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White Fondant
1½ cups hot water ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar Put ingredients into a smooth granite stewpan. Stir, place on range, and heat gradually to boiling point. Boil without stirring until, when tried in cold water, a soft ball may be formed that will just keep in shape, which is 238° F. After a few minutes' boiling, sugar will adhere to sides of kettle; this should be washed off with the hand first dipped in cold water. Have a pan of cold water near at hand, dip hand in cold water, then quickly wash off a small part of the sugar with tips of fingers, and repeat until all sugar adhering to side of saucepan is removed. If this is quickly done, there is no danger of burning the fingers. Pour slowly on a slightly oiled marble slab. Let stand a few minutes to cool, but not long enough to become hard around the edge. Scrape fondant with chopping knife to one end of marble, and work with a wooden spatula until white and creamy. It will quickly change from this consistency, and begin to lump, when it should be kneaded with the hands until perfectly smooth.
Put into a bowl, cover with oiled paper to exclude air, that a crust may not form on top, and let stand twenty-four a crust may not form on top, and let stand twenty-four hours. A large oiled platter and wooden spoon may be used in place of marble slab and spatula. Always make fondant on a clear day, as a damp, heavy atmosphere has an unfavorable effect on the boiling of sugar.
A classic sugar-boiling fondant, the base for bonbon centers, fudge-like creams and dipped candies. The printed ingredient list here has lost a line, so read the notes before starting.
- The missing sugarAs set here the ingredients read only water and cream of tartar. A fondant of this type is built on roughly 4 cups (about 1¾ to 2 lb) granulated sugar to 1½ cups water and ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar; the sugar line appears to have been lost in printing rather than omitted by the author — the same page also repeats 'let stand twenty-four'.
- "14 teaspoon"A typesetting artifact for ¼ teaspoon. More cream of tartar than that inverts too much sugar and the fondant will never firm properly.
- 238°F is the hingeEverything depends on hitting the low end of soft ball. A digital or candy thermometer beats the cold-water test; check it in boiling water first and adjust for altitude, subtracting roughly 1°F per 500 feet.
- Washing down the panThe finger-and-cold-water method works but a pastry brush dipped in water does the same job with no risk. A single stray crystal on the wall will seed the whole batch and turn it grainy.
- Granite stewpanPeriod shorthand for enamelled steel or graniteware. Any heavy-bottomed non-reactive saucepan with straight sides serves; the point is even heat and a smooth interior with no scratches to catch crystals.
- Cooling before workingPour and leave undisturbed until the syrup is about 110°F, lukewarm to the back of the hand. Stirring or scraping while hot is the commonest cause of a coarse, sandy fondant.
- Marble and substitutesA marble slab, a large glazed platter, or a rimmed sheet pan all work; a stand mixer with the paddle will also cream it. Oil the surface only lightly.
- The 24-hour restWorth observing. Ripening under oiled paper or plastic wrap lets the crystals even out and the texture turn silky; fondant keeps for weeks in a sealed container and improves over the first few days.
- HumidityThe advice about a clear day is sound. Sugar work draws moisture from the air, and on a humid day the finished fondant stays slack and sticky.
- YieldRoughly the weight of sugar used, so about 2 lb; enough to center several dozen small bonbons, or to thin over a double boiler for glazing cakes and éclairs.
Fondant takes its name from the French fondre, to melt, and describes not a finished candy but a worked sugar paste — the confectioner's white base into which flavor, color, nuts or fruit are folded, and the center that dipped chocolates are built around. Commercial candy makers had the technique long before it reached domestic kitchens; what a book like this represents is the late nineteenth-century push to bring professional confectionery within reach of the home cook, at a time when candy-making parties and homemade boxed sweets were a fashionable amusement. The insistence on temperature, on a clear day and on a marble slab reflects the school's whole method: sugar behaves according to rules, and the rules can be taught. Marble was specified because it pulls heat out of the syrup fast and evenly, which is exactly what crystal formation requires — the same reason it remains the confectioner's surface of choice.