Malted pecan nougat/Gin Lee

Malted pecan nougat

There are no eggs, no honey, no chocolate, and no condensed milk required to make my malted pecan nougat candy. Instead, I use powdered milk. The candy is fairly simple to make, and it tastes very similar to chocolate-coated malted balls, without the chocolate coating, of course. Hope y'all will enjoy it!

For me, the hardest part of the recipe is shelling the pecans. It goes much faster if you use store-purchased pecan halves. If you don't have pecans, substitute them with peanuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, almonds, walnuts, etc.. I use pecans because that's what I have on hand.

Malted pecan nougat/Gin Lee

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup of water
• 1-½ cups of granulated white Splenda, or sugar
• ½ cup of butter
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 2-½ cups of powdered milk
• 1 cup of pecan halves, reserve ¼ cup of the pecans for the top layer of the nougat

Instructions:

Creating simple syrup/Gin Lee

In a saucepan, add the water and Splenda, or sugar together. Cook for eighteen minutes without stirring over medium heat on a burner.

Creating the malted nougat/Gin Lee

In a bowl, add the softened butter, then pour the hot liquid slowly over it; stir well. Add the pure vanilla extract and the powdered milk. Combine the mixture well with a spatula or wooden spoon. Then knead the mixture (in the bowl) for one to two minutes by hand.

Adding pecan halves into the malted nougat/Gin Lee

Now, add in the pecans; combine well. (At this point, I just continue using my clean hands.)

Next, use a large piece of plastic wrap and place it inside a loaf pan. (Allow the edges of the plastic wrap to be long enough to fold over the candy once it's prepared.) Then add your nougat mixture. Press the candy down firmly until it's reached all the sides of your pan. Add the extra pecans on the top layer and gently push them into the nougat. (This step is mainly to make the candy look pretty and to cover any imperfections in the nougat.)

Cover the candy with overlapped plastic wrap. Allow the candy to firm up for two to four hours.

Malted pecan nougat/Gin Lee

Last but certainly not least, unwrap the candy. Using the sides of the plastic wrap, lift the candy out of the pan. Instead of cutting my malted pecan nougat with a knife, I just break them up into various shapes.

Note:

To take the malted pecan nougat to another level, slice them into squares and dip them into a coating of chocolate.