The Story of Italian Torrone and Fall Staff Picks to Go with your Old Fashioned

The Story of Torrone and Chef Laura's Staff Pick to go with your Old Fashioned

The quiet simplicity of a log of torrone often gets overlooked in our chocolate cases. But this Italian nougat is one of our most laborious confections...and it is well worth the time. Honey is gently cooked on a stovetop for hours until ready to be whipped with egg whites, yielding a soft and flavorful nougat. We then add chopped hazelnuts and almonds, and a thin ribbon of caramel in the center before enrobing the rolled torrone in milk and dark chocolate.

The origins of torrone are hotly contested, but according to The Florentine, there are a few theories. It is said that this unique nougat was first served at the wedding banquet of Tuscan-born mercenary Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti on October 2, 1441. Some sources suggest it may have even older roots, when the Romans learnt of it from the Samnites during the years of the wars between them in the third and second centuries BCE. Another school of thought is that Arabs brought it with them to Southern Italy, as one text notes Arab physician of Cordova, Abdul Mutarrif, praising the sweet called turron, made of honey, almonds, sugar and spices.

However it originated, Sweet Designs prepares it in the Italian tradition, as it is now served on Christmas Day – soft and chewy and enrobed in chocolate!

October Staff Favorite from Chef Laura

My longtime favorite from the chocolate shop counter is the dark chocolate dipped orange slice. I'm also a big fan of traditional fruitcake so I do have a penchant for candied citrus :)

It's easy for this type of candy to be overly sweet, in order to compensate for bitterness or just plain lack of quality with raw ingredients, but that is not the case with Sweet Designs dipped fruit. What I taste first is perfectly preserved orange - practically a bite of sunshine - and then the carefully balanced & blended dark chocolate. Perched on the rim of an Old Fashioned it's my favorite way to end each sweet work week!