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Bonbons: Chopped
Chopped candied cherries mixed into melted fondant either flavored with vanilla or almond, formed into bonbon shape, then coated with melted chocolate, are fine. Some of these cherry centers may be left white and red, or the fondant used can be colored rose and pink with a few drops of red fruit coloring.
Candied lemon rind, orange rind or citron can be cut up into small pieces, worked into fondant, and then coated with chocolate. Yellow fondant flavored with orange or lemon can be used with orange and lemon rind. Stiff marmalades and jellies can be cut into fancy shapes, dipped into melted fondant of different flavors, and when cool coated with chocolate. Dates and raisins chopped fine and worked into fondant make excellent centers. Mix some chopped dates with maple fondant for these centers. Chopped dates and chopped figs or raisins combined and worked into maple fondant are delicious. California grapes dipped into melted fondant, and then into melted chocolate make another variety of creams.
This is a list of variations rather than a single formula, written for a cook who already has a batch of fondant on hand. The hinge is heat control: fondant that gets too hot loses its fine grain and sets hard and translucent instead of creamy.
- Melting the fondantWarm fondant in a bowl over barely simmering water, stirring only enough to loosen it, and keep it below about 140F. Above that the sugar crystals dissolve and re-form coarse, and the centers turn gritty or candy-hard.
- Working in the fruitChopped fruit should be dry and finely cut. Blot candied cherries and marmalade pieces on paper towel first; loose syrup thins the fondant and the centers will slump rather than hold a bonbon shape.
- Firming before dippingShaped centers need to sit uncovered an hour or more until a dry skin forms. Dipping a soft, tacky center pulls fondant off into the chocolate and streaks the whole bowl.
- "Melted chocolate" means tempered chocolate"Melted chocolate" here means chocolate handled well enough to set firm and glossy. With real couverture, melt to about 115F, cool to about 88F for dark or 86F for milk, and dip at that temperature; chocolate simply melted and cooled is liable to set dull and to bloom gray. Compound coating wafers behave similarly without tempering.
- Coloring"Red fruit coloring" was often a vegetable or cochineal-based liquid; modern gel colors are far stronger, so add with a toothpick rather than by drops. "Rose and pink" here probably means two depths of the same color rather than two different dyes.
- CitronCandied citron is a thick-rinded citrus peel, still sold at holiday time and from baking suppliers. Candied orange or grapefruit peel substitutes directly.
- The grape centersFresh grapes are the one variation with a short life. Fondant and chocolate do not seal fruit against moisture, and the grape will weep and ferment inside its shell within a couple of days. Make these the day they are served and keep them cool; they are not for a box of candy that has to travel.
- Maple fondantFondant made with maple sugar or syrup is softer and more prone to weeping than plain sugar fondant, so keep date and fig centers on the firm side and dip them promptly.
- YieldA pound of fondant with roughly half a cup of chopped fruit worked in makes several dozen small bonbons, the count depending entirely on how large the centers are shaped, plus enough dipping chocolate to keep the bowl deep.
Fondant was the workhorse of the American home-candy books that appeared in quantity between about 1890 and 1920, when cheap refined sugar, reliable thermometers and gas ranges brought confectionery within reach of a domestic kitchen. A single batch of boiled and kneaded fondant could be divided, flavored, colored, filled and dipped, which is why chapters like this one read as inventories of combinations rather than discrete recipes: the author assumes you have mastered the base and are now looking for ideas. The candied cherries, citron and "California grapes" all point to the same period development, a national market in preserved and shipped fruit that let a cook in the East treat West Coast table grapes and imported candied peel as pantry staples. Bonbon itself is simply the French for a sweet, doubled from bon, good, and in English it was used broadly of small sweets.