Peanut nougat

Peanut nougat is a chewy, nutty layer: toasted peanuts held together by thick caramel. In a cake it adds crunch and a salty-bitter contrast to soft sponge and cream. The two usual failures are a caramel that sets so hard it is hard to bite or cut, and a layer that is too thick. Both come from cooking the caramel too far and spreading it too deep.

Ingredients and what each one does

• Peanuts give crunch and flavour. Toasting drives out water, which develops the roasted flavour and keeps the nuts crisp longer once they sit in caramel.
• Caster sugar is the base. Fine crystals melt evenly, so there are fewer burnt patches next to unmelted grains.
• Double cream loosens the caramel. Its fat makes the set chewy rather than glassy, and low-fat milk gives a harder, stickier result.
• Butter adds smoothness and a clean bite, so the layer cuts instead of shattering.

How to make it

1. Toast the peanuts at about 160 to 170 °C. Heat removes the water in the nut and builds the roasted flavour. Sign: a nut snapped in half is golden all the way through and smells nutty, not raw. This usually takes 8 to 12 minutes, but ovens differ, so go by the sign. Cool, then chop coarsely.
2. Keep the pieces small relative to the layer. For a layer under 1 cm, pieces of roughly 3 to 5 mm sit flat, while big halves poke out and make slicing messy. This is our estimate, so try and weigh.
3. Warm the cream to 40 to 60 °C and cube the butter. Cold cream hitting hot sugar boils violently and can seize into lumps, so warm it first.
4. Melt the sugar dry in a heavy pan over medium heat, without stirring at first. Stray crystals on the pan wall can seed crystallisation of the whole batch. Sign: the sugar turns to a deep amber and the smell moves from sweet to caramel, roughly 170 to 180 °C. Darker is bitter, lighter is flat.
5. Off the heat, add the cream in a thin stream, then the butter. Cream cools the sugar and dilutes it, and butter brings the fat that keeps it soft. Sign: smooth and glossy.
6. Cook it back up until it is thick. As a general rule, the hotter the caramel gets, the less water remains and the harder it sets. For a spreadable but chewy layer we would aim for about 108 to 115 °C, but try and weigh on your stove. Check with a cold saucer: a drop should hold its shape after about a minute and feel chewy, not runny, not brittle.
7. Fold in the warm nuts off the heat. Enough caramel to coat every piece with little pooling gives the right ratio. Too much caramel makes a soft, sticky layer, and too little crumbles.
8. Spread on baking paper while still warm and press to about 0.8 cm. Caramel stiffens quickly as it cools, so shape it before it does. Chill until firm. Sign: it lifts off the paper and bends slightly without cracking, usually 20 to 40 minutes. Cut it to the size of the tin.

Do not put hot nougat directly onto cream: it melts it. Place it only once cool.

What can go wrong

• Rock hard. Cooked too hot, so too little water remains, or too little cream. Next time stop earlier. A batch that has already set can be warmed gently with a spoonful of cream.
• Runny, oozes out of the sides. Undercooked. Return to the heat and re-check on the cold saucer. A ring of cream around the layer also helps hold it.
• Grainy. Stirring too early, or crystals from the pan wall. Add a splash of water and reheat until dissolved. A spoonful of glucose syrup lowers the risk.
• Nuts go soft after a day or two. Moisture migrates from cream and sponge into the nuts. This is normal. Assemble no earlier than needed, and try and weigh how much crunch you want.
• Too thick. Over about 1 cm it is hard to cut and bite. This is partly taste, but a thin layer is far easier to eat.

Substitutions

• Hazelnuts or almonds work the same way, toasted and chopped. Only the flavour changes.
• Salted roasted peanuts can be used as they are, but skip extra salt. With unsalted nuts, a pinch in the caramel sharpens the flavour.
• Milk instead of double cream gives a leaner, harder, stickier caramel.

Storage

Keep the sheet of nougat in an airtight container in the fridge. Our estimate is up to 1 to 2 weeks. Once in a cake, the nuts gradually soften, so it is best eaten within 2 to 3 days.