Torrons

The torró is a sweet dough made from roasted almonds, pine nuts, hazelnuts or walnuts mixed with honey or eggs, candied fruit, chocolate, or other ingredients, which is normally rectangular in shape. There are as many varieties of torró as the artisans who make them, and they are never missing from the Christmas table. The most important ones are the varieties from Xixona, Alicante, and Agramunt, which nowadays can be found everywhere.

Torrons are the Christmas sweet par excellence; they are usually served with neules and are the culmination of the meals served during this festive period.

Where the torró originated from is not clear, but it seems to be Arabian, like a large number of almond-based sweets, and its popularity grew from the counties in the south of Valencia to the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and Occitania. Whatever the case, there is documentary evidence of this Christmas sweet in Catalonia in the Middle Ages; the chef Mestre Robert included a recipe in his cookbook, El Llibre de Coch.