Fondant
4 cups of granulated sugar, 1 1/2 cups of cold water, 1/4 a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, or 3 drops of acetic acid.
Stir the sugar and water in a saucepan, set on the back part of the range, until the sugar is melted, then draw the saucepan to a hotter part of the range, and stir until the boiling point is reached; add the cream of tartar or acid and, with the hand or a cloth wet repeatedly in cold water, wash down the sides of the saucepan, to remove any grains of sugar that have been thrown there. Cover the saucepan and let boil rapidly three or four minutes. Remove the cover, set in the thermometer--if one is to be used--and let cook very rapidly to 240 degree F., or the soft ball degree. Wet the hand in cold water and with it dampen a marble slab or a large platter, then without jarring the syrup turn it onto the marble or platter. Do not scrape out the saucepan or allow the last of the syrup to drip from it, as sugary portions will spoil the fondant by making it grainy. When the syrup is cold, with a metal scraper or a wooden spatula, turn the edges of the mass towards the center, and continue turning the edges in until the mass begins to thicken and grow white, then work it up into a ball, scraping all the sugar from the marble onto the mass; knead slightly, then cover closely with a heavy piece of cotton cloth wrung out of cold water. Let the sugar stand for an hour or longer to ripen, then remove the damp cloth and cut the mass into pieces; press these closely into a kitchen bowl, cover with a cloth wrung out of water (this cloth must not touch the fondant) and then with heavy paper. The fondant may be used the next day, but is in better condition after several days, and may be kept almost indefinitely, if the cloth covering it be wrung out of cold water and replaced once in five or six days. Fondant may be used, white or delicately colored with vegetable color-pastes or with chocolate, as frosting for small cakes, or eclairs or for making candy "centers," to be coated with chocolate or with some of the same fondant tinted and flavored appropriately.
A working sugar recipe rather than a finished sweet: fondant is the base for candy centers and poured icings, and the whole thing turns on crystal control. Everything in the method exists to stop the syrup from graining.
- The hinge: no stray crystalsStir only until the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a boil, then stop entirely. Wash the pan sides down with a wet pastry brush, keep the lid on for the first few minutes so steam dissolves anything clinging above the syrup line, and do not scrape the pan out when you pour. A single seed crystal will set off the whole batch into grit.
- 240F means 240F"Soft ball" is 238-240F on a calibrated thermometer. Check yours in boiling water first and adjust for your altitude, subtracting roughly 1F for every 500 feet above sea level. A few degrees high gives a fondant too stiff to work; low leaves it slack and sticky.
- "Back part of the range" and "a hotter part"A coal or wood range had cooler and hotter zones on one surface. On a modern burner, dissolve over medium-low, then raise to medium-high once the sugar is fully in solution and boil hard from there.
- Cream of tartar or acidUse the 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar. The "3 drops of acetic acid" would have meant a dilute acid, not the glacial acetic acid sold now, which is corrosive and has no business in a candy pan. Lemon juice does the same job if you have no cream of tartar; allow about 1/2 teaspoon in place of the 1/4 teaspoon.
- The slabA dampened marble or granite counter is ideal because it pulls heat out fast. A large heatproof platter or a rimmed sheet pan works. The recipe says to wait until the syrup is cold; modern practice is to work it lukewarm, around 110F. Either way it must cool undisturbed, or it will grain.
- Working itTurning the edges in with a bench scraper takes roughly 8 to 15 minutes by hand. The mass goes from clear to opaque to crumbly-white in a fairly sudden change, then kneads smooth. A stand mixer with a paddle will do it, though a slab gives finer grain.
- Ripening and storageThe hour under a damp cloth lets moisture equalize and the texture soften. The recipe's five-day cloth-changing routine works but needs attention; an airtight container with plastic wrap laid directly on the surface is simpler. It keeps for weeks and warms gently in a bowl over hot water for pouring.
- YieldFour cups of sugar gives roughly 1 3/4 to 2 pounds of fondant, enough to glaze several dozen small cakes or to make centers for about the same number of dipped chocolates.
Fondant, from the French fondre, to melt, was a foundation of the professional confectioner's craft in the nineteenth century, and its arrival in domestic American cookbooks tracks the spread of two things: cheap refined granulated sugar and the household candy thermometer. Before reliable thermometers, cooks judged syrup by dropping it in cold water and reading the ball it formed, which is why this recipe gives both the degree and the older test, with the thermometer offered as an option rather than an assumption. The closing note points the recipe towards chocolate work: fondant tinted and flavored makes the centers, and chocolate makes the coating. Recipes of this sort taught home cooks to imitate the boxed bonbons then sold at candy counters.