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The Making of Fondant
THE foundation for innumerable cream candies and for nearly all bonbons is what the confectioners call "fondant." This is quite easily made by the home candy-maker after once getting the knack of it; but one must be careful to follow directions closely and not become careless. It has a great advantage from the fact that it can be made up a long time before it is worked into candies, since it will keep for a great length of time. It can be made up in large quantities, but it is best for the amateur candy-maker at first to make it in small quantities at a time, and make it oftener; then as she becomes more adept she may use several pounds of sugar at a making. FONDANT To make the fondant take two pounds of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of water and one fourth teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Boil this to the soft ball stage or to 238 degrees. Stir the sugar over a slow fire until it is thoroughly dissolved; then take a damp cloth and wipe away all the sugar crystals that appear on the sides of the pan. When it is done remove from fire and pour over a large platter that has been cooled or over a marble slab. Do not scrape the contents out of pan or allow it to drip, but pour out quickly, then there will be less danger of its graining. Let stand until nearly cool (not cold), then stir until it becomes thick and creamy, working it away from the edges of the platter or slab into a mass in the center. Use a wooden spoon in creaming the fondant, and it is a good idea to sprinkle a little cold water over the top of the syrup after it has been poured out on the platter; this will prevent a crust from forming on top. When too stiff to work with spoon take it in the hands and knead until it is smooth and velvety. Let stand a few hours until it has mellowed somewhat, then pack down in jars and bowls, and cover with a damp cloth. If kept for some time dampen the cloth occasionally. As we said before this fondant will keep for a long time, and one may use it when desired. If a batch should turn grainy after stirring it can be boiled over again, or used in making some other candy, but in either case it must be boiled over again and a little more water added. In making fondant it is best to take a kettle that has not been used for other purposes, or it will give the fondant a taste; also be very careful to have the thermometer clean if one is used. The fondant can be colored and flavored when still warm, or it can be colored and flavored when you warm or melt it when ready to make the bonbons. Fondant should cool quickly after it has been poured out on a platter or slab. As marble is naturally cool it is best for this purpose, but a platter may be placed on ice, or dipped in cold water before being used. CHOCOLATE FONDANT The above directions are for white fondant, which is the kind most generally made, but one can make chocolate and maple fondant. To make the chocolate fondant take two cupfuls of sugar and four ounces of grated chocolate and one-half cupful of water. Boil to the soft ball stage, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and proceed as when making white fondant. It is best not to add the chocolate until the syrup has boiled a while, then it can be melted and slowly added, for the syrup must not be stirred while boiling. MAPLE FONDANT To make maple fondant take one cupful of brown sugar and two cupfuls of maple syrup, or one cupful of maple sugar. If the sugar is used add one-half cupful of water. To keep the syrup from graining add one-fourth teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Boil to the soft ball stage or to 238 degrees by the thermometer, and then pour out on platter or slab, and proceed as with the white fondant. A good substitute for maple fondant may be made by flavoring with mapleine some of the white fondant. Maple fondant is especially good combined with nuts in making bonbons, and also makes nice centers for chocolate creams. In the chapter on bonbons you will find many ways in which the fondant can be used, and many other ways will no doubt suggest themselves to you when you once begin to work with it.
A sound working method for fondant, and the temperature given is the right one. Two details in the text need adjusting before you start: the water is stingy, and the long-term storage advice belongs to a colder, more forgiving era.
- The water is too littleTwo pounds of granulated sugar is roughly 4.5 cups, and half a cup of water will not dissolve it before the pan begins to scorch. Use at least 1 cup, and up to 1.5; the excess simply boils off on the way to 238F and costs you only time. The chocolate and maple versions have the same problem in miniature.
- 238F is the hingeFondant lives or dies by the thermometer. Below about 234F it will never set firm; above 240F it turns hard and short. Calibrate in boiling water first and subtract about 1F per 500 feet of altitude from the target.
- Do not stir once it boilsThe text says this almost in passing but it matters more than anything else here. A single stray crystal dragged into the syrup seeds the whole batch. Wash the pan sides with a wet pastry brush rather than a cloth, and leave the spoon out.
- Cool before you cream"Nearly cool (not cold)" means about 110F, cool enough to hold a fingertip against the slab. Beating hot syrup gives coarse, gritty fondant; the fine crystals that make it velvety only form at the lower temperature.
- Slab substitutesA marble pastry board is ideal because it pulls heat out fast. Failing that, a large rimmed metal sheet pan chilled in the freezer works better than the ceramic platter the book suggests. Sprinkling the surface of the poured syrup with cold water, as directed, does genuinely stop a crust forming.
- Grated chocolateThis means unsweetened baking chocolate, sold in 1-oz squares. Four ounces to two cups of sugar gives a dark, strongly chocolate fondant. Modern chocolate chips or bar chocolate already contain sugar and lecithin and will throw the ratio off.
- MapleineA maple-flavored extract of the period, still made and sold. Any maple flavoring will do the same job; add it sparingly and taste as you go.
- Ripening and storageThe few hours of "mellowing" is real and worth respecting: the crystal structure evens out and the fondant becomes noticeably smoother. Store it in an airtight container rather than a bowl under a damp cloth, which in a warm kitchen may encourage surface spoilage. Refrigerated and sealed, it keeps for a month or more; bring to room temperature before working.
- YieldThe white fondant makes about 2 lb, enough to center roughly 80 to 100 bonbons. The chocolate and maple batches are about half that.
Fondant is simply the French for "melting," and the name describes what a properly crystallized sugar paste does on the tongue. It was the workhorse of the nineteenth-century confectioner's shop: one large batch, kept under a damp cloth in a crock, could be tinted, flavored, molded and enrobed into a whole counter's worth of different sweets. Books like this one appeared as candy-making moved from the confectioner to the parlor, helped along by cheap, reliably pure granulated sugar. Before the thermometer, the soft-ball stage was judged by dropping syrup into cold water and feeling it between the fingers, which is why so many older recipes read as a series of tactile tests. The confident "or to 238 degrees" here marks the change, though the book still says "if one is used." The advice to keep a dedicated kettle is given to guard against a taint of flavor from other cooking.