Homemade nougat

Memories drifting back to an amazing dinner memento from Sean’s Panorama and having visited Montelimar, France’s nougat capital. It was time to embark on making nougat after talking about it for a few years.

Using Bill Grangers’ White Chocolate, cherry and almond nougat as a guideline, I attempted my first ever nougat which I’ve called ….

‘Where’s the white chocolate, cranberry and nuts galore nougat’.

Makes 45 pieces and takes an hour all up

Ingredients

Edible rice paper (I got mine from David Jones food hall)

460g (2cups) caster sugar

250mL (1cup) glucose syrup

125mL (1/2cup) honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg whites

80g almonds lightly toasted

80g pistachios lightly toasted

80g hazelnuts lightly toasted

100g dried cranberries (I used cranberries instead of the cherries but it works well either way)

Lightly grease a 20cm x30cm baking tray and line with sheets of edible rice paper.

Put the sugar, glucose, honey and vanilla in a large heavy-based saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring to the boil, and then boil without stirring, brushing down the side of the saucepan with a wet pastry brush to remove any sugar crystal which may form. Cook until the mixture reaches 142C on a sugar thermometer (soft crack stage) or test the syrup by dropping a small teaspoonful into a bowl of iced water- you should be able to remove the ball of syrup and stretch it with your fingers into pliable strands.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites in a large clean bowl until firm peaks form. While beating, very slowly pour the hot syrup in a thin stream into the egg white. Continue to beat until the mixture is thick and holds its shape- depending on your beaters, this can take between 2-8 minutes. Once the mixture can hold its shape, stop beating. You don’t want it to thicken and become like toffee.

(In my case, the mixture wasn’t really thickening that much so I kept it going for another 5minutes but it still wasn’t holding its shape too well. I was hoping the setting process would help in this instance.)

Gently warm nuts in a dry pan (or in an oven for 5mins at 180C). I managed to source my nuts from Co-op in Katoomba as they had a great selection to choose from.

Stir into the mixture with the chocolate and cranberries. For this step, Bill Granger recommends that you’ll need someone with a strong arm to stir the fruit and nuts through the nougat. That’s where Pepe came into the picture and helped out.

Pour mixture into the tin and place a layer of rice paper over the top. Leave to set overnight and then cut into square or bars with a hot, wet knife. That’s another thing, cutting the pieces of nougat you need some muscle as its tough going, lucky that Pepe came to the rescue again.

The next day the nougat had set and I couldn’t wait to try it. It was delicious, it was medium soft and the toasted nuts just cut through the sweetness.

The only thing I would do differently is probably not add the white chocolate as you couldn’t really taste it, add more nuts into the mixture and some citrus peel for the next one. I’ll also try and cook the sugar syrup mixture to a slightly higher temperature to see if makes a difference in the mixture holding its shape.