No. 3652

Fondants Dipped in Strawberry or Raspberry

Fondants Trempes a la Fraise ou a la Framboise

Put some fondant into a copper pan and heat well, dissolving it with a few spoonfuls of strawberry or raspberry juice. As soon as hot cast it through a funnel into the starch, proceeding the same as for vanilla fondant (No. 3651). When firm and cold take them carefully from the starch and dip each one in a strawberry or raspberry fondant lightly tinted with a little carmine.

← No. 3651 Vanilla Fondants Candies & Bonbons No. 3653 Candies for Mottoes →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you already know the two techniques this depends on: casting fondant into a starch mould, and dipping at the right temperature. Both are unforgiving about heat.

The hinge: never overheat fondantConfectionery practice warns against heating fondant much past about 160F, since the fine crystal structure coarsens and the fondant sets dull and grainy. Warm it slowly over a water bath, just fluid enough to run from the funnel.
The starch tray"The starch" is a tray of cornstarch, dried and cooled, levelled off, and impressed with a plaster or wooden mould to make cavities; this is the hand version of the process later mechanised as the starch mogul. Dry starch is essential; damp starch gives soft, misshapen centres.
Copper panSugar-boiling pans of this kind were generally unlined copper, valued for even heat, but acidic fruit juice on bare copper is not appropriate now. Use stainless steel or a heavy enamelled pan.
FunnelHe means a confectioner's dropping funnel, a conical funnel with a stick plugging the spout that is lifted to release a measured drop. A disposable piping bag with a small plain tip does the same work.
The juiceUse strained, seedless fruit juice and add it a spoonful at a time. Too much water thins the fondant past the point where it will set firm in the starch; the mixture should still be thick enough to hold a mounded drop.
CarmineCarmine is cochineal extract, still sold as a food colour, though it is insect-derived and not suitable for vegans or those avoiding it for religious reasons. A drop or two is enough; "lightly tinted" is the instruction.
Curing before dippingLeave the cast centres in the starch several hours or overnight so a thin crust forms. Brush the starch off with a soft brush before dipping, or the coating will not adhere cleanly.
The dipping fondantThe outer fondant should be looser than the centres and kept just fluid over a water bath; drop each centre in, lift on a dipping fork, and set on parchment. Yield depends entirely on your mould.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and its confectionery chapters read like a professional manual rather than a household book, which is why he can say "cast it into the starch" without explaining what the starch is. Casting soft centres in impressed cornstarch trays, the technique that later became the mechanised starch mogul, spread through European and American confectionery over the middle decades of the nineteenth century and made fondant bonbons a commercial product rather than a hand-rolled luxury. Fondant itself, sugar boiled to the soft-ball stage and then agitated while cooling so it crystallises into a fine white paste, is generally traced to French confectioners of the same period; its whole appeal is the smooth mouthfeel of crystals too small to detect on the tongue.