I headed into the city early yesterday to meet up with my friend and ended up wandering around the David Jones Foodhall. Looked in their baking section and stumbled upon rice paper there and instantly knew I had to try to make some nougat.
I’ve always shied away from candy making because of the fear of not cooking the sugar to the right temperature and ending up with pools of sugar rather than actual legitimate candy. However, I decided to give this a try and ended up with pretty good results.
Recipe as follows (makes one 7×7 inch square pan of nougat)
1 egg white
250g caster sugar
125ml liquid glucose
90g blossom honey
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g mixed fruit and nuts
2 sheets rice paper
1. Grease a 7×7 square pan and line the bottom with a sheet of rice paper.
2. Pour caster sugar, liquid glucose, honey and water into a pot and heat. Meanwhile, beat egg whites with stand mixer until firm peaks form. When sugar reaches 121 Celcius, pour 1/4 into the egg whites into a thin stream and continue beating.
3. Continue heating the remaining sugar until it reaches 141 Celcius and pour into the meringue. Beat until very thick.
4. Add the vanilla and fruit and nut mix and stir with a spoon. Pour it into the square pan and smooth it with a knife dipped in hot water to prevent sticking. Put the second later of rice paper on top.
5. Leave for 4-6 hours or until set. Slice and serve.
The nougat was very hard to cut – eventually I figured out the best way was to use a sawing motion with a serrated knife. Store pieces separately – they will stick!
100 Days Of Evelyn 