Raspberry and Macadamia Nougat

It’s Christmas and I have been meaning to make nougat as a festive treat for ages. I had  even bought the rice paper earlier in the year and started researching recipes. I finally decided to have a go this week.

I found a great Jamie Oliver recipe – see here for the original – and so I’ve used this as the basis for my nougat. I flavoured mine with freeze-dried raspberries and macadamias. I did add a little red food colour to the mixture to get a really raspberry effect.

The day that I made the nougat was 36 degrees C and high humidity. That’s Christmas in Sydney for you! The nougat didn’t set as hard as I would have liked and was difficult to slice. The flavour was fine however!

Here is Jamie’s recipe with my flavour additions.

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Rice paper sheets
2 tablespoons glucose syrup
250 g caster sugar
150 g clear honey
2 large free-range egg whites
A handful of freeze dried raspberries
A handful of chopped macadamias
A drop or 2 of red food colouring

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Line a 23cm x 23cm baking tin with rice paper sheets. You will have to trim them to size.

Put the glucose, sugar, honey and 100ml of water in a saucepan along with a thermometer and set it over a medium heat.

Add the egg whites to a mixer fitted with a balloon whisk. When the sugar reaches 130ºC, beat the whites on high speed until frothy.

Once the sugar reaches 143ºC, remove it from the heat and pour gradually onto the eggs. Whisk on a high speed for 8 to 10 minutes, until the eggs start to hold their shape and the mixture is firm.

Turn off the mixer and stir in the freeze dried raspberries, chopped macadamias and a little food colouring to taste. I think some pink streaks are nice.

Spoon the nougat into the lined tin, levelling the top with an oiled knife. Put more sheets of rice paper cut to size over the top, then a board, weigh it down with something heavy and leave overnight.

The next day, remove the nougat from the tin, trimming any excess paper, and slice it into squares or fingers. I decorated my nougat with more whole freeze dried raspberries and freeze dried raspberry powder.

Store it in an airtight container for up to 1 week.