Nougat Rolls

It has happened again. We have a recipe called something that bears no resemblance to its reality. I had the biggest sense of deja vu whilst making this, this, this so called nougat roll; you may recall the Iced Voco I made thinking that I was making a macaroon. It's like I have a kind of Being John Malkovich set of recipes, they all are called something else, but end up being Iced Vovos. Insane. 

So, here are the nougat rolls — or should I call them notgat rolls? Anyway, the pastry is easy enough. I used Copha vegetable shortening, butter would work just as well, and I think in the heat it ended up being too short. The pastry circles kept breaking and crumbling as I tried to put them into the patty tins. A tip when rolling them, is to place the dough between two sheets of waxed paper, so they don't stick to the bench or rolling pin. No amount of flour was enough, the dough just kept absorbing it.

Once out of the oven, I really wasn't sure that the glacé cherries would be enough to make these look appealing. They're not attractive objects, and while they might taste OK (coconut and jam on pastry is pretty nice actually), the expression "like putting lipstick on a pig" came to mind as I decorated the tarts. The cherries just don't add anything. So I took them all off and ate them, saving you all from the aesthetic horror. 

Nougat Rolls

Pastry

1 cup self raising four

Pinch salt

85g. shortening (copha or butter)

1 tbsp. sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. milk

Sift flour and salt together, rub in the shortening, then add the sugar, egg yolk and milk to make a firm dough.

Roll out on a floured board to just under 5mm in thickness, cut into circles and line small patty tins with pastry rounds.

Filling

Raspberry jam

55g. ground almonds/almond meal

55g. desiccated coconut

110g. sugar

1 egg white

1 tbsp. milk

Few drops of almond essence

Glacé cherries for decoration 

Into prepared pastry case, place half a teaspoon of jam.

Beat egg white stiffly, set aside. Combine almonds, coconut and sugar, then fold in the beaten egg white, almond essence and milk. 

Mix thoroughly, spoon into pastry cases and bake for 15-20 minutes at 160°C.

If desired, decorate each tart with a piece of cherry. 

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.