full and overflows)

Spoon into container (we use milk cartons which we cut in half, covered with baking paper, specifically for reasons specified later).

Once in container, the mixture needs to be kept flattened out with pressure from something heavy. We use milk cartons because they distribute the weight evenly (this is why we use cut milk cartons as containers/trays, because that way they are the same size as the weights and this keeps the turron in the right shape).

Refrigerate (or leave at room temperature if it is cool). 

Let your brother lick the bowl

Just before serving, slice into thin bars and place on a platter. A good addition to this platter are dried fruits and turron de yema, mantecados, marzipan, roscos de vino, and other Spanish Christmas foods that are to come in further episodes!

Turron de chocolate blanco (the white chocolate version)

As above, but substitute dark chocolate for white chocolate, and rice bubbles for coco-pops.