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Cooked Cream Walnuts
2 cupfuls sugar, 2/3 cupful water. Boil without stirring until it will spin a thread; flavor with extract vanilla. Set off into dish with cold water in; when at blood heat stir briskly until white and creamy, then knead and work with the hands for several minutes. Have walnuts shelled; make cream into small round cakes with your fingers; press half a walnut on either side, and drop into sifted granulated sugar. For cream dates, take fresh dates, remove stones, and fill centre of dates with this same cream. Drop into sugar.
This is plain boiled fondant, worked by hand and used two ways. Everything depends on not disturbing the syrup until it has cooled, so read the temperature points before starting.
- The hinge: no stirring, no scrapingOnce the sugar is dissolved, leave the syrup entirely alone until it is cool enough to work. A single stir, or a spoon dragged up the pan wall, seeds large crystals and the fondant turns grainy instead of creamy. Wash any crystals off the sides with a wet brush while it boils.
- "Spin a thread"The old thread test is usually given as roughly 230-235F on a candy thermometer, just below the soft-ball stage. Boiled much beyond that and the finished cream is likely to be too firm to knead smooth.
- "Blood heat"About 98-100F, i.e. the pan bottom feels neither warm nor cold to the back of the hand. Working it hotter gives a coarse, sandy texture; much colder and it stiffens before you can spread it.
- "Set off into dish with cold water in"The saucepan is lowered into a larger dish of cold water to cool. Do not add water to the syrup itself.
- CupfulsRead as standard 8 fl oz cups: about 14 oz sugar to about 5 fl oz water, an ordinary proportion for boiled fondant.
- KneadingOnce it clouds and turns opaque, turn it onto a cold surface and knead like stiff dough for three to five minutes until it is smooth and plastic. It will feel dry at first and then come together.
- RipeningFondant is often said to improve if wrapped closely and left to rest a few hours before shaping. This recipe shapes it straight away.
- Walnuts and datesUse walnut halves, as the recipe directs, pressed one on each side. For the dates, choose whole soft dates, split lengthwise, remove the stone, and press the cream in with the fingers.
- YieldTwo cups of sugar makes something approaching a pound of fondant, perhaps 25 to 30 walnut sandwiches or stuffed dates depending on how large you make them.