Instructions

1. Heat a small saucepan over low heat, and combine the honey, orange juice and sugar without stirring. Allow the ingredients to melt together in the pan. Swirl the saucepan from time to time, until the sugar partially dissolves.

2. Add the hazelnuts to the mixture of honey, orange and sugar and stir it with your wooden spatula.

3. Continue to simmer the hazelnuts and stir the ingredients together in the pan for at least eight minutes or until the foam of the mixture begins to subside. The mixture should turn thick and become amber in color.

4. Prepare a cookie sheet or a baking pan. Dip a pastry brush into vegetable oil and lightly coat the sheet with it to prevent the mixture from sticking into the sheet as soon as it hardens.

5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the mixture onto the sheet. Place some vegetable oil on your wooden spatula and use it to spread the mixture evenly on the cookie sheet. Its thickness should be not more than one-half inch.

6. Divide the hard torrone into rectangular pieces measuring ½- to 1-inch-by-2-inch pieces, using a sharp kitchen knife to score into the mixture.

7. Set the mixture aside for at least 30 minutes and come back once it has cooled. Break the hard torrone with your hands along its scored lines and let it cool for another 15 minutes before placing it in an airtight container.