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Fondant Candies: Candied
Suggestions for Color and Flavor for Fondant Centers, or Fondant Coating Chocolate Vanilla flavor Green Oil of lime Orange flower water Vanilla three parts, almond one part Lavender Violet flavor Light brown Brown sugar and vanilla Coffee flavor Maple flavor Orange Grated orange rind Orange extract Pink Raspberry flavor Rose flavor Strawberry flavor Wintergreen White Almond flavor Candied fruits Maraschino flavor Peppermint flavor Vanilla flavor Yellow Lemon flavor Suggestions for Centers for Bonbons, to be used Alone or mixed with Fondant Flavored and Colored Appropriately Apricot paste Candied fruit Cherries Citron, small pieces Ginger, small pieces Limes, small pieces Pears, small pieces Pineapple, small pieces Plums, small pieces Candied mixed fruit, chopped Canned pineapple, well dried and served at once in paper cases Caramels, half size, any kind Dried fruits Dates, small pieces Dates, stuffed and cut in pieces Figs, chopped Figs, small pieces Prunes, two tablespoons mixed with one fourth cup each cherries and nuts, all finely chopped Raisins Raisins, stuffed with chopped nuts Fresh fruits, served at once in paper cases Grapes, white, Malaga, or Tokay Oranges, small sections Strawberries, hulls on Fudge, small pieces, any kind Green gage paste Guava jelly Marshmallows Mint jelly Nuts Almond paste Almonds, plain Almonds, salted Almond paste, mixed with twice the amount of fondant Brazil nuts, in pieces Brazil nuts, whole Cocoanut, mixed with fondant Peanuts Peanut brittle, chopped Peanut butter Pecans Walnuts, halved, plain Walnuts, halved, salted Penuche, small pieces, any kind Two parts cherries and one part citron, chopped and mixed Suggestions for Decorations on Top of Bonbons Almonds, blanched and halved Candied Angelica Cherry, small piece Ginger, small piece Mint leaves Pineapple, small piece Rose leaves Violet Cocoanut Plain Colored Pecans Pistachio nuts Chopped Whole Silver dragees Tiny candies Walnuts Chopped Whole Opera Bonbons Color and flavor as desired small portions of Opera Fondant. With the hands shape in small balls, putting a piece of nut, cherry, or marshmallow in the center of each ball.
Melt another portion of Opera Fondant in a double boiler over hot water, stirring constantly. Add half a teaspoon of vanilla, and drop centers one at a time in the fondant. Remove with candy dipper or two-tined fork to waxed paper. When enough white bonbons have been made, add a little pink or green color paste and raspberry or almond extract to taste to the melted fondant. Dip more of the centers, stirring the fondant, and reheating it if it becomes too stiff. Then add to remaining fondant one square melted chocolate, and dip remaining balls. In this way a great variety of attractive bonbons may be produced. Other flavors and colors may be used for greater variety, and tops may be decorated with small pieces of nuts or cherries if desired. The centers may also be dipped in melted coating chocolate. White Fondants I, II, or III may be used instead of Opera Fondant.
Cocoanut Centers 4 1/2 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons corn syrup 1/4 cup water 1 1/2 cups shredded cocoanut 1 teaspoon butter 1/4 teaspoon vanilla Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, and stir until mixture boils. Wash down sides of saucepan with a butter brush dipped in cold water, and cook to 238 degree F., or until mixture forms a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, add cocoanut, butter, and vanilla, and stir just enough to mix the ingredients but not enough to cause it to become sugary. When well mixed spread on marble slab or platter, and when cold mold into small balls and lay on wax paper. Dip in melted fondant or melted coating chocolate. If centers are not too stiff, they should become very soft and sticky inside their coating.
Cocoanut Bonbons Dip Cocoanut Centers in melted colored fondant, then roll in cocoanut colored the same as the fondant.
