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Fondant Candies: White
White Fondant I 5 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups water 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar Put sugar and water in smooth saucepan, place on range, and stir constantly until boiling point is reached. With a damp cloth or a butter brush dipped in cold water, wash down the sides of the saucepan until every grain of sugar is removed. Add cream of tartar, cover saucepan, and allow candy to steam for three minutes. Remove cover, put in thermometer, and boil rapidly until candy forms a soft ball when tried in cold water, or until thermometer registers 238 degrees F. While syrup is cooking, wipe marble slab or agate tray with a damp cloth. When syrup is ready, pour gently on the slab. Do not allow the last of it to drip out over what has been poured on the slab, and never scrape out the kettle on the first mixture. Do not disturb the syrup in any way until it is cold. With a spatula or wooden paddle, scrape and turn the syrup toward the center, and continue turning it over and over, working from the edges of the mass. Each time that the syrup is turned over, scrape the slab clean and turn the spatula up and over the mass, occasionally scraping mixture from the spatula with a case knife. It will soon become white and creamy. Knead with the hands until perfectly smooth, cover with a cloth wrung out of cold water, and leave for half an hour. Cut in pieces and put into a stone or glass jar and cover with a wet cloth or glass top. It is better to let it remain two or three days before using, and it may be kept for months in a dry cool place. White Fondant II 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup cold water 2 drops acetic acid Proceed as in White Fondant I, using acetic acid in place of cream of tartar. White Fondant III 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup boiling water 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar 1/2 teaspoon glycerine Proceed as in White Fondant I, adding glycerine with cream of tartar, when syrup begins to boil.
Butter Fondant 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup milk 1 teaspoon corn syrup 2 tablespoons butter Put sugar, milk, corn syrup, and butter in saucepan, and proceed as in White Fondant I.
Coffee Fondant 1 cup cold water 2 tablespoons ground coffee 2 cups sugar 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar Put water and coffee in saucepan, heat to boiling point, strain through double cheesecloth, add sugar, and proceed as in White Fondant I. Maple Fondant 1 cup maple sugar 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup water 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar Put maple sugar, white sugar, and water in saucepan, and proceed as in White Fondant I.
Opera Fondant 2 cups sugar 1 cup heavy cream 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar Put sugar and cream in saucepan, stir until it boils, add cream of tartar and boil, stirring constantly to prevent burning, but degrees gently so it will not become granular. Cook to 238 degrees F., or until it forms a soft ball when tried in cold water. Pour on marble slab, agate tray, or large platter which has been slightly moistened by wiping it over with a damp cloth, and leave until cold. With a broad metal spatula or a wooden butter paddle bring the edges of the candy into the center, then work candy back and forth with a long sweep of the spatula until it becomes firm. This takes a much longer time than plain fondant to become creamy. Cover with a damp cloth, let stand half an hour, and use as desired. If not wanted at once for fudge, bonbons, or chocolate cream centers, put in glass jar, cover closely, and keep in a cool place.
These are working formulas for the base material of a whole confectionery repertoire — bonbons, cream centers, fudge — and the technique matters far more than the ingredient list. Two things decide success: keeping stray crystals out of the syrup, and letting the poured syrup go completely cold before touching it.
- Let it cool untouchedThe instruction not to disturb the syrup until it is cold is the hinge of the whole method. Agitating hot syrup throws large crystals and gives gritty fondant; a fully cooled, supersaturated mass crystallizes fine and creamy when worked. The book asks only that it be left until cold, and how long that takes depends on the depth of the pour and the slab.
- 238F, and calibrate firstSoft-ball stage. Check your thermometer in boiling water and adjust for altitude — subtract about 1F from the target for every 500 feet above sea level, or the fondant will be too stiff to knead.
- Washing down and the covered steamBoth steps exist to dissolve crystals clinging to the pan wall, any one of which will seed the batch. The three covered minutes let condensing steam do the same job. Do not skip either, and do not stir after boiling begins in the water-based versions — the milk and cream fondants below are the exception, and the book has you stir those throughout.
- Acetic acid in Fondant IIAcetic acid here means a dilute druggist's preparation, not the glacial acid sold today, which is corrosive and is not a kitchen ingredient; two drops of it is not the same as two drops of table vinegar. Use Fondant I or III instead — the cream of tartar serves the same purpose, inverting a little of the sugar.
- VesselsAn agate tray is enamelled steel; any large, heavy, non-reactive tray or slab works, and a marble pastry slab is still the best surface. A "case knife" is an ordinary table knife. A stone jar is glazed stoneware — a glass jar with a tight lid is equivalent.
- Opera Fondant needs constant attentionSugar cooked in cream scorches readily. Use a heavy pan, moderate heat and steady stirring, and expect it to take noticeably longer to turn creamy on the slab than the water-based versions.
- Maple sugarSold as hard cakes or granulated maple sugar; grate or chop a cake before measuring. Pure maple syrup is not a direct substitute, since it brings extra water and will shift the cooking time.
- Ripening and yieldThe two or three days of rest is real — fondant softens and smooths as moisture equalizes through the crystals. Fondant I makes well over twice as much as the two-cup formulas, which yield roughly a pound apiece. Keep it covered with a damp cloth under the lid or a crust will form.
History: Fondant — from the French fondre, to melt — was long a professional confectioner's material before it appeared in domestic candy books, and its spread in American household books around the turn of the twentieth century coincided with cheap refined white sugar and with the availability of the candy thermometer. Before thermometers, a cook judged the syrup by the cold-water test, and this book gives both, offering the older test as an equal alternative rather than a fallback. The variations show how a single base was expected to serve a household's whole candy output: the same cooled, kneaded cream, tinted and flavored, became bonbon coating, chocolate-cream centers and the body of fudge. The marble slab is a confectionery shop tool, and the instruction never to scrape the kettle into the poured batch reflects the same concern as washing down the pan — the last scrapings carry stray crystals.