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Coffee Fondant
2½ lbs. sugar 1½ cups cold water 1/4 cup ground coffee 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar Put water and coffee in saucepan, and heat to boilingpoint. Strain through double cheese-cloth; then add sugar and cream of tartar. Boil, and work same as White Fondant.
This is a working variant of the book's White Fondant, with a coffee infusion standing in for plain water. Everything depends on the sugar syrup: cook it accurately, then leave it strictly alone until it has cooled.
- The quantities in modern terms2½ lbs. of granulated sugar is about 5½ cups. The 1½ cups of cold water and ¼ cup of ground coffee yield somewhat less than 1½ cups of strained brew once the grounds have absorbed their share and a little has boiled away; that is the liquid the syrup is built on.
- Grind and strainUse a coarse grind rather than espresso fine; fine grounds pass through cheesecloth as sludge and make the finished fondant gritty. Doubling the cheesecloth, as directed, or lining a sieve with a paper filter, gives a clean infusion.
- The temperature the book assumesThe stage the book assumes -- "Boil, and work same as White Fondant" sends you back to that recipe, which is boiled to the soft-ball stage as judged in cold water; on a modern candy thermometer that corresponds to roughly 238-240F. Below that the fondant will not set; above it, the mass turns hard and short.
- The hinge: do not stir or agitateOnce the sugar has dissolved and the syrup boils, stop stirring entirely and wash any crystals from the pan sides with a wet pastry brush. A single stray crystal seeds the whole batch and you get coarse grain instead of a smooth cream.
- Cream of tartar's jobThe ¼ teaspoon is not for flavour. It inverts a portion of the sucrose during boiling, which keeps the crystals fine when the fondant is later worked.
- Cooling before workingPour onto a marble slab or a chilled sheet pan and leave undisturbed until it reaches about 110F, lukewarm to the hand. Working it hot produces large crystals; the whole point of the wait is a fine, opaque, plastic mass.
- RipeningAfter kneading, pack the fondant into a covered jar and let it stand a day before use. It softens and smooths noticeably, which matters if you intend to melt it for dipping.
- Yield and useExpect somewhere near 2¾ lbs of fondant. It is a base rather than a finished sweet: melt gently over hot water for dipping centres and nuts, or knead and shape into patties.
Fondant, from the French fondre, to melt, is the foundation of nineteenth-century fancy confectionery. Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book gives White Fondant first and then a run of variations built on the same method with different liquids and flavourings, of which this coffee version is one; the instruction to "work same as White Fondant" assumes the reader has already read that entry. What makes the recipe characteristic of the book is the cream of tartar. Farmer's reputation rests on insisting that candy-making could be reduced to level measurements and exact directions, and the confectionery chapter is where that argument does its hardest work.