Turron story

The town of Jijona in Spain might be a small town, but it is famous for a sweet turron, which is a type of soft nougat.

A long time ago, the land of many hills with lots of sun was ruled by the people called Moors. They farmed a lot of almond trees, which were popular in their native land. The land that was dry without any snow. The flowers of the almond trees were white to pale pink. While blooming they changed scenery from dry to something very lively. After the blooming time, the petals of the flowers lying on the ground looked as snow.

The Moorish king fell in love with a Scandinavian princess. She lived in the north, where scenery was different. With less sun and more rain, her lands were blanketed in green shades of grass during the summers. During the winters the droplets of rain turned into the droplets of snow covering the grounds in white snowflakes.

The princess loved the king, but couldn’t help that she missed the snow.

The king wanted to make the princess happy. One day, he commanded, “I want the almond trees to be planted around the castle.” Some gardeners questioned, “Why?” The others simply followed the order.

The following spring the almond trees bloomed. Looking through the window, the princes smiled seeing the white blossoms. It reminded her of snow and the time she spent with her brother. Rolling down the hills in snow and landing at the bottom looking like a snowman. Throwing balls at her brother and making him say, “I’ll get you with the next snowball.” He was younger throwing balls clumsily.

Knock at the door made her realized she wasn’t alone in the room. The king paused before knocking and entering as he saw how happy his wife was. “Shall we take a walk,” he asked.

Soon the grounds were beautifully covered with the white petals. It was about to be the end of flowering season. “Aw, I wished the petals could last for a little bit longer,” the princess sighed.

The king wished for the same and pondered how to prolong the scenery of white petals. He called his advisers and explained the situation announcing, “Whoever comes up with the best solution, will be well rewarded.”

The word had spread out throughout the kingdom.

However, it was just around the corner per say. One of the bakers from Jijona used lots of honey while baking. The surrounding hills were covered in wild flowers, offering nourishment for the bees, which produced the sweet honey. With plenty of product to go around, the baker used his imagination to drip some honey where ever he could to sweeten the taste.

Hearing the recent announcement to make the princess happy, he came up with an idea of adding toasted almonds to honey. The new confection turned out in white shade, “That’s perfect,” the baker commented. He named it turron, developing the name from the word ‘toast.’

The baker presented at the castle with the new confection. He waited with anticipating for the princess to taste it. She looked at the color, and then tasted the soft delicacy, “This is amazing in color and taste. This reminds me of the blossoming trees. Now I can enjoy it throughout the year.”

Now, everybody was happy and the baker was well rewarded as promised.