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Behold the recipe: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/giant-mars-bar-recipe-milky-way-bar/

I'm planning to make a cake based on the Zero Candy Bar for father's day, because it's my dad's favorite and they aren't always available in stores around here.

The nougat in the Zero bar is slightly chocolatey, but has a much stronger malt flavor and is very chewy as well--especially compared to the nougat in a Milky Way bar, for example. So I've been trying to research different nougat recipes. I've found different chocolate malt nougat recipes using malted milk powder, but I don't have any of that. My mom's a home-brewer, so I have actual powdered Malt extract.

I might try the recipe as stated first--to see if it's good enough as is, but what might happen if I replace part or all of the white sugar with my malt extract? I know they're different chemically which means they might (will?) react differently to heat, but I can't find much information on malt extract being using to make candy at all. Does it have a hardball stage?

The only nougat recipe I could find using just malt syrup/extract does not say anything about its resulting texture.

Can anyone give me solid information before I go flying off into the great molten-sugar unknown this weekend?

The more of my egg white stash I waste, the longer it will be until I can make macarons again, and that's no joke.

kitukwfyer
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    Unfortunately I have nothing to add in the form of solid advice but I'd love to hear how you get on with this project. Haven't had a Zero bar in years (didn't even know they still made them!) As for malt.. I've used malt syrup and it works 1:1 for molasses in recipes, just making the taste... maltier? Anyway - good luck to ya and let us know how you get on! – kettultim May 23 '17 at 20:58
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    Haha, thanks. For the record, I'd never even heard of them until I found one in the store last year. I assumed they were a new thing until my dad got all excited. I've found them in an Ingles and in a Walmart, both in Eastern Tennessee, but only in the temptation aisle next to the checkout. That is literally it. If I don't get any answers, I'll answer it myself when I try it out this weekend. XD – kitukwfyer May 23 '17 at 21:32
  • interesting; also home brewer and have a ton of malt extract; never crossed my mind to make into something other then beer. :) Let us know how it turns out. – zerobane May 25 '17 at 04:44
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    At this point I'm thinking the malt probably has too many impurities, kind of like molasses, and so will burn too easily... I shall continue to ponder for the next 48 hours or so. I'll at least try cooking a little to hardball stage to see what happens, lol. Can't leave this unanswered. XDDD – kitukwfyer May 25 '17 at 11:59
  • Haven't made nougat yet, because life, but I *can* say that malt extract doesn't like going past 220 degrees fahrenheit. I'm surprised I got it that high before it started to burn, honestly. Also, apparently pure maltose (malt extract minus impurities) *is* used for candy, at least in China(?), and that might have candy stages similar to sucrose, but I haven't found a whole lot of details for *how* maltose is used. Still neat though. – kitukwfyer Jun 09 '17 at 22:54

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I don't know about the substitution of dry malt extract for refined sugar. I know that measure for measure they have very different apparent sweetness, protein content, etc...

You said you have two possible alternate recipes for nougat, one using malted milk powder and one using liquid malt extract. You should be able to manufacture either of those products using dry malt extract.

Derpy
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