When we were little, nougats were limited to hard and soft, with small concessions to egg yolk and chocolate. Ballpoint pens were no longer available. Now the nougat universe opens up an enormous variety of proposals. Among them the peanut nougat. Let’s not freak out either, it’s still a minority proposal – and far more affordable – slipping discreetly onto shelves. He does it almost silently, as if he knows that the almighty almonds and other nuts of the Christmas box – read, pine nuts or pistachios – are staring at him out of the corner of his eye and branding him an intruder.
They could be worse: they could call it “legume nougat”; That, after all, is the plain peanut, though surrounded by exquisite and very expensive nuts, and has more fat than chickpeas or beans. “I love the pistachio nougat from the Arrese pastry shop in Bilbao, so there would be no point in positioning yourself against a peanut nougat just because the nut is being changed,” replies our colleague Lakshmi Aguirre with overwhelming reasoning.
The misfortune of being a foreigner and an allergen
What happens to almonds is Serrat, born in the Mediterranean, which has a certain preeminence when it comes to a product with its epicenter in Alicante and labeled with the seal of Protected Geographical Indication Jijona or Alicante Nougat. More modestly, the peanut arrived in Spain from America in the time of Carlos III, making it a newcomer in terms of traditional cuisine.
Fabián López, creator of Turronesydulces.com and member of a long saga of nougat makers from Jijona, confirms that “Peanut nougat has always been known here, but it is not the same as almond nougat, which is Mediterranean. That’s why, in our tradition, we have always worked more with local raw materials such as almonds (especially marcona).” Once the distances are marked, he realizes that for the people of Jijón, “anything outside of traditional nougat is usually not for us Nougat is or we hesitate. That there are centuries of tradition and knowledge passed from father to son!
As if that weren’t enough, peanuts are also highly allergenic. Many manufacturers who sell it under their brand outsource production to certified workshops so as not to use the same equipment they use to make almond nougat. Come on, something like the nougat in exile, a Christmas outlaw. “The paradox is that I love it because it brings back very good memories. As a child, my father always brought hard peanut nougat from the manufactory to the end of the Christmas campaign. It was unlabeled, vacuum packed as is. I remember a very crunchy taste, like peanuts, honey and egg whites. It was always done at the end of the campaign, before the machines were cleaned for the next, as a Christmas bonus for the staff. It can no longer be due to the allergen regulations today”.
A cheaper offer in times of crisis
Just as there are people who are allergic to peanuts, there are of course people who are allergic to almonds. And that opens a vein of the market. “Our range of peanut nougat is designed for those who cannot tolerate almonds and are looking for an equally attractive alternative in terms of texture and taste. Also, this variant is usually among the favorites of peanut lovers,” they tell us via email from Lidl supermarkets. This supermarket chain has up to four varieties of this nougat: soft, hard, crunchy chocolate with honey roasted peanuts, and soft with salted caramelized peanuts.
While this is the primary commercial goal, the price also positions it as an affordable alternative for those pockets where almonds are unaffordable. A proposal that allows many households to serve nougat at Christmas: his crunchy chocolate nougat with peanuts costs 1.29 euros for a 250 gram tablet, while the almond nougat exceeds a good four euros. Other low-cost supermarket chains such as Dia% or Aldi also include them in their catalogues.
Of the big nougat brands, only the medium-sized brands like Don Pelayo, Aitana or Doña Jimena include this product in their proposals. The big ensigns don’t even consider it; even those who market themselves as “craftsmen”. In fact, Andreu, who makes artisan almond nougat of the highest quality – the regulations state a minimum almond content of 60% for Alicante and 64% for Jijona – only makes peanuts of “popular” quality (the simile with almonds with 30-34% peanut ). These details make it difficult to judge whether it is a product capable of reaching organoleptic heights of maximum juiciness, or doomed to wander around successful references but more modest in terms of ingredients and taste.
From Aragon to Miami
Of course, if in Jijona they look at him as that distant and somewhat odd cousin, in Miami he’s like Julio Iglesias, well, they make eyes at him. This is confirmed by Ernesto del Río, Marketing and Export Manager of La Pasión, a confectionery company from Zaragoza with its own Christmas products branch. There is room for peanuts here: “We produce them, but almost everything is exported, mainly to Latin America and the USA. It has a big market in Miami, but it’s a flavor they’re already used to because it reminds them of peanut butter. In Spain, nougat without almonds is not nougat,” he explains. As if that weren’t enough, peanuts still evoke the nut cocktails served in a bar for the Spanish palate as an aperitif, and this makes it difficult to associate ideas with Christmas carols and nativity scenes.
It is much less difficult for those who have already included peanuts in their diet as a plant-based protein option and are fleeing like hell from sugar. Apostles of the ketogenic diet, fitness crushes, and greedy vegetarians are filling a curious group of consumers who don’t find this product like peanuts with things. Besides, they are looking for it. At Body Genius, they make sugar-free peanut nougat and are fortified with other proteins to also open up to those who don’t want a happy glycemic peak vacation. “Our customer does not want to do without sweets, but is looking for healthier alternatives without high carbohydrate loads. And if it also provides some protein, all the better,” says David Fabré, CEO of Xocolating.
Its milk chocolate peanut nougat contains caloric sweeteners, soy and nuts and comes from Barcelona. They warn that this is a seasonal product, that it will be made immediately and in limited editions, and that there will be no more stock in their warehouses after the Christmas festivities, nor are there any plans to produce more by any means much your customers are infatuated. “This is how we guarantee a freshly prepared product with full flavor,” concludes Fabré. Unlike other almond nougat manufacturers, this company makes more products with peanuts “because it has more protein than other nuts.” For this reason, their products already have the allergen declaration on the label and they can produce their peanut nougat in their own factories with peace of mind.
We won’t deny that times have changed and that Christmas has different flavors too since Santa Claus colonized these dates. So, let’s open our taste buds to new experiences, those things that only come once a year, like the Christmas lottery, dinner with our brothers-in-law, or sipping twelve grapes at the chime. As Lakshmi sums it up well: “Do you eat around Christmas? Well, it’s nougat. Worse sacrileges have been seen.”