Nougat

Ingredients: 270g maltose, 195g granulated sugar, 40g water, 90g milk powder, 45g butter, 1 ? egg whites (about 50g), 15g granulated sugar (for whipping the egg whites), 300g peanut kernels

Making process

First of all, the peanuts will be baked in the oven on upper and lower heat at 160 ℃ for about 20 minutes to cook. Toasted (different ovens have different conditions, please adjust the roasting time), slightly cooled and rubbed off the red coat, and then placed in the oven to keep warm at about 50 ℃.

If your oven doesn't have a temperature setting of 50°C, roast the peanuts in the oven for another two or three minutes before using. Just make sure it's hot before you use it.

Pour the maltose into the ramekins. This is a bit of a tricky step (mostly because the maltose is so sticky), but I'm sure you can manage it. If it's too cold, the maltose will be too hard, so you can microwave it with the packet and it will become more liquid, so you can pour it out better (if you buy a maltose packet that can't go in the microwave, soaking it in hot water is fine).

Put the egg whites + 15g granulated sugar into the whisk bowl of the Junbao chef machine, and beat at high speed with the whisking cage for 1 minute and a half (fast mixing, highest gear). Whip until stiff peaks. Leave the egg whites in the bowl and set aside.

Pour another 195 grams of granulated sugar into a saucepan with the maltose. Pour in 40g of water and let it sit for a few moments to moisten the sugar. Then heat the saucepan over a low heat to slowly dissolve the sugar.

As it cooks, the sugar will bubble up and eventually come to a boil. After that turn on the heat to medium and slowly simmer the sugar and test the temperature of the syrup with a syrup thermometer until the syrup reaches 138°C (in summer you can cook it up to 140°C).

The softness of the finished nougat is directly related to the temperature at which the sugar is boiled. The higher the boiling temperature, the harder the final nougat will be. In winter, 138℃ is a more suitable temperature for making nougat. In summer, the room temperature is higher, in order to avoid nougat is too soft not molded, you can boil the sugar temperature to 140 ℃.

Move quickly afterward. Keep the chef's machine on the fast mixing setting on the highest speed, then pour the just-boiled sugar syrup into the whisk bowl (whisking as you go) until you've finished pouring all of the syrup.

Pour in the syrup as soon as it's done cooking.

At this point you've got a bowl of hot white sugar. The chef's machine can stop churning at this point.

The next step is still fast. Add the butter that has been softened (or melted into liquid) ahead of time to the whisk bowl, then add the powdered milk. Turn the chef's machine on 5 for a while and mix until the butter and milk powder are mixed with the sugar in the bowl.

Replace the whisk head (and scrape any remaining sugar from the head into the bowl), pour the warm peanut kernels into the bowl, replace the flat mixing bowl with the flat mixing slurry, and mix on a slow speed (A5/A6 2, G1/L1 6) for a few moments, mixing well until the peanut kernels are well mixed with the sugar.

The speed of mixing should be adjusted according to the actual situation, and it is enough to mix well. The higher the temperature of the sugar, the softer it will be. If the sugar temperature has dropped and become a bit hard by the time you get to this point, it's best to use a slower gear to stir it, not harder. Don't use high speed to whip if the sugar is too hard haha.

In the vast majority of cases up to this point it will go smoothly. But if you're delayed for any reason, or the peanuts aren't warmed up, or the weather is just too cold and the sugar gets cold and too hard, you won't be able to stir it (which is why it's emphasized that you need to be moving faster, and at the same time the peanuts need to be warmed up). If the sugar becomes too hard, you can put the whole thing in the oven at 120°C for a few moments, after it softens, and knead it well with your hands.

Finally, using a spatula with a harder texture, scrape all the sugar from the walls of the basin and mix it with the sugar in the basin, and we have the final nougat. It should still be hot at this point and be a softer texture if your operation didn't take too long.