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Chocolate Cream Drops
Take French cream and mold into cone-shape forms with the fingers; then lay the cones on waxed paper or a marble slab until the next day to harden; or make them in the morning and leave until the afternoon. Melt some chocolate in a basin, and place in another basin of boiling water. When melted and the creams are hard enough to handle, take one at a time on a fork and drop into the melted chocolate, roll it until well covered, then slip from the fork upon waxed paper and put aside to harden.
A dipping method rather than a full recipe: it assumes you already have the book's "French cream" fondant on hand. The whole thing hinges on the chocolate, which must be melted gently and kept absolutely dry.
- French creamThis is the uncooked fondant given elsewhere in the candy section, typically confectioners' sugar worked with a little cream or water and flavoring, sometimes bound with unbeaten egg white. If the version you use calls for raw egg white and the candy is never heated, use pasteurized whites or a recipe built on cream alone.
- The two basinsThis is a description of a double boiler. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water that has been brought to a boil and then taken off the heat; the bowl should not touch the water. Direct heat scorches chocolate at surprisingly low temperatures.
- Keep water outA drop of water or a puff of steam into melted chocolate will seize it into a stiff paste that cannot be smoothed out. Use a bowl wider than the pan below it and dry the fork between dips.
- TemperingThe book says only "melt some chocolate." Chocolate simply melted and cooled sets soft and streaked. For a snappy, glossy shell, temper it: bring couverture to about 115F, cool to 80F, then rework to 88-90F for dark or 86-88F for milk. Untempered coatings still taste fine but should be kept refrigerated.
- Hardening the centersOvernight drying forms a thin crust so the cone survives dipping. In a humid kitchen the surface may stay tacky; a fan or an air-conditioned room does more good than extra time.
- Dipping techniqueA dedicated dipping fork or a table fork with the tines slightly spread works best. Lift, tap the fork on the rim to shed excess chocolate, then slide the drop off rather than dropping it, which leaves a foot.
- YieldThe recipe specifies no quantities. As a rough working guide only, a batch of uncooked fondant made from about a pound of confectioners' sugar will mold into somewhere around three to four dozen small cones, and you should melt more chocolate than you think you need, since a good deal stays behind in the bowl.
- StorageKeep the finished drops in a single layer in a cool, dry place, not the refrigerator if the chocolate is tempered, since condensation dulls the surface. They are best within a week, after which the fondant centers begin to dry and grain.
Cream drops belong to the great age of American home candy-making, roughly 1880 to 1920, when cheap refined sugar and reliable eating chocolate put confections that had been the work of professional confectioners within reach of any household. "French cream" was one of several names for the uncooked fondant that made those centers, distinguished from boiled fondant by requiring no thermometer, and it appears under that name in period cookbooks. The Butterick company, better known for dress patterns, published its cook book as part of a broad domestic-advice list, and a candy chapter was expected in such a volume: homemade sweets were a staple of church fairs, holiday boxes and the parlor evening, and the chapter's brevity here reflects an assumption that the reader would already have made the fondant.