Almond Nougat

2 cups sugar
1 cup liquid glucose
½ cup honey
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup water
2 medium egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
125g butter, softened
100g blanched almonds, toasted
200g Turkish delight
Edible rice or potato starch paper

Put sugar, liquid glucose, honey salt and water in a pan, stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved. Bring to boil, cook until mixture forms a hard ball when tested in a small amount of water (126C on a sugar thermometer) approximately 8 minutes.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Pour one quarter of hot syrup in thin stream over the egg whites, beating constantly.

Continue beating until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape, 3–5 minutes. Cook remaining syrup until a small amount of syrup forms brittle threads when dropped in cold water (154C). Pour remainder of syrup over meringue in a thin stream, beating constantly until mixture is very thick. Add vanilla and roughly chopped butter, and beat until thick. With a wooden spoon, fold in almonds and Turkish delight. Turn mixture into a 28cm x 18cm lamington tin that has been lined with edible rice paper, and smooth out with a spatula. Place more rice paper on top and gently press down. Allow to cool. When nougat is firm, turn out and cut into squares. Keep refrigerated for up to two weeks.

Now, I did encounter some problems making this. It was very sticky and very messy. At first I didn't think it was worth the clean-up, but when I tasted it, I quickly changed my mind. I think a great deal of the flavour was due to the honey I used. My friends Romy and Glenn produce the beautiful Elixir Raw Honey and in this recipe I used the Jarrah honey.

I also used a saucepan too small for the job, and almost had catastrophic results, but hey, you only do that once!