Day 9 of my 12 days of Christmas Cookies/Treats! What is nougat? It is a sweet confection, that is made with sugar, honey, roasted nuts,dried fruit, whipped egg whites. I ate my first nougat when I was little about 10 years old, on my first trip to the UK, when I was visiting my grandma and my mom’s family as in all my aunts and uncles. I loved the sweet, chewy texture, along with all the nuts and dried fruits. The Spanish have their version called Turron . Persians have their version too, called Gaz. Italian version is called torrone, and in France it is called nougat! It has to be oneof my favorite confections! I make sure to I buy a lot of nougat, whenever I am in visiting the UK, or any other country in the European nations.
I love the texture of the edible rice paper on the outside,and you can purchase edible rice paper from here on Amazon. I adopted this recipe from Bon Appetit! I gave my nougat a tropical twist, inspired by my upbringing in Mumbai, where I grew up eating a lot of tropical fruits! Most of the Indian sweets have almonds, cashews, and pistachios, so I added a mixture of almonds and pistachios to my nougat. I also added dried fruit like mango, papaya, pineapple and candied ginger. Sprouts has an amazing variety of dried fruit, and they are really delicious! I also added a touch of cardamom bring it all together in this gooey, chewy confection! The flavors all work beautifully together and nougat makes a great gift to give! It is not hard to make – you are essentially making a meringue and then letting it set in a baking pan.
Day 10 is one of my all-time favorite cookies, that I make during every single Christmas season and the preferred choice of cookie for Santa ;).
Cheers,
Amisha
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted toasted pistachios
- ½ cup unsalted toasted almonds
- 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup honey
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup chopped dried mango
- 1/3 cup chopped dried papaya
- 1/3 cup chopped dried pineapple
- ¾ teaspoon cardamom
- 2 8x11” sheets of edible rice paper, cut down to 8x8”
- Non-stick vegetable spray
Instructions
- Spray an 8x8” baking pan with non-stick vegetable spray. Cut a parchment sheet into half. Line one half of the paper into the pan to have an overhang. Spray pan again with non-stick vegetable spray. Line the other half of the parchment paper, for an overhang on the opposite ends.
- Combine sugar, honey and water in a small saucepan at medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Attach a candy thermometer to one side of the pan. Increase the heat and boil the mixture until the thermometer reaches 260 degrees. The process takes about 3-4 minutes.
- Beat the egg white and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, until soft peaks form.
- With the mixer running, add in a slow stream, the hot sugar mixture into the egg white foam. Beat until the meringue is thick, tripled in volume and cooled slightly. The process takes about 10-12 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and add in the nuts and dried fruit and mix with a rubber spatula. Make sure the nuts and dried fruit are evenly distributed.
- Place one sheet of edible rice paper into the baking pan. Add in the meringue into the pan. Spread in an even layer with a small offset spatula. Top with a second sheet of the edible rice paper. Gently press with the offset spatula. Let stand at room temperature and let it set for about 12 hours.
- Using the overhang of the parchment paper, gently lift the nougat out of the pan, onto a cutting board. Run a sharp knife under hot water, wipe it clean, and cut the nought into 1 inch strips. Repeat the sharp knife under hot water process every single time you run the knife through the nougat. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for a day to set, before distributing.
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