Strawberry & Pistachio Nougat Recipe (2024)

What is nougat made of?

Nougat, also known as torrone in Italy, is a type of confectionery made with sugar, honey, roasted nuts and whisked egg whites. Nougat has a chewy texture, and, as well as roasted nuts, can include chopped fruit and flavourings such as lemon and chocolate.

How do you store nougat?

Nougat is a wonderful edible bake to gift as it stores well. Once you’ve cut the nougat into squares, you can package it into an airtight container and eat within a month. If you want to give the nougat as a present, it can be wrapped in cellophane or kept in a Kilner jar.

How to flavour nougat

Strawberry and pistachios combine perfectly in this nougat recipe. The freeze-dried strawberry powder gives a hint of strawberry flavour and delicate pink colour, which contrasts with the vibrant green of the pistachios.

We've addedbeautiful and unique brightgreen skinless pistachio nuts to the nougat recipe for theirintensity of colour. These green pistachios are a very special ingredient to keep in the store cupboard: add to vibrant Middle Eastern salads, grind finely to sprinkle vibrant pistachio powder over cakes and choux pastries, or chop and use to coat chocolate truffles.However,if you don't think you will use awhole 1kg bag over the next few months just exchange for ordinary pistachionuts.

Finally, ifyou preferto colour the whole of the nougat recipe a pale pink instead of the striations in the photos, just add the freeze-dried strawberry powder to the egg whites before whiskingin the sugar syrup.

How to make nougat

Nougat is straightforward to make - and the method is very similar to that for making marshmallows. A very hot sugar syrup inwhisked intobeaten egg whites whilst it cools, forminga set foam. As the syrup is poured into the egg, the scent ofhoney wafts through the kitchen, and the egg mixture turns a very pale gold.You determine how firm the nougat recipe will set depending on the temperature the sugar syrup is heated to. Anything from 125°C for a very soft nougat to 155°C for a very firm set nougat.

Ingredients for nougat Serves: 10

• 2 sheets of A4 wafer paper
• 300g granulated sugar
• 150g honey
• 50g water
• 50g egg white (two small eggs)
• 150g green pistachio nuts
• 10g freeze-dried strawberry powderor ground freeze-dried strawberries
• Vegetable oil for greasing

Equipment for nougat

• Stand mixer
• Thermometer
• Rolling pin

Method for nougat

1. Heat together sugar, honey and water in a saucepan.Whilst the sugarsareheating, whisk egg whites to firm peaks.
2. When the sugar mixture reaches 145°C, with the whisk runningat high speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Continue whisking as the nougat mixture cools. After 10 minutes the nougat will be thick and smooth, and after further few minutes itwill become hard to work and start to tear apart.
3. Turn off the whisk and addthe pistachios and strawberry powder. Mix firmly with a wooden spoon until the nuts are well dispersed and the nougat comes together again in a ball. Turn out onto the centre of a sheet of wafer paper on your kitchen counter.
4. Flatten the nougat with a lightly oiled spatula, and press over the second piece of waferpaper. Usinga rolling pin, roll out to desired thickness.
5. Leave to cool for 3-5 hours until set, trim away any excess rice paper and cut into squares shortly before eating.

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