Milk Nougat with Nuts and Dried Fruit

Method

1. Weigh the ingredients accurately. Shell the nuts, toast them until fragrant and let them cool. Soak firm dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries in warm water for 5 to 7 minutes until soft, then pat them dry, and leave soft fruit as it is. Mix 55g dried fruit with 200g nuts.
2. Line the base and the sides of a 15cm square tin with parchment paper, and cut a larger sheet to cover the top.
3. Melt 75g unsalted butter in a nonstick pan. Once it has melted, drop the heat to its lowest, add 170g marshmallow and stir constantly.
4. When the butter and marshmallow are combined, add the 100g milk powder a little at a time, stirring constantly.
5. Once the milk powder is worked in, add the nut and dried fruit mixture a little at a time, stirring as it goes.
6. As soon as everything comes together, tip it into the tin, lay the parchment paper over the top and press it flat.
7. Let the nougat cool, then chill it for 3 to 4 hours. Once set, cut it into bars and wrap them in rice paper so they do not stick. Keep them refrigerated.

Tips

• Marshmallow is already very sweet, so the milk powder has to be the unsweetened kind.
• Butter, marshmallow and milk powder are all required, and without one of them the nougat will not set.
• Drop the heat to its lowest before the marshmallow goes in, since a high flame leaves the nougat hard and grainy.
• Tip the mixture into the tin the moment it comes together, because cooling in the pan makes it impossible to press flat.