Photo: ohbernadine / Flickr

Nougat is said to have originated in France and is an egg-white based sweet that is filled with nuts. It can be eaten on its own as a sweet or served with coffee or liqueur after dinner. Making your own nougat at home can be a sticky process as the ingredients call for honey and corn syrup (or glucose), but it’s well worth it if you’re a fan of the treat. This recipe will take about 40 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook, and will need to rest for 24 hours.

Ingredients for home-made nougat

This nougat recipe requires rice paper, 250 grams of white caster sugar, 100 ml of runny honey, three tablespoons of liquid glucose or corn syrup, a half a cup of water, 300 grams of almonds that have been blanched and toasted, 125 grams of whole hazelnuts that have also been blanched and toasted, two egg whites that have been stiffly beaten – and a few drops of vanilla extract.

Method for home-made nougat

You will need a 24 cm square tin (or thereabouts) to start with. Line the tin with rice paper. Place the sugar, syrup and honey into a saucepan with the water. Stir the ingredients over a medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved.

Then, without stirring again, cook the syrup until it reaches 143 degrees Celsius or has small cracks in it. During this time, heat the nuts in the oven for five minutes. Pour the hot syrup from the stove over the stiff egg whites. Beat the whites up until they are very stiff.

Place the bowl containing the egg whites over a pot of hot water while you beat if the whites aren’t becoming stiff enough.

Add the warm nuts and the vanilla extract to the mixture, then turn it out onto the prepared rice paper. Cover the top with more rice paper and place a heavily weighted board on top of that. Leave the nougat to set like this for a day.

Your home-made nougat slab can then be cut into square or oblong pieces. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge if you’re not going to eat it anytime soon.

Tip: Add candied peel to your nougat for a more colourful appearance.

Tags: homemade