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To Mould Candy in Starch Impressions
Many candies, especially such as are of some variety of fondant, are thin when warm and solidify on the outside when cold, so that they may be "dipped" or coated with chocolate. To shape candy of this sort, fill a low pan with cornstarch, making it smooth upon the top. Have ready moulds made of plaster paris, glued to a thin strip of wood, press these into the cornstarch; lift from the starch and repeat the impressions as many times as the space allows. If moulds are not available a thimble, round piece of wood, or the stopper of an oil or vinegar cruet will answer the purpose, though the impressions must be made one at a time.
This is the starch-moulding method — the domestic version of the confectioner's starch mogul — used to shape soft fondant centres before they are dipped in chocolate. The whole thing hinges on the starch being bone dry.
- Dry the starch firstConfectioners dried their starch before moulding, and damp starch will not hold a clean impression. The book says nothing about this, but spreading the starch in the pan and warming it in a low oven, then letting it cool before smoothing the surface level, follows trade practice.
- What "thin when warm" meansFondant for pouring wants to be fluid but not hot, and is usually melted over hot water rather than direct heat; overheated fondant tends to set coarse and grainy rather than with a thin firm skin.
- Filling the impressionsThe original assumes you know to pour. Use a small funnel with a dowel stopped in the neck, or a paper cone, and fill each hollow just level with the starch surface — overfilling spreads and welds the pieces together.
- Plaster mouldsThe recipe's plaster models glued to a lath are a scaled-down version of a factory mogul board. The plaster never touches the candy, only the starch, so porosity is not a contamination problem; sealing the plaster is often recommended to stop it pulling starch away and crumbling at the edges.
- Setting timeLeave the filled tray undisturbed in a cool, dry place — 6 to 12 hours for ordinary fondant centres, longer for anything with a high proportion of invert sugar or liqueur. They are ready when a piece lifts out holding its shape without slumping.
- Cleaning the centresLift the pieces out with a fork or slotted spoon and brush each one with a soft dry pastry brush. Any starch left clinging shows as a grey bloom under the chocolate coating and keeps the shell from adhering.
- Reusing the starchSift the starch through a fine sieve to remove fondant crumbs, then re-dry it before the next batch. It can be reused many times, though it eventually picks up enough sugar and fat to be discarded. Do not dump it near an open flame — airborne cornstarch dust is genuinely combustible in quantity.
Choice Recipes was one of the promotional booklets issued by Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, the oldest chocolate firm in the United States, and its purpose was to persuade home cooks that work previously left to professional confectioners could be done in a domestic kitchen. Starch moulding is exactly that kind of transplanted trade practice: commercial candy houses of the later nineteenth century used a "mogul" — a machine that stamped rows of impressions into trays of dried starch, deposited fondant into them, and stacked the trays to cure. The instruction to substitute a thimble or a cruet stopper is the tell that this is a trade technique being scaled down; so is the assumption that the reader's real goal is a smooth centre firm enough to be hand-dipped in Baker's chocolate, which is what the booklet was ultimately selling.