Nougat
A French confection made with a cooked sugar and honey syrup mixed with roasted nuts and candied fruit. Sometimes the confection is made with egg whites, which produces white, chewy, taffy-like candy.
Torrone can take any shape and it is therefore available in different formats. The original recipe is the one of crunchy nougat. Crunchy nougat can be eaten by biting into it, if you have strong teeth, or by breaking it into small pieces like candies, which is considered to be the ideal way to taste it. Anyway, since a lot of patience is needed to taste crunchy nougat in this right manner and modern culture is far away from this concept, pastry chefs with a natural instinct for marketing decided to invent soft nougat, a variant of the recipe with a higher water content. Almost all nougat formats are available in both variants: crunchy and soft.
Nougat bar
This is the most typical shape for nougat. Nougat dough is spread on the worktop by hand using the rolling pin and kept between two sheets of wafer. Then it is divided into bars of different sizes. Nougat is a classic sweet offered at the end of Christmas lunch. Traditionally it is the head of the family who divides it into pieces and offers them to all guests.
Variations are found in Italy, France, Spain and the Middle East, but its actual origins are obscure. Some trace it back to the Romans in the ancient writings of the Roman epicure, Apicius from 1st-century AD, whose notes were used for the ancient cookbook, De Re Coquinaria from the 4th-century AD. This describes a nut custard made of honey, walnuts and eggs. Or perhaps more likely, the Arabs, who have cultivated various types of nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts), honey and sugar for centuries. Most Middle Eastern recipes use nuts and honey without eggs. Yet a recipe with egg whites, called Hulwa, very similar to that of nougat is cited in the 15th-century eastern Islamic cookbook of Ibn al-Mabrad for both honey and sugar-based versions.
Sources
@ Webster's New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts by Steven Labensky, Gaye.G.Ingram, Sarah R. Labensky
@ http://www.honeytraveler.com/honey-gastronomy/nougat/
@ http://en.flamigni.it/passions/nougat-history/
A French confection made with a cooked sugar and honey syrup mixed with roasted nuts and candied fruit. Sometimes the confection is made with egg whites, which produces white, chewy, taffy-like candy.
Torrone can take any shape and it is therefore available in different formats. The original recipe is the one of crunchy nougat. Crunchy nougat can be eaten by biting into it, if you have strong teeth, or by breaking it into small pieces like candies, which is considered to be the ideal way to taste it. Anyway, since a lot of patience is needed to taste crunchy nougat in this right manner and modern culture is far away from this concept, pastry chefs with a natural instinct for marketing decided to invent soft nougat, a variant of the recipe with a higher water content. Almost all nougat formats are available in both variants: crunchy and soft.
Nougat bar
This is the most typical shape for nougat. Nougat dough is spread on the worktop by hand using the rolling pin and kept between two sheets of wafer. Then it is divided into bars of different sizes. Nougat is a classic sweet offered at the end of Christmas lunch. Traditionally it is the head of the family who divides it into pieces and offers them to all guests.
Nougat block
For its appearance it is the typical format sold during fairs. This format is very practical to be cut and sold in pieces, just like parmesan.
Small nougat
The most recent variant of nougat was perhaps invented in Sicily with the aim of creating a refined version of this popular product, according to the belief that “small is more refined”. Small soft nougats, especially in their variants with chocolate covering and in different flavours, are really appreciated by consumers and we can say that they are exactly like cherries: one leads to another.
Variations are found in Italy, France, Spain and the Middle East, but its actual origins are obscure. Some trace it back to the Romans in the ancient writings of the Roman epicure, Apicius from 1st-century AD, whose notes were used for the ancient cookbook, De Re Coquinaria from the 4th-century AD. This describes a nut custard made of honey, walnuts and eggs. Or perhaps more likely, the Arabs, who have cultivated various types of nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts), honey and sugar for centuries. Most Middle Eastern recipes use nuts and honey without eggs. Yet a recipe with egg whites, called Hulwa, very similar to that of nougat is cited in the 15th-century eastern Islamic cookbook of Ibn al-Mabrad for both honey and sugar-based versions.
Sources
@ Webster's New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts by Steven Labensky, Gaye.G.Ingram, Sarah R. Labensky
@ http://www.honeytraveler.com/honey-gastronomy/nougat/
@ http://en.flamigni.it/passions/nougat-history/
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