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Cream English Walnuts
For this use the large English walnuts, cracking them carefully so as not to break the kernels. Remove each half in one piece and free it from all bits of shell. Heat over boiling water 1/2 lb. of fondant. Flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract; stir until it becomes creamy, and dip into it with a pair of small sugar tongs the half of the walnut. Lift it out carefully and lay on the waxed paper until it is dry.
A straightforward dipped confection: the only real skill is keeping the fondant at the right consistency while you work.
- FondantHalf a pound of fondant means the poured-and-kneaded sugar paste, sold as ready-made rolled or dipping fondant, or made from sugar, water and a little corn syrup. Marshmallow-style fondant sheets sold for cake covering behave differently and will not set to a firm shell.
- Heat over boiling waterUse a double boiler or a bowl over hot water rather than direct heat. Keep the fondant only warm enough to flow, somewhere in the region of 140 to 160F; overheating or scorching will make it grainy and dull instead of glossy.
- Working consistencyThe fondant should coat the back of a spoon and flow off in a ribbon. If it thickens as you work, add water a few drops at a time; if it is too thin the coating will pool at the base of each nut.
- Sugar tongsSmall sugar tongs are the period tool; a dipping fork, a bamboo skewer or two forks work as well. Let the excess drip back into the pan before setting the nut down.
- Waxed paperParchment or a silicone mat releases more cleanly than modern waxed paper. Set the pieces on a cool tray, not a warm counter, and leave them an hour or so until firm to the touch.
- Quantity and yieldHalf a pound of fondant will coat somewhere around 50 walnut halves, roughly 4 to 5 oz of shelled nuts. Cracking whole English walnuts by hand to get unbroken halves is the slow part; buying halves already shelled saves considerable time.
- StorageKeep in a single layer in a covered tin at cool room temperature. Refrigeration draws moisture to the surface and makes the fondant weep.
English walnut is the old American trade name for Juglans regia, the thin-shelled Persian walnut; the name is generally explained by the nuts reaching America through English trade, and in American usage it distinguished them from the native black walnut, whose shell is hard to crack cleanly and whose kernels tend to come out in fragments. Fondant-dipped nuts and fruits were popular in the American home candy-making boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when reliable granulated sugar and printed candy-making instructions put confectionery within reach of ordinary kitchens. Such sweets were often made in quantity for Christmas, set out in small dishes or boxed as gifts.