Coffee Fondant

A standard poured fondant with coffee infusion standing in for part of the water. The recipe assumes you have already read the White Fondant entry, which carries the actual method; the only real work here is the sugar boil and the cooling.

• The hinge: cook to 238-240FThe hinge: cook to the soft-ball stage -- "Boil, and work same as White Fondant" sends you to that entry for the boiling point; for fondant that means soft ball, around 238-240F on a thermometer. A few degrees over and the fondant turns hard and crumbly rather than creamy.
• Cool before you work itPour onto a marble slab or a chilled sheet pan and leave it undisturbed until it drops to about 110F, cool enough to hold a finger against. Stirring a hot syrup gives coarse, gritty crystals; that is the single most common failure.
• Keep the pan sides cleanWash sugar crystals down from the sides with a wet pastry brush, and cover the pan for the first minute or two so steam does the work. One stray crystal will seed the whole batch.
• The coffeeA quarter cup of ground coffee brought to the boil in the water and strained gives a strong coffee infusion. Double cheesecloth or a coffee filter both work, but strain well since grit will not dissolve.
• Cream of tartarIt inverts a small proportion of the sugar during boiling, which keeps the crystals fine. Do not increase it or the fondant will stay soft and refuse to set.
• YieldTwo and a half pounds of sugar makes roughly three pounds of fondant, enough to fill and frost several large cakes. It halves cleanly, and any excess keeps for weeks in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
• RipeningFondant is easier to handle after resting a day or two, covered with a damp cloth or plastic. Warm it gently over hot water, never over direct heat, to bring it to spreading consistency.