Nougat? (FAIL)

I tried to make Italian Torrone (chewy nutty nougat) as a holiday favor this year. Now, I always thought of nougat as candy, but I never equated "making nougat" to "making candy," the latter of which is something I've never had any real desire to do. Candy making is messy, sticky, and fickle, as I understand it. So imagine my surprise when I'm 15 minutes into a recipe for Torrone and I realize - "crap, I'm making candy." I have pretty good luck with trying new recipes, in general, but this does not apply to the realm of candy. I have no success story, only a few words of advice:

1. WATCH your thermometer. The temperature doesn't rise steadily, but does so in occasional spikes. I turned my back on the syrup at the wrong time, and when I came back it had gone from 295 to 325 degrees, which brings me to number 2.
2. Don't BURN the syrup. It does not smell good, which means your candy will not smell good.
3. make COOKIES instead. Just a thought.

Maybe someday I'll give this another shot, but for now I think I'll buy my Torrone and save myself the 60 minute clean up!