Simply Nougat!

Have you ever attended an Italian Wedding reception and been gifted colourfully wrapped nougat? The presentation alone grasps your eye and you are instantly excited about unwrapping the lollie in anticipation that it is as good to eat as it looks.

As a Wedding Coordinator, or as my boss calls it, a "Wedding Fairy" I have on a number of occasions hosted Italian Weddings, I have salivated as I opened containers filled with nougat, the sweet, sugary sent wafting into the air after being cooped up for hours in its plastic cage.

 

I have promised myself for years that "one day" I would attempt making nougat, of course one day turns into the next and then, after years of procrastinating my attempt of making nougat has still not been achieved, that is until last week when finally it was time, I had hosted a wedding and after sneaking a piece of nougat decided that if hundreds of people from across the world have attempted it and been successful that I too should be able to.

 

First things first I asked my good friend google for a fool proof nougat recipe, after punching the enter key, pages upon pages of "relevant articles" appeared. Not being one to search through every recipe to find the "Ultimate" one I settled on the "Best ever Nougat recipe" with a label like that how could it be wrong? I read through it step by step, I was unaware of how simple nougat was to make and that it contained just a small amount of ingredients.

 

One of the ingredients for nougat is edible rice paper, I searched high and low for this rare commodity, living in a small town made it even more of a challenge, I was eternally grateful for the help of a local cake decorator who set me in the right direction, with her help I found my rice paper in a gourmet deli, it was proof that I am indeed a mushroom, unaware that a treasure like "Victors Gourmet Deli" even existed in Cairns, I became side tracked beyond belief, wrapped up in the thought of devouring gourmet salami's and cheeses, wanting to try a little bit of this and that. After my not so quick venture to the shop to pick up glucose syrup, almonds rice paper and cellophane I settled in my tiny kitchen and began to prepare my sweets, it was the first opportunity for me to use the sugar thometer my husband had given me as a gift months prior.

 

The recipe stressed that the use of hand held beaters is a deffinate no, no, it suggests that the nougat would become to thick whilst beating it and the motor would burn out, only having hand held beaters I chose to ignore the suggestion and I used them. I found that they coped well, being of a high quality the motor had been guaranteed for a life time, I'm not sure how long a life time is for an inanimate object but I can say that they lived up to their reputation.

 

Another point stressed in the recipe is to refrain from deviating from the instructions, the importance of following it to the letter is of  the up most. I ignored this advice in my first attempt and boiled my sugar syrup mixture to a measly 140 degrees, my finished product although delicious and moreish was chewy and terribly hard to cut, even after chilling it in the fridge our resident pastry chef at work still had issues cutting it for me. 

 

My second attempt was perfect, I refrained from chopping the nuts and boiled the syrup to 150 degrees, after beating it, it was smooth and creamy in texture and as the recipe suggests fiddly to spread but totally worth it. I did not even need the help of our pastry chef to cut it, the bread knife used in a sawing motion was a dream.

 

Don't be put off by how nougat looks or horror stories you have been told that have traveled through the grape vine before reaching you, try making nougat, if not today why not some day in the future? It is simple to prepare and make, just make sure that you acquire a sugar thermometer before you do. Making lollies is allot of fun, it may require you to act quickly in some stages but the finished product is the plus, make sure if you have children to stress to them to stay away from the sugar syrup when boiling it, if it was tipped onto the skin it would burn into the young flesh and set on it.

 

I have had trouble controlling my urge to eat nougat since I have made it, one small piece becomes two and so on, I must admit that eating it doesn't bother me in the slightest, I enjoy it, and am sure that you will as well, keep up with the cooking, I hope that you feel inspired. Until next time create, create, create!