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Maple Fondant Acorns
2 cups of maple syrup, 1 3/4 cups of granulated sugar, 3/4 a cup of cold water, Confectioner's sugar, 2 or more squares of Baker's Premium No. 1 Chocolate, 1 teaspoonful of vanilla, About 1/4 a cup of fine-chopped almonds, browned in the oven.
Make fondant of the syrup, granulated sugar and cold water, following the directions given for fondant made of granulated sugar (cream of tartar or other acid is not required in maple fondant). Work some of the fondant, adding confectioner's sugar as needed, into cone shapes; let these stand an hour or longer to harden upon the outside. Put a little of the fondant in a dish over hot water; add Baker's Chocolate and vanilla as desired and beat till the chocolate is evenly mixed through the fondant, then dip the cones in the chocolate and set them on a piece of oil cloth or waxed paper. When all are dipped, lift the first one dipped from the paper and dip the base again in the chocolate, and then in the chopped-and-browned almonds. Continue till all have been dipped.
A two-stage confection: a maple fondant cooked to the soft-ball stage, shaped and hardened, then dipped in chocolate and nuts. The fondant is the whole job; the dipping is decoration.
- The hinge: cook to 238FThe hinge: cook to the soft-ball stage -- The recipe refers back to the book's general directions for fondant made of granulated sugar, which are not given here; soft-ball is usually put at around 238F on a candy thermometer. A few degrees over and the fondant turns dry and crumbly under the spatula; a few under and it never sets firm enough to shape into cones.
- Why no cream of tartarFondant made from plain granulated sugar needs an acid or a little corn syrup to invert part of the sugar and keep the crystals fine. Maple syrup already carries invert sugar and organic acids, so the recipe correctly omits it. Do not add any.
- Baker's Premium No. 1This was Walter Baker's unsweetened baking chocolate, sold in 1 oz squares, and plain unsweetened baking chocolate is its direct descendant. Two squares is 2 oz. Because it is thinned only with fondant, the coating will taste bitter against the sweet maple centre, which is the point.
- The chocolate must not get hotMelt over hot, not boiling, water and keep it below about 115F. Water from the pan or from steam will seize the chocolate into a grainy paste; wipe the bowl base and work with dry utensils.
- Ripening and working the fondantPour the cooked syrup onto a marble slab or sheet pan, cool undisturbed to about 110F, then work it with a scraper until it turns opaque and stiff. Kneading it smooth by hand and letting it rest an hour or two before shaping gives a much less gritty cone.
- Maple syrup gradePeriod maple syrup was dark and strongly flavoured. A dark or very dark grade (formerly Grade B) gives the maple character the recipe assumes; a delicate amber syrup will read as generic sweetness.
- Oil clothUse parchment or a silicone mat. Waxed paper works but the chocolate grips it, so let the pieces set completely before lifting.
- The double dipDipping the base a second time and rolling it in the toasted almonds is what makes the acorn: the nutted base reads as the cup. Toast the almonds until just fragrant and let them cool fully, or the residual heat will dull the chocolate.
- Yield and keepingThe number of acorns depends entirely on how large the cones are rolled. Store in a single layer in a cool room, not the refrigerator, where condensation will make the fondant weep.
Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, one of the oldest chocolate firms in the United States, published small recipe booklets like Choice Recipes as advertising, with dishes contributed or compiled by well-known cookery writers of the day. Maple fondant belongs to the golden age of American home candy-making, roughly the 1890s through the 1920s, when the marble slab and, it is often said, the candy thermometer moved from the confectioner's shop into the domestic kitchen and chafing-dish and candy parties were a fashionable amusement. Shaping fondant into acorns, potatoes, strawberries and other small trompe-l'oeil forms was standard confectioner's practice of the period, and maple, a regional speciality of New England, was the natural centre for a nut-based conceit like this one.