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Icing for Eclairs
Put a pound and three-quarters of granulated sugar in a saucepan with one gill of cold water; set on the stove and mix well with a wooden spoon until the sugar is thoroughly melted; when boiling remove from the stove and pour it gradually onto a marble slab; spread it about three feet square and let it cool for ten minutes. Put one ounce of coffee into a saucepan with a breakfast cupful of cold water and boil until reduced to about two tablespoonfuls, strain through a cloth and let it cool; begin working the sugar that is on the slab with a spatula as rapidly as possible in every direction until it begins to whiten; add the coffee essence, mixing thoroughly until it becomes quite hard; remove the spatula, detach the preparation from the slab quickly with a knife, put into a vessel, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for half an hour. Place half of the mixture in a saucepan on the hot fire and mix thoroughly and slowly with the spatula until it is lukewarm, adding in the meantime one teaspoonful of cold water. The remainder of the preparation is laid aside in a cool place and if properly taken care of will keep for a fortnight.
This is poured coffee fondant, the classic French icing for éclairs, written for a professional pastry bench with a marble slab and a coal range. It converts cleanly to a home kitchen, but the syrup stage is described so briefly that it needs filling in.
- The hinge: cook the syrup to soft-ball, not just to a boilTaken literally, "when boiling remove from the stove" would leave you with hot syrup that never sets. Fondant requires the syrup to reach 238-240F (soft-ball stage); the original assumes a pastry cook who knew that without being told.
- Keep crystals out of the syrupWash down the pan sides with a wet brush while the sugar dissolves and stop stirring once it boils. A single stray crystal on the wall of the pan will seed the whole batch and give you grainy fondant instead of a smooth one.
- UnitsA gill is half a cup. A breakfast cupful is roughly 8 to 10 fluid ounces. A pound and three-quarters of sugar is about 4 cups.
- The marble slabThe recipe has the syrup spread out about three feet square, which implies a professional bench. At home, use any clean marble or granite slab, or a chilled rimmed sheet pan, and pour the syrup out thinly so it cools evenly. The stone's job is to pull heat out fast; a warm surface gives coarse crystals.
- Coffee essenceOne ounce of ground coffee reduced to two tablespoons is an intensely bitter concentrate, closer to a reduced espresso than to brewed coffee. Two tablespoons of very strong espresso, reduced slightly, does the same work.
- "Working" the sugarThis is creaming: push and fold the cooled syrup continuously with a spatula or bench scraper until it turns opaque and stiff. It goes from clear to white quite suddenly and then stiffens quickly, so have the coffee essence measured and to hand.
- Reheating to dipWarm the fondant only to lukewarm, about 100F, thinning with a teaspoonful of water at a time. Above roughly 105F it loses its gloss and dries dull and chalky on the pastry.
- Yield and storageThe full quantity makes close to two pounds of fondant, enough for several dozen éclairs; half or quarter it for home use. The damp cloth prevents a crust forming, and the fortnight is honest: kept airtight in the refrigerator it will last that long and longer.
Fondant of this kind is the standard finishing glaze of nineteenth-century French pâtisserie, and its presence in Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection reflects how completely the Waldorf's kitchens were organised on the French model. The name comes from the French fondre, to melt, describing icing that dissolves on the tongue rather than one that sets brittle. Coffee, chocolate and vanilla were the three conventional éclair finishes, the fondant colour announcing the flavour of the cream inside. The instruction to lay half the batch aside in a cool place for a fortnight is a working kitchen's economy: fondant was made in quantity, stored as a stiff paste, and thinned and warmed in small amounts as orders came in.