Honey Nougat
A moist candy to be sliced, wrapped in wax tissue paper. 4 tablespoonfuls strained honey. 2 ounced almonds, blanched. 1 pound flour of sugar, or icing sugar.
Make the honey hot without boiling, stir in the sugar a little at a time until it becomes too firm, then turn out on the table and knead in more sugar and also the almonds, which must be dry. When the nougat is firm enough to keep its form in a square bar like a brick split lengthwise, sugar the outside, roll it in wax paper and keep it a day before slicing it up for sale. Wrap the little cuts likewise in wax paper.
This is an uncooked confection closer to a honey fondant or marzipan than to the whipped, egg-white nougat most people picture. It is worked entirely by hand, and the only variable that matters is how much sugar the honey will take.
- Do not let the honey boilWarming the honey only thins it enough to accept sugar; the recipe is explicit that it must be hot but not boiled. Boiling darkens and concentrates honey, which is presumably why the warning is there. A bowl over hot water, or the lowest burner setting, is enough.
- Flour of sugarAn older trade term for the finest powdered sugar, the same thing as icing or confectioners' sugar. Modern confectioners' sugar contains about 3 percent cornstarch, which is harmless here and in fact helps the paste firm up.
- The pound of sugar is a maximum, not a measureThe pound of sugar is a guide, not an exact measure -- The recipe says to add sugar "until it becomes too firm," then to knead in more. Honeys vary in water content, so expect to use somewhere near a pound and stop when the mass holds a shape without slumping and no longer sticks to the hands.
- Four tablespoons of honeyRoughly 3 ounces, or 85 g. That is a small amount of liquid against a pound of sugar, which is why the mixture behaves like a stiff dough rather than a syrup.
- Dry almondsBlanched almonds must be thoroughly dried after skinning, as the text insists. Damp nuts release water into the paste and make it harder to firm. A very low oven for a short spell, then cooling, will do it. Two ounces is a scant half cup; leave them whole or halve them for a cleaner slice.
- Wax tissue paperThe trade wrapper of the period. Parchment, cellophane or modern waxed paper all work. The point is a non-stick barrier that keeps the surface from weeping.
- The day's restNot optional. The paste continues to dry and set, and a fresh bar will smear under the knife. After 24 hours at cool room temperature it slices cleanly with a thin blade wiped between cuts.
- Yield and keepingAbout 1 1/4 pounds, or roughly 24 to 30 small slices. Wrapped and kept cool and dry it holds for several weeks; refrigeration draws moisture to the surface and makes it sticky.
- One note on honeyThis confection contains honey, which should not be given to children under one year old.
Nougat covers a wide family of confections, and this is the plainest branch of it: honey and sugar worked cold into a paste with nuts, with none of the beaten egg white and cooked syrup that go into the white nougat de Montélimar or Italian torrone. Honey-and-almond pastes of this kind are generally traced back through Mediterranean and Middle Eastern confectionery, where honey rather than refined sugar was the original binder, and the almond was the default nut. What marks this version as a working trade recipe is everything after the candy is made: the brick shape "split lengthwise," the sugared exterior, the wax tissue wrapper, the day's rest before cutting, and the instruction to wrap "the little cuts likewise" for sale. Books like this one were written for bakery and confectionery counters, where a shop needed sweets that required no thermometer, no copper pan and no boiling stage, and that could be sliced to order from a bar kept under the glass.