CRUNCHY / PISTACHIO NOUGAT

The croccante or caramelised pistachio nougat is one of Sicily's most delicious and popular desserts. The only ingredients used in the classic croccante are sugar and dried fruit.

Which dried fruit could we choose for our recipe? Obviously our beloved pistachio!

The amount of sugar should be almost the same as the amount of pistachios, if we use 100g of pistachios we should use about 100g of sugar. You can choose to use whole pistachios or ground pistachios. We prefer to use whole pistachios in order to have a more pronounced flavour than natural pistachios and not to roast it too much on the inside, but we will see this later.

You can also make large quantities because caramelised pistachio nougat keeps well over time, so you will always have a great afternoon snack in the cupboard.

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons of water
baking paper
Olive or seed oil for greasing baking paper
Approx. 500g sugar
500g of Shelled or chopped pistachios

PROCEDURE

• Prepare baking paper on a flat surface before starting with the cooker and grease it with oil.
• Put the sugar in the pan and add the water and lemon juice.
• Melt the sugar, and when the colour begins to darken slightly add the pistachios to toast them. When the pistachios toast, they release the oils they contain.
  Be careful at this stage because you risk burning the sugar and pistachios and thus making them very bitter. The purpose is to caramelise the sugar and lightly toast the pistachio, so it is important to always stir the pistachio and sugar mix with a kitchen utensil!
• Once the sugar has caramelised, the pistachios lightly toasted, and the sugar has blended well with the pistachios, pour it all onto baking paper greased with oil.
• We flatten our nougat well before it cools and once it is flattened and cooled, we cut it with a knife into smaller portions!