Which ways to stabilize soft nougat do you know? By stabilize I mean making it less sticky and preventing it from creeping. I emphasise, that I don't want to add nut flour into nougat, or make it harder in other ways. I want to preserve soft and sticky qualities inside while making it easier to hold in hands and store.
I tried to cover nougat with some powders:
- Sugar dust. It doesn't work. Sugar is getting soaked into nougat in few hours.
- Cocoa. Good taste (can save if the nougat is too sugary) and relatively not sticky. But doesn't keeps form.
- Starch. Definitely reduces adhesiveness but doesn't taste good.
I also tried waffles – it's ok, but … strange? And I know that chocolate is good for this purpose, but I don't like chocolate. Please, answer if you know any other ways, like maybe covering nougat with caramel.
Best Answer
In my own practice, I just cook the sugar to a higher temperature in order to make a nougat firm enough to not spread.
However, I have recipes suggesting the use of rice paper, and have eaten store-bought nougat that used rice paper on one or two sides of the nougat to hold it together (and minimize sticky fingers for the people eating it.) I can vouch for rice paper tasting just fine with the rest of the nougat.