With its pluses and minuses, all Christmas sweets in our country almost inevitably go through almonds. Arab heritage where they exist at the expense of mix ground almond and honey, Most of our sweets end up linked to presenting this dried fruit as the king of the party.
Curiously, the history of sugared almonds is not so closely linked to the Arab past and Andalusian, but it is also linked to Roman and Greek traditions, whose heirs still exist today and can be found in these countries.
confetti for an Italian, koufeta for a Greek and, in the French case, those known as drageethe sugared almonds are essentially an almond that is covered with a flour and sugar paste —currently—, but that in the past was a candied almond with flour and honeysince it was the sweetener that was on hand.
In this way, it shares ingredients with nougats and marzipans, the other two members of this trio that, however, do continue in a commercial vogue that allows them to enter the 21st century without problems. However, what about the sugared almonds and what happened to them?
Since they became industrialized, the sugared almonds slightly changed their morphology and wheat flour ceased to be part of their preparation. What was done was to bathe the whole and peeled almonds in a syrup that, as it evaporated, left that shiny white crust around the almonda reinforcement that today is also achieved in the industry with various corn or rice starches, but which are not used in artisanal production.
Another population also has a just fame, in this case we talk about casinosin the province of Valencia, one of the last redoubts of this Christmas sweet that even has the Fair of Artisan Sweet, Peladillas and Casino Nougats, which is held annually on the last weekend of November.
Rooted since the end of the 19th century, Casinos is in all probability the name most associated with a sweet which is now in decline and it is not because of this Valencian municipality, but because of the commercial and industrial options that have also made the name of this candied almond fall.
The best recipes of Direct to the palate (Cooking)
Still in Casinos we find more or less artisan factories and producers such as Turrones Navarro, Peladillas y Turrones Casinos or Turrones Apolonia, three producers that still attest to a splendid past at the expense of sugared almonds in this town of just 3,000 inhabitants, located 40 kilometers from Valencia, in the region of Campo de Turia, where they continue proud to make their sugared almonds with only marcona almonds and sugarwhere the sugar layer must be very light and offer that bite, not limiting itself to being a kind of candy.
Images | Opening: Nougat and sugared almonds / Apolonia nougat
In DAP | Mercadona, Lidl, Carrefour…: who makes the nougats in each supermarket this Christmas (and which are the cheapest)
In DAP | Almond shortbread recipe: so exquisite that you will never (ever) buy them again