Trying to create sucrose free candy / sweets is not an easy feat as fructose works in a completely different way to sucrose. Fructose is a monosaccharide which means it is made up of a single unit. Sucrose is a disaccharide made up of glucose and fructose. I first attempted to make nougat by using only honey in this recipe. It was very tasty but did not set very well. When I made my salted caramel I realized that the glucose seems to stabilise the fructose and so I used Jackie Cameron’s recipe as a base to make my sugar free nougat as she uses glucose in the recipe. I learnt that you cannot heat fructose to the same level as sucrose, and hence my brilliant caramel colour. In the recipe I am sharing I have listed a lower temperature for the syrup than what I took the syrup to. This tastes unbelievable though, and I am so glad I was challenged to make nougat again. I have a huge tray to enjoy which will bring me great pleasure over the next couple of weeks. My best tip for you if you try and make this recipe is to make sure you beat the egg whites to the perfect peak and if you need to know more about how to do this, take a look here.
Sugar Free Nougat
Ingredients
- 250 g fructose
- 120 g honey
- 55 g liquid glucose
- 125 mls water
- 100 g blanched and peeled hazelnuts
- 100 g shelled pistachios
- 2 sheets rice paper, trimmed if necessary
- 2 egg whites
- 5 mls rose water
- 100 g dried cranberries
Method
- Preheat the oven to 100° Celsius
- Place the fructose, honey, glucose and water into a sauce pan
- Stir continuously over a medium heat until the fructose dissolves
- Reduce the heat, place a sugar thermometer into the liquid and leave to simmer
- Place the nuts onto a baking tray in a single layer and dry roast for an hour
- Leave in the turned off oven until you need them
- Spray a brownie pan with non-stick spray and place one of the rice paper sheets into the pan, rough side facing down
- Place the egg whites and rose water into a stand mixer bowl
- When the syrup reaches 135° Celsius whisk the egg whites to the soft peak stage on medium setting
- When the syrup reaches 140° Celsius remove from the heat and as quickly as possible, pour into the egg whites with the machine mixing on medium
- Whisk continuously until the mixture starts to cool
- Stop whisking and mix in the nuts and cranberries by hand
- Pour the nougat on top of the rice paper and smooth down
- Place the second sheet of rice paper on top of the nougat, rough side facing up
- Flatten down with your hands as much as possible
- Place into the fridge overnight to set
- Cut into desired sizes and enjoy!
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Blog Checking Lines:
The March 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Rebecca of BakeNQuilt. She challenged us to learn to make classic nougat and to make it our own with our choice of flavors and add-ins.
What I blogged:
- one year ago – Dinner Divas
- two years ago – Tuna Green Curry
Thanks so much for this recipe, Tandy. I’m going to try it. I am always on the look out for sugar free recipies. I have also recently learnt about low GI, if you have any advice or tips, I would be most grateful 🙂
*Hugs*
I will do a post on low GI soon Michelle, thanks for asking, and I hope you like the nougat 🙂
Hehe snap Tandy! We’ve both got nougat on the brain today. I didn’t think that you could make a sugar free one but there you go! 😀
I was amazed that we both chose similar ‘fillings’ 🙂
Well done Tandy. You put so much work into the research and your post was so informative xx
Thanks Tami, it is all from what I am learning at the moment 🙂
Never tried working with fructose, but the nougat looks mighty good! 🙂 ela
I only ever use fructose so it has been a long road of challenges. Thanks for the compliment Ela 🙂
I think you have pulled off the huge feat as this nougat looks delicious and love pistachios and roses. It’s almost like an early Mothers day recipe.
This was one of the success recipes BAM 🙂
Tandy, honey, and glucose syrup are sugars – fructose too, but not as harsh on blood sugar as the other two – you might want to rethink your recipe name, as this is very misleading.
I am a dietitian, product development consultant and diabetic (34yrs) – so have the credibility to point this out to you.
Dear Irma, thank you for taking the time to comment on my post. Over the years I have changed the title to be sucrose free and back to sugar free. I am talking about sugar as an ingredient and I think by now my regular readers know that I mean that and not that I am in any way implying that honey, glucose, fructose or the like are not sugars. I checked out your site and see you do product development. Is this what led you to my recipe? I have completed post graduate courses in nutrition and use my experience of being sucrose intolerant to create unique recipes for my blog. Most of which use fructose. Wishing you a healthy day! Tandy
Sounds absolutely divine!! I love nougat, and you make it look ‘doable!’ 🙂 Seems like we are on similar wavelengths this week because I was planning on trying to make/bake a sugar-free gluten-free dessert this weekend. I’m not sure what yet, and it sounds near impossible, but we’ll see what happens. I only wish they sold sugar-free gluten-free treats in the shops. It’s always one or the other.
Sugar free and gluten free do not always work so I am sending you lots of positive thoughts. I saw some gluten and sugar free products at the health shop in the mall on Wednesday 🙂
Your nougat looks fantastic Tandy!
Have a lovely afternoon.
🙂 Mandy xo
Thank you Mandy 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, hope you are enjoying your week 😀
Thank you for the visit 🙂
Homemade nougat? Amazing Tandy…I love the idea of the nuts, cranberries and the rose water in it…yum!
Hope you are having a great week 😀
Thank you Juliana, the rose water added a nice dimension with the pistachios 🙂
These are gorgeous, I am making these this week-end. Love it!
Thank you for that Cheri, hope you enjoy it!
Big Man adores nougat – maybe I should try to make this for him!
I hope he likes it!
That looks gorgeous! I can’t believe it’s sugar-free. This is one that I’m definitely trying out.
Please let me know what you think once you have given this a go 🙂
I love nougat and yours looks delicious!
Thank you Anna 🙂
This nougat is not sugar free at all, infact it has quite alot of sugar in it.
I should have probably called it sucrose free to make sure that I was understood clearly!
I really fail to see the point in this recipe. Speaking as a diabetic I have to say that this recipe is certainly not “Sugar free”. It actually contains three sugars and only one of those sugars is better for you than sucrose, namely honey, the other two, being monosaccharides, will enter your system quicker than sucrose and are therefore significantly worse for you. I was hoping to find a recipe using xylitol, maltilol, or any of the other invert sugars (many of which have natural sources – xylitol comes from tree bark – not that this matters as that doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on whether something is good for you, beladonna comes from a natural source).
So your first sentence calling this “Sucrose free” is more accurate than the recipe title but, like I said, I fail to see the point in this. It seems less unhealthy than just going with a sucrose recipe.
thank you for taking the time to comment and point out the error of using the term sugar free. At the time of writing this post, I used the term sugar free to mean sucrose free, and not alternative sugar free. I use fructose and have done so for years, preferring it to xylitol or erythritol. But, each to their own. And hopefully you will find what you are looking for! In saying that, I don’t think sweet treats are meant to be healthy for you …. And the point of this recipe is to create something I can enjoy and eat. I am not diabetic so my point of view is completely different to yours.
Tandy… I was so excited to see a sugar free nougat recipe. But, as a diabetic… sugars such honey, liquid glucose and granulated white sugar are all sugars. All are dangerous to diabetes. I was really disappointed because I still can’t use this.
I am sorry you feel this way – by sugar free, I was referring to sucrose, and not ‘sugars’.