To Color Cocoanut Sprinkle shredded cocoanut on a sheet of white paper. Add a little color paste diluted with a few drops of water, and rub evenly through the cocoanut. Dry slowly, and store in covered glass jars. Colored cocoanut may be used on the outside of bonbons, creams, stuffed dates, and frosted cakes. Marshmallow Mint Bonbons Marshmallows Fondant Oil of peppermint Ornamental frosting Cut marshmallows in two crosswise, and flavor each piece by touching the cut surface with a small wooden skewer which has been dipped into a bottle of oil of peppermint. Arrange marshmallows in layers in a box, cover, and let stand overnight. Melt fondant by stirring in a saucepan over hot water, dip each piece separately, lay on waxed paper, and when all are dipped decorate if desired with tiny flowers made by forcing ornamental frosting through paper tubes.
Violet Marshmallow Bonbons Cut marshmallows in halves, dip in fondant flavored with violet extract and colored delicately with violet color paste. Put on wax paper, and decorate tops with a piece each of candied violet and angelica before fondant becomes firm.
Philadelphia Bonbons Dip bonbon centers made of Center Cream I or II in melted fondant to which has been added chopped candied cherries, candied pineapple, nuts, dates, or figs, and drop on wax paper.
Fondant Acorns Maple fondant Blanched almonds Make centers of maple fondant the size and shape of small acorns. When dry dip in maple fondant, melted by stirring it in a saucepan over hot water. When all are dipped, beginning with the first one, dip the base again in melted fondant and then in finely chopped almonds.
This is a dipping chapter rather than a single recipe: a palette of colors and flavors, a list of centers, then several worked examples. The variables that decide success are the temperature of the melted fondant and the dryness of the centers.
- Fondant dipping temperatureMelt fondant over hot, not boiling, water and keep it between about 100 and 110F. Above roughly 120F it loses its fine crystal structure and dries dull and streaky; too cool and it coats too thickly and sets before it levels. Stir constantly and rewarm briefly rather than letting it sit on the heat.
- Centers must be dryShaped fondant, cream and coconut centers need several hours uncovered at cool room temperature to form a skin. A damp center weeps sugar syrup into the coating and the bonbon splits or leaks within a day.
- "Cocoanut"This means unsweetened shredded or desiccated coconut, drier and finer than the sweetened flaked coconut sold in modern bags. Sweetened flake will make the centers cloying and slack; if it is all you have, cut back nothing else and expect a softer ball.
- 238F soft ballThe one temperature given in the chapter, and it is accurate: use a digital or candy thermometer and calibrate it in boiling water first. Stirring the coconut mixture more than needed after it comes off the heat is what turns it grainy, exactly as the text warns.
- "One square melted chocolate"A square of the period is 1 oz of unsweetened baking chocolate. Added to already sweet fondant it gives a dark, not bitter, coating; modern bar chocolate at 60 to 70 percent works but is sweeter and softer.
- Oil of peppermint and color pasteOil of peppermint is many times stronger than peppermint extract; the skewer-dip method in the marshmallow recipe is deliberate, and a measured drop is already a lot. Color paste, not liquid food coloring, is what keeps water out of the fondant, and violet, rose and lime flavors are specialty items rather than supermarket stock.
- Silver drageesListed here as a decoration, but the silver-coated shot sold today is frequently labeled for decorative use only and is restricted in some jurisdictions. Check the packaging before putting them on something meant to be eaten.
- Fresh and canned fruit centersThe instruction to serve strawberries, grapes and orange sections "at once in paper cases" is not optional. Fruit juice dissolves fondant from the inside, and these are a same-day confection; the candied and dried fruit centers keep for weeks in a tin.
- YieldThe coconut center recipe is not given a yield; rolled small, it should come to something on the order of two to three dozen balls, and a pound of fondant will coat several dozen centers. Melt it in two or three batches so you can color and flavor each separately as described.
Bonbon dipping was the showpiece of American home candy making in the first decades of the twentieth century, when reliable candy thermometers and cheap corn syrup put professional confectioners' technique within reach of an ordinary kitchen. The word bonbon is simply French for a sweet, and by this period it had settled into a specific American meaning: a soft center enclosed in a thin coat of fondant, as distinct from a chocolate-dipped cream. The long lists of colors, centers and decorations reflect how these were used, arranged in fluted paper cases for card parties, weddings and Christmas boxes, where variety in a single tray mattered more than any one flavor. "Opera fondant" was generally a richer fondant made with cream or milk and butter, softer than plain sugar fondant and prized for dipping; candied angelica, violets and rose leaves were common garnishes of the era and are now specialty imports.