Whether you know it as nougat, or Torrone, or a sweet pie, they all pretty much refer to this delectable confection of hot sugar whipped into a fluffy white meringue blanketing your choice of roasted nuts or even a mix of roasted nuts, and sandwiched between sheets of rice paper.
Ever since I can remember, in Greece when we’d spend our summers in Chios, one of my favorite treats were the Mastiha pies. Now when I refer to this “pie” all it is, is a small round nougat sandwiched between two sheets of rice paper. You can find these in many shops throughout Athens and the islands. The two most popular I have seen are the almond nougat pies, and the almond and mastiha or just mastiha pies.
When I came home from Greece last year, I made it my mission to try and make these at home. They turned out okay, but not good enough to share; they were very soft and didn’t keep to their shape as they should. So back to the drawing board, or back to reading more recipes and looking at what I did wrong. I believe the reason for my first flop had both to do with humidity and sugar cooking time.
Well this was over a year ago, and I felt like it was time to give it a go again! So I got to toasting some nuts and whipping some whites! Just a few hours later and a quarter sheet pan with a rice paper sandwich of nougat, sat on my kitchen counter ready to be portioned and packaged. The only gripe I have over these is that I may have folded in too many nuts. Nevertheless, they are delicious!
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