Frozen Nougat

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 2 Frozens Nougat, you will need:

• 1 350 g Italian Meringue
• 2 200 ml liquid cream
• 3 10 g Vanilla sugar
• 4 2 sheets gelatin
• 5 2 tablespoons rum
• 6 80 g whole almonds
• 7 80 g raisins
• 8 80 g dried apricots
• 9 80 g pistachios
• 10 200 ml Fruit coulis (fruit purée)
• Total weight: 1,114 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 18 min.	10 min.	1 hour 28 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Make whipped cream (Chantilly) with 200 ml liquid cream and 10 g Vanilla sugar, then keep in fridge.
2	Put 2 sheets gelatin in a bowl of cold water.
3	Toast 80 g whole almonds and 80 g pistachios by putting them on a baking sheet.
4	And put in hot oven 200°C or 392°F for 3 - 5 minutes. Watch this carefully: almonds and pistachios should not be too browned.
5	Once cooled, coarsly blend or chop almonds and pistachios. Set aside.
6	Cut 80 g dried apricots into fine strips.
7	Cut strips again in small dice.
8	Put 80 g raisins in boiling water and leave to swell 5 minutes.
9	Warm (in microwave for instance) 2 tablespoons rum. Drain gelatin, dry it on a teatowel, then dissolve in warmed rum. Set aside.
10	Prepare 350 g Italian Meringue, and while you finish beating, add gelatin in rum a spoonful at a time.
11	Add raisins and apricots to meringue.
12	Then almonds and pistachios.
13	And finally whipped cream.
14	Tilt the bowl and fold the ingredients gently into the meringue.
15	Cover the base of a cake mould with a plastic film to make turning out easier.
16	Fill the mould with mixture without pressing down, it should remain light.
17	Fold over plastic film on top, and put in the freezer overnight or longer.
18	On the day, slice the nougat and serve on a plate, surrounded with a little raspberry coulis, and with a mint leaf and/or piece of crystallized grapefruit on top.

Remarks

Any kind of dried fruits can be substituted: instead of apricots, raisins, almonds and pistachios you can use walnuts, hazelnuts, prunes, bananas, etc.
Same thing for the coulis, it can be made with strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants,... I really recommend you use something slightly acidic to contrast with the sweetness of the nougat.
For the meringue you have two possible methods:

• "French meringue" is the classical meringue egg white + caster sugar
• "Italian meringue" where the sugar is cooked before putting onto whites.

You can choose one or the other. My preference is for the more delicate Italian meringue, more diffcult to do, but much smoother.

---