My parents have had a holiday home in Moraira for years, and when I was younger we often spent the Christmas holidays there. My mother would make turrón, one of the traditional Spanish sweets that appear everywhere in the weeks before Christmas.

One year, my father bit into a piece and broke a tooth. Judging by that unfortunate incident, my mother was definitely making the hard variety. It became one of those family stories that returns every Christmas, usually as soon as someone puts turrón on the table.

You certainly do not need to make turrón yourself. At Christmas, Mercadona piles it high in brightly coloured boxes, with shelves full of every flavour and texture imaginable. Much of it is not even expensive, and I will admit that those beautiful packages are very tempting.

But I still enjoy making my own.

I cut it into small pieces and tuck them into the little Christmas hampers I prepare for friends and family, together with a bar of my homemade rosemary and olive oil soap and a small bottle of good olive oil. A homemade piece of turrón somehow feels more personal than simply adding another colourful box from the supermarket.

I also love that something my mother used to make during our Christmas holidays is now something I make for the people around me.

Turrón is the Spanish relative of Italian torrone and French nougat. They are all made with some combination of nuts, honey, sugar and egg white, although their flavours and textures vary. Spanish Turrón de Alicante is particularly crisp, with whole toasted almonds enclosed between thin sheets of edible wafer paper.

That is the style I make at home: simple, nutty and properly crunchy.

Just cut it into small pieces, and perhaps warn anyone with expensive dental work.