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Hard Candies: Nougat
Remove almonds from syrup to a buttered cake cooler. Put the remaining cup of sugar and half a cup of sugar and half a cup of water in a clean saucepan, stir, and bring to boiling point; add the almonds, and stir and boil until almonds are well coated with sugar. Again drain on cake cooler, and if coating is not sufficiently thick, repeat the process again. Almond Nougat 1/2 pound confectioners' sugar 1/4 pound almonds, blanched and finely chopped Put sugar in an iron frying pan, place on range, and stir constantly until melted; add almonds, and pour on an oiled marble slab. Fold mixture with a broad-bladed knife as it spreads, keeping it constantly in motion. Divide in four parts, and as soon as cool enough to handle, shape in long rolls about one third inch in diameter, keeping rolls in motion until almost cold. When cold, snap in pieces one and one half inches long. This is done by holding roll at point to be snapped over the sharp edge of a broad-bladed knife and snapping.
These pieces may be dipped in melted confectioners' chocolate. Melt chocolate over hot water, beat with a fork until light and smooth, and when slightly cooled dip pieces in chocolate, and with a two-tined fork or a bonbon dipper remove from chocolate to oiled paper, drawing dipper through top of each the entire length, thus leaving a ridge.
Nougat Drops Drop Almond Nougat mixture from the tip of a spoon on an oiled marble slab as soon as taken from fire. These drops have a rough surface. When cold, dip in melted confectioners' chocolate, if desired.
Three related sweets run together here: the tail end of a sugared-almond recipe, then the almond nougat itself, then drops made from the same mixture. The nougat is a dry caramel — sugar melted with no water at all — so the pan and the pace matter more than anything else.
- The opening paragraph belongs to another recipeThe first lines about removing almonds from syrup and re-coating them are the finish of the preceding sugared-almond recipe, and the phrase "half a cup of sugar and half a cup of sugar" is plainly a duplication in the text. Almond Nougat proper begins at the ingredient list.
- Confectioners' sugar meant something elseIn American cookbooks of this period "confectioners' sugar" was a fine sugar sold without the cornstarch that modern powdered sugar contains, and the grading did not match today's product. For a dry caramel, ordinary granulated sugar melts more predictably.
- Dry caramel, and the temperature it reachesMelted sugar alone passes through clear amber at about 340-350F and can scorch very quickly beyond that. Work over medium heat in a heavy pan, stir only enough to move unmelted crystals into the liquid, and pull it off the moment it is the colour of strong tea.
- The iron frying panIron here means a heavy pan, and heavy pans give fewer hot spots than thin ones, which burn sugar before the rest has melted. Any heavy-bottomed stainless or cast-iron pan works; avoid nonstick, which will not take the heat comfortably.
- Warm the almondsCold nuts stirred into 340F sugar drop the temperature sharply and set the mass before it can be folded. Toast the chopped blanched almonds and add them still warm.
- If you have no marble slabA heavy sheet pan, lightly oiled, or a silicone mat will do. Marble is preferred because it pulls heat out evenly; on a sheet pan the mass cools faster, so divide and roll sooner.
- You have about two minutes to shape itYou have very little time to shape it -- Rolling and snapping must happen while the nougatine is pliable, which is a matter of a minute or two at most. Have the oiled surface, a broad knife or offset spatula and heatproof gloves ready before the sugar goes on the heat; there is no time to fetch anything afterwards.
- Confectioners' chocolate for dippingThis meant chocolate sold for coating work, and the instruction to melt it over hot water, beat it and let it cool slightly is a rough hand tempering. A modern coating chocolate will set hard without tempering and is the simplest substitute.
- Yield and storageStorage -- Caramel is hygroscopic and goes sticky in damp air — store airtight with the pieces separated, and do not make it on a humid day.
The word nougat covers two quite different confections, and this is the drier of them: not the white, whipped, egg-white nougat of Montélimar but what French confectioners call nougatine or nougat sec — caramelised sugar bound with chopped almonds, rolled or moulded while hot and snapped when cold. The instructions assume the equipment of the confectioner's shop — a marble slab, a bonbon dipper, a supply of coating chocolate — at a moment when home cooks were being encouraged to attempt work that had belonged to the candy trade. The ridge drawn down the top of each dipped piece with the fork is a professional's touch; such dipping marks are said to have identified the centre beneath the shell.