Nougat Candy

I had absolutely forgotten about this candy until I saw the recipe shared online. It wasn’t until I dug a little deeper that I figured out exactly where I remembered it from. Brach’s candy makes these and I remember my great grandmother having them in a candy bowl with other old fashioned hard candies when we were over for the holidays. I remember loving these, but that memory is pushing 40 years old at this point, so I don’t really remember exactly what they tasted like. I’m pretty sure these come close, but I don’t think they are exact. I don’t think those candies were quite as chewy as these, but these are amazing.

This recipe was… interesting. I love the end results and this has become a hit with everyone in my family. I just didn’t expect it to behave the way it did. That and the issue I ran into with not being able to find basic fruit flavored gumdrops made this a fun learning experience.

Nougat Candy Recip

1 T.  Butter
250g  Mini Marshmallows (a little less than a 10 ounce bag)
235g  White Chocolate Chips (a little less than an 11 ounce bag)
1 C.  Gumdrops (aprox. 231g)
Butter for spoon and hands

Prepare pan by lining with parchment paper. Best size is a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Prep gumdrops if necessary.

Coat a wooden spoon with butter and use this to stir. Melt together butter, marshmallows and chocolate chips, stirring until smooth. Stir in gumdrops. The mix will be very stiff and sticky, you will need to work quickly as this sets up fast. Put into prepared pan. Will most likely need to press into place to fill the pan. Coat fingers lightly in butter to prevent sticking. Mixture may be hot, so use caution. Allow to cool in refrigerator for about 4 hours or overnight for best results. Cut into bite sized pieces after set.

Because I didn’t find traditional gumdrops, I used red and green bells (cherry and lime flavor) and cut them into quarters, making them the perfect size for this. Since gumdrops are naturally sticky, they are lightly coated in sugar. When you cut them, you expose some of that sticky, so I rolled my cut pieces in sugar so I could work with them.

The original recipe I found, tells you to microwave this to melt. There weren’t instructions on how long or when to stir or anything. My first batch still turned out, but I don’t think I really got the marshmallows and white chocolate fully mixed so certain sections of that batch felt chewier than others (almost like a soft taffy). This sets up so quickly once everything is melted, it makes it difficult to keep stirring and you still have to mix in those gumdrops.

I did a second batch on the stove, mixing up the marshmallows and the chocolate before it even started to melt to make sure everything was more evenly distributed. I’d also learned to coat my spoon in butter before stirring. It doesn’t completely prevent sticking, but it does help. Also, use a VERY sturdy spoon. I tried to use a rubber spatula with my first batch and this was just too thick for that to work.

The original recipe was really easy to halve so I could do the two test batches, but it called for using a 9 x 13 pan for a full batch, so I opted for a smaller square. It didn’t even come close to filling the pan. This is also where I learned to put a little butter on my fingers so I could press this mostly flat in the space without having half the batch stick to my hands. This really does have a similar consistency to taffy. Having your pan ready before you even start to melt everything is essential because you will NOT have time afterwards.

For the second batch, I actually goofed a little when adding the white chocolate and used the weight I’d figured for my gumdrops. It really is only a small change, but between doing the second batch on the stove and the slightly higher amount of chocolate, the second batch came out better than the first batch (though they both taste amazing). The recipe I’m posting is for what I did on the second batch.

Not only is this really yummy, it is so pretty! When I was looking around after doing the first batch to see if their were other recipes for this that did things a little differently (trying to see if I’d done something wrong), I noticed that there are a lot of different versions that use things like dried fruits and nuts instead of the gumdrops, so this seems to be pretty versatile as well.

This does make a smallish batch, but that makes it perfect for holiday baking when you are making lots of other things. That and this is really pretty sweet, so a little goes a long way. It is also pretty simple to double if you want a bigger batch. I’m not sure I would personally because the small amount here is hard enough to stir and blend in those gumdrops, a bigger batch would present and even bigger challenge. If you’ve got the arms and the ambition, then I say go for it!