American type soft nougat

[Darienne]

Anita Chu (aka Pastrygirl) in Field Guide to Candy has a recipe for Chocolate Nougat dipped in chocolate later. Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I have decided to make this tomorrow. For fun. And because we haven't made it before. It's fluffier than European nougat, which we have made a few times, and serves as the center for such goodies as 3 Musketeers and Mars Bars.

OK. Chu says to refrigerate the nougat overnight and then dip it the next day. We don't have overnight to work together. What if we put it in the freezer for an hour or so instead? I often do that with ice cream bases; why not with nougat? If if doesn't ripen to its full flavor, we will live with that.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[cteavin]

In my experience dipping anything cold gives you a poor seal and cracked finish, especially in tempered chocolate. I would rethink that step. My best guess is the nougat is too soft or too sticky to handle and keeping it cool would make dipping easier.

Are you making these into bars or bite-sized pieces? Refrigerating to make cutting and separating the cut pieces a bit easier, but I wouldn't dip them until they were room temperature.

To my knowledge there is no "ripening" with nougat, if there were it would continue in it's chocolate shell.

[Darienne]

In my experience dipping anything cold gives you a poor seal and cracked finish, especially in tempered chocolate. I would rethink that step. My best guess is the nougat is too soft or too sticky to handle and keeping it cool would make dipping easier.

Are you making these into bars or bite-sized pieces? Refrigerating to make cutting and separating the cut pieces a bit easier, but I wouldn't dip them until they were room temperature.

To my knowledge there is no "ripening" with nougat, if there were it would continue in it's chocolate shell.

Thanks for the answer. I should have thought through my question. There was no way we were going to dip freezing cold nougat...I know about the cracking. I just wondered if a short stay in the freezer might somehow mirror the overnight process in the fridge. Why 8 hours? Why not just three or four? What does the extra time buy you?

We were going to make bite-sized pieces. I think.

Thanks.

[Tri2Cook]

I made a dessert that included a layer of soft nougat a while back. I froze it between layers while building the dessert and when I thawed it the nougat layer was weeping a bit. Not enough to be a problem in the context I was using it in but it was definitely releasing a bit of liquid that would make dipping difficult. Of course, it's probably not going to actually freeze solid in an hour or so if you're using a regular freezer so you may be fine.

[cteavin]

My guess is 8 hours is a round about figure and I'm pretty sure it has to do handling the nougat because -- if you've never handled it, you're in for a surprise -- it's incredibly gooey and sticky and gets all over everything if your not careful.

After you make it and it's end the mold see how easy it is to handle. If it's easy enough to work with, then I would cut it and dip it directly. If it's not, chill it and see if cutting it doesn't become easier.

[Darienne]

Thanks cteavin for all the information.

The basic concept of the nougat being sticky and the need to refrigerate/ cool/ solidify the stuff is not the consideration here really. The question stems from the fact that my partner in crime and I have only one day to work at any given project. She lives almost an hour away (almost 2 hours return) and whatever we do, we do it in one day.

Therefore in the interests of getting whatever the confection done in one day, the idea of the soft nougat being dipped in chocolate is hereby scrapped.

Deensiebat posted this incredible coconut/chocolate ganache half-way between a cookie and a candy yesterday and we'll probably go for that instead. I really like the fact that this cookie/candy can be sent in the mail without problems.

[baroness]

Darienne, your link is not working.

[Darienne]

The confection

Sorry. Maybe this one will work.

OK. Works for me.