Everyone, I’m so excited! My friend Charlotte is visiting!! She’s in London, ya’ll. She’s the first friend to visit us this year. I’ve taken two days off of work and am so excited to catch up and do some site seeing with her and her husband Craig. I’m going to visit places I haven’t seen before, revisit some old favorites, and hopefully have lots of new stories to share in future Tourist Tuesday posts. So, as you might be able to tell, I’m really excited to have a long weekend off here in London. To celebrate her arrival, I wanted to make something delicious – and I knew Malted Chocolate Nougat would be just the recipe to try.
Once upon a time Charlotte lived in the UK, and before I moved here she gave me some advice and most importantly, recommendations about foods to try. She recommended Hula Hoops, which are a sort of crazy shaped potato snack. And she recommended Maltesers, which are spherical sweets with a malted honeycomb center and a chocolate cover (sort of like a Whopper, but these are better). Maltesers are the snack I sometimes buy for lunch, they are the treat I send to Charlotte, and they are overall flipping delicious.
And today’s recipe prominently features Maltesers and therefore is the perfect treat to welcome Charlotte to London. If you don’t have Maltesers, use Whoppers or whatever candy equivalent you have. I got this recipe from Sweets Made Simple, a cookbook that not only has interesting recipes for candy (like lime & chili kisses and maple bacon lolly pops) but also for things like fruit leather. The book also makes me believe I can do difficult/scary things like make my own caramel and pour hot sugar syrup without burning myself.
What I’ve learned from this book is that making sweets takes precision – so you are pretty much required to get a candy thermometer. If that puts you off, don’t let it because you can buy one from Amazon for less than a tenner. Also, making sweets can take attention. For a recipe like this you have to be nearby watching to make sure the sugar doesn’t burn and the eggs don’t become over beaten. Finally a stand mixer or a lovely assistant is going to make this recipe less stressful. The mixer needs to be running sometimes while you’re doing something else. Sure, you might be able to keep one eye on the stove and one eye on the mixer, but when you have to work fast that can lead to frustration, mess, and burnt food.
So, this is not a beginner recipe as it requires some kit and some comfort in the kitchen, but it is worth doing. The actual “work” part takes less than 30 minutes and in the end you will have delicious, fluffy, sticky nougat. It’s delicious and sweet, although it does feel like maybe you should visit the dentist afterward. Partway through making it, this will smell like the most perfect fresh marshmallows, which is wonderful, but in the end it’s denser and chocolatey like nougat. In short, it tastes like malted chocolate but has the texture of the inside of the Three Musketeers bar. With a sprinkling of Maltesers on top, it’s got the perfect amount of crunch. Sounds glorious, no?
Recipe from Sweets Made Simple cookbook.
Messy level: Technically you don’t use that many dishes so it’s not that messy. However, this is the most important tip I can give you – clean your sugar pan AS SOON AS YOU FINISH, literally while it is still hot. If you let that sugar cool it will be rock hard and stuck. I have one tiny dot of hardened sugar on my mixer and I cannot scrape it off. If you do wait to clean, just put a little water in your pans and then heat them really hot to melt the sugar again. Seriously though, save yourself the work and try to scrape out and clean your sugar pans quickly.
- vegetable oil
- 400g/14oz/ 2 cups sugar
- 100ml/3½ fl oz/ ¼ cup clear honey
- 210 ml/7oz/ ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons liquid glucose
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 50g/2oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled
- 40g/1½ oz/3.5 tablespoons chocolate malt powder
- pinch salt
- 75g/3oz/a big handful of chocolate-coated honeycomb balls like Maltesers or Whoppers
- Prep notes: Before you get started, measure out the egg whites and let them come to room temperature (about 15-20 minutes before starting the rest). Also if you're using a chocolate bar and need to melt it, do this first. Cut the chocolate bar in little pieces. Put in a bowl. Microwave for 20 seconds, stir and continue this until you have completely melted chocolate. Set aside to cool down.
- Line a 8x8" square tin with tin foil. Lightly brush the bottom with vegetable oil. Then line the bottom with a square of rice or parchment paper.
- In a large heavy bottomed pan, stir together the sugar, honey, liquid glucose, and cold water. Heat on a medium-low heat to dissolve the sugar.
- Once the sugar is dissolve put your candy thermometer in the pan. Bring the sugar mixture to boil and allow to bubble until the temperature reaches 125°C/257°F.
- Meanwhile, while you're waiting for the sugar to come to temperature, put your egg whites in the bowl of a mixer. Turn the mixer on medium-high and whisk until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over beat. If you don't know what stiff peaks looks like, check out these pictures.
- When the sugar syrup comes to temperature you will have to work quickly. Make sure the mixer is now on low. Take the thermometer out of the pan. Pour half of the sugar syrup from the pan into the egg whites. (This is when it will smell nice)
- Keep the mixer running and let the egg whites and sugar syrup continue to mix.
- Return the pan with half the sugar syrup back to the stove. Heat the syrup until it reaches 157°C/315°F. The syrup will become a dark caramel color.
- Once it come to temperature, slowly pour it into the stand mixer. It will foam up a bit. Turn the mixer up to medium and mix everything for a few minutes (about 3-4 minutes). The mixture will thin down a bit.
- Now add in the melted chocolate, malt powder, and salt. Mix until incorporated and everything is a nice light brown.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Scatter half of your honeycomb balls over the top. Cut the other half, into halves and press those in around the full honeycomb balls.
- Cool and leave to set overnight. Have some for breakfast because you deserve it.
