Today I offer a recipe for iced nougat. The basic nougat ice cream consists of an Italian meringue, honey, and whipped cream. Traditionally it is filled with nougatine and candied fruit. As I do not really appreciate candied fruit, I have replaced it with dried fruit, but I have kept on nougatine. You can serve the nougat with custard, caramel sauce or red fruit coulis. Personally I prefer a red fruit sauce that is a little acid to cut with the relatively sweet nougat.
How To Make Iced Nougat
Ingredients list: iced nougat
Serves 4 to 6 people
The nougat paste:
| The filling:
|
Note:
To make the nougatine, it’s here.
The nougat filling:
1. Put the raisins to macerate in Grand Marnier.
2. Coarsely crush the nougatine.
3. Coarsely chop pistachios.
4. Toast the almonds and chopped pistachios in a frying pan.
5. Cut the apricots and figs into small cubes.
6. Pit the prunes if necessary and cut them into small cubes.
7. Book dried fruit once they are prepared.
Notes:
- If you want to draw nougat in circles, you can cut pieces of parchment paper a little bigger and put them on it, it will facilitate the manipulation thereafter.
- If you have some rhodoïd sheets, place them inside the circles, it will facilitate removal.
- We can also draw the nougat in a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap and slice it once took (the freezer).
Nougat “appareil”:
8. Whip the cream but keep it creamy because if it holds too strong the Italian meringue may be less easy to work on.
Italian meringue:
9. Put the egg whites in a mixer bowl with a pinch of salt.
10. In a small saucepan or skillet, weigh successively honey, glucose and sugar, being careful to calibrate the scale between each ingredients.
11. Put the mixture of sugar, glucose and honey to cook on medium heat ensuring the flames don’t “lick” the external walls of the pan (there could be an early coloring and sugar could cristallize).
12. If there is projections on the inner walls of the pan, dip a brush in cold water, drain slightly and slide it into the bottom of the container. This can be done with the fingers also soaked in cold water, but it takes a little experience and not being afraid of getting burned.
Caution: To prevent the sugar crystallizes when hot.
- Ensure the cleanliness of the pan, wash it before use as a precaution.
- Also make sure that the sugar does not contain impurities.
- And finally, avoid stirring the syrup while cooking.
13. When the temperature of syrup reaches 220/30°F (105/110°c), start to whip the egg whites.
14. Once the white are mounted, tighten with the sugar and let your mixer run at very slow speed.
Note:
“Tighten”, means ending the beating of the eggs whites with a circular motion so they are homogenous. The fact of adding sugar avoids eggs whites separate into small clusters.
15. When the egg whites are mounted in snow and the temperature is around 250°F (120°c), quickly stop the cooking of the syrup by dipping the cooking vessel in cold water.
16. Switch the mixer on low speed and add the cooked sugar mesh between the wall of the mixer bowl and the whisk.
17. Increase the mixer speed to medium speed and whisk until completely cooled.
18. You should get a very tight meringue.
19. Add the nougatine and mix gently.
20. Stir in 2 or 3 times the whipped cream (from step 8) into the meringue.
21. Add all the dried fruits, grapes and Grand Marnier and mix gently.
22. Fill a pastry bag with a plain nozzle with a diameter of 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) (to let the dried fruit pass though).
23. Dress your ring molds or shapes with the nougat mixture.
24. Smooth the paste with a spatula.
25. Set aside in freezer for at least 4 hours.
Dressing:
Dress and serve as soon as possible as the frozen nougat melts quickly…
Read also: How to Make a Couronne Bordelaise Bread at Home
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