Tuffs (nougat)

• By Christa Follmann

You will need:

175g of butter, 150g of sieved icing sugar, two teaspoonfuls of vanilla sugar, the yolks of three eggs, 225g of flour, a pinch of baking-powder, an icing-bag, 25g of cocoa powder, dark chocolate, 150g to 200g of nougat cream.

Cream the butter in a large mixing bowl until it is fluffy. Slowly add the icing-sugar, vanilla sugar and egg-yolks and continue to whisk until all is well mixed. Mix the baking-powder and cocoa powder with the flour and sieve it. Stir the flour mixture into the other mixture until it smooth and thoroughly amalgamated. Put this into a piping bag with a star nozzle and squeeze out 2cm bits onto some baking-paper on a baking-tray. Bake them for about 10 minutes at gas mark 4/ 180C. When they are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool before decorating them. Melt the nougat cream using the double-boiler (bain-marie) method. Spread the melted nougat cream on the bottom of one tuff and press on another tuff, so that the nougat cream is sandwiched between them. When the nougat cream has cooled, decorate the tuffs with dark chocolate, melted bain-marie.