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Bonbons: Preserved
Any preserved fruit, dried in the oven, cooled and then dipped in different colored fondant makes delicious bonbons. Preserved strawberries can be dipped in fondant colored pink and flavored with strawberry extract. Preserved cherries can also be dipped in pink or white fondant flavored with almond or cherry. Pears and yellow peaches are good dipped in yellow fondant flavored with lemon or orange. Quince preserves are also good dipped. ASSORTED BONBONS The plain white fondant flavored with vanilla is good dipped in the pink, yellow, green or violet fondant, or in maple fondant; form the white fondant in pretty bonbon shapes before dipping.
This is a finishing technique rather than a full recipe: it assumes you already have a batch of cooked fondant and a jar of preserved fruit on the shelf. The instructions are workable, but several steps are left unstated.
- Drying the fruit is the hingePreserved fruit is saturated with syrup, and surface moisture will thin the fondant coating and can make it weep or slide off. Drain the fruit well, blot it, and dry it on a rack in a very low oven -- the recipe specifies no temperature -- until the surface is tacky rather than wet. Cool completely before dipping.
- What fondant means hereNot the rolled sugar paste sold for cake covering. This is poured fondant: sugar, water and a little corn syrup or cream of tartar boiled to the soft-ball stage, 238F, cooled undisturbed, then worked until it turns opaque and creamy.
- Dipping temperatureMelt fondant gently over hot, not boiling, water and hold it between 100F and 110F. Above about 120F it loses its gloss and dries dull and grainy; below 100F it sets too thick and hides the shape of the fruit.
- ThinningFondant that ribbons too heavily should be loosened with a teaspoon of hot water, sugar syrup or a compatible liqueur at a time. Adding water in quantity will make the coating soft and slow to set.
- Colouring and flavourPeriod colouring came as liquids, vegetable and increasingly coal-tar based; modern gel colours are far stronger, so add them on a toothpick. Extracts are best added off the heat, since alcohol-based flavours volatilise quickly in a warm pot.
- The assorted bonbonsThe second paragraph describes a fondant-on-fondant sweet: vanilla fondant shaped into balls, ovals or small logs, then dipped in a contrasting colour or in maple fondant. The recipe only says to form the shapes before dipping; in practice they are easier to handle once the surface has firmed and is dry to the touch.
- Setting and storageSet dipped pieces on parchment, a silicone mat or waxed paper. They firm within an hour or so and are best after a day in a covered box in a cool room. Refrigeration risks condensation and a sticky, dull surface.
- YieldNone is given. A pound of fondant will coat roughly 40 to 50 small pieces of fruit or fondant centres, depending on how thickly you dip.
Home candy manuals proliferated in the United States between the 1890s and the 1920s, when cheap refined sugar and gas ranges put confectionery that had been the preserve of professional shops within reach of a domestic cook. Fondant was the foundation of that whole literature: one master batch, endlessly divided, tinted and flavoured, could be turned into creams, mints, dipped nuts and bonbons. The word bonbon is simply the French nursery doubling of bon, good, and by this period it had settled in English on a soft-centred sweet finished with a coating. What makes this particular entry telling is its thrift: it exists to use up the preserved strawberries, cherries, pears and quince already put by in the household's own jars, turning last summer's canning into winter confectionery.