Buzy Bee Nougat Parfait

I decided to make nougat this weekend, since what we can buy here in NZ is very expensive and I thought it should be fairly easy to make. I don’t have a sugar themometre but I had made many toffees with my Nan as a child and we had always used  method of dropping a bit of the toffee into chilled water to test what stage it was at. I knew I wanted to get it to ’softcrack’ stage reading various recipe which should be straight forwards….famous last words!

I was all set to go, the nuts were roasted, the sugar, honey and sugar syrup where cooking on the pan, the egg whites had been whisked because the sugar was getting close…then I had a visitor. Not someone knocking on the door who I could say, “come in and sit down, I’m at a critical stage so don’t disturb”, oh no is was a friendly bee buzzing around me at my stove. “Ok, don’t be silly” I said to myself,” you can work with the bee in the kitchen it’s not going to harm you. So I quickly ran to the back door and opened it so the bee would see the light and and make an exit. That was not the case, instead a few of his friends popped in and within seconds there were 8 honey bees flying around. Well the kitchen scene was starting to look at bit like something off faulty towers, me running away from them, trying to catch them in a glass to put outside, drawing the curtains and trapping them behind, all the while my sugar is bubbling away…aaarggg! I pulled the sugar off a few times when too many bees got close which certaily would ot have helped the process. I was also getting paranoid now that the cooking honey was what had attracted them and they were coming back to claim it! Anyway, the nougat was a disaster, too soft, but all the bees survived to tell the story as I caught them one by one and dutifully put them outside.  So what i going to do with a huge tray of very soft nougat thatyou could only spoon out? I certainly wasn’t going to waste it and wondered whether I could turn it into nougat parfait. It made a delicious parfait so all was not wasted and here is my recipe. Just a word of warning…keep the windows and doors closed.

Ingredients for Buzy Bee Parfait

100g roasted almonds
100g roasted pistachios
2 egg whites 
100g castor sugar
100g honey
50ml water
300 ml cream

Method

Place sugar, honey and water in a large pan over a gentle heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
Once dissolved boil mixture until it reaches 120 degrees centigrade, or ’soft boil’ consistency if you don’t have a thermometre (this is when dropped into chilled water it forms a soft toffee consistency).  
Put egg whites into a large bowl and whisk to form soft peaks. 
Gradually add the hot sugar mixture to egg whites, whisking continuously whilst adding. 
Fold roasted nuts into the meringue mixture and then chill mixture over night at room temperature (not in fridge).
The following day, whip cream to soft peaks in a large bowl.
Fold meringue nut mixture into the whipped cream and once completely mixed spoon into freezer container or freezer moulds. 
Freeze for several hours before serving.  
Keeps for about two weeks.