of course there's gotta be one thing that just makes you want to throw in the towel with any project. this year it was the stinkin' torrone. it was seriously a candy catastrophe, i almost had a melt down.
i love torrone, it's not something we get every year, but every once in a while my dad would pick it up from federal hill and i think we were the only two who would eat any of it. so i found two different recipes on marthastewart.com (here and here) and decided i was going to make a honey hazelnut torrone because that sounded far more delicious than lemon or pistachio!!
if you ever go into a store and think...hmm, maybe i'll save some money, since i'm buying 5 lbs (aka $4000 worth) of hazelnuts...why don't i buy those unskinned ones over there in the bulk food section.
STOP.
that is WRONG.
NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EEEEVVVVERRRR (and yes i typed all of those, didn't even copy and paste it was that important)
EVER
buy unskinned hazelnuts if you have the option to buy them all pretty and cleaned.
ever.
i don't care if it's double the price, if you really want to use them in the recipe it's worth the cost.
tried toasting them...didn't work so well...
tried the baking soda in boiling water on another batch...that turned into a horrendous mess...
i truly don't know why i didn't just call it quits and buy new ones, but i was determined to get the skin off those damn things...but it took way too long and turned everything around me a gross brownish pink color.
so say it with me...NEVER buy unskinned hazelnuts!
and it continued to go downhill from there.
the torrone itself was a MESS. so so sticky i thought my hands were going to be lost forever in the sticky goop that was the candy batter (that's the best word to describe it). the first batch dried out eventually but the second batch, which tasted better, never dried out. even now, like 2 weeks later...and even after trying EVERYTHING...freezing, cornstarch, dipping in chocolate, frying...you name it...it never got past it's 'i'm going to pretend to be a solid for 12 seconds but if you touch me i will immediately turn into an obnoxious sticky liquid' stage. frustrating and wasteful. oy.
but sadly enough, i really want to try to make it again.
probably a different recipe though.
and definitely before christmas!
i wanted to take a picture when it was in it's sticky gooy form...but was too afraid to ruin my camera...that stuff was EVERYWHERE! AAHH!!
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