Will terrible things happen if I replace part or all of the refined sugar in this recipe with malt extract? 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.
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.


Malted milk powder is essentially milk powder, with dry malt extract and flour added. I don't know the ratios for these ingredients, but they are all readily available at the store.
Liquid malt extract and dry malt extract are very nearly the same thing, just in different forms. You should be able to add water to your dry malt extract to create malt syrup to then substitute in the recipe. See ratios from this link. https://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/1348/what-is-the-conversion-rate-between-dry-malt-extract-dme-and-liquid-malt-extra