Fondant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fondant is a confection used as a filling or coating for cakes, pastries, and candies or sweets. In its simplest form, it is sugar and water cooked to a point, specifically soft-ball stage, cooled slightly, and stirred or beaten until it is an opaque mass of creamy consistency. Typically, glucose is added to prevent the syrup from graining while cooking. Corn syrup is the most common form of glucose used.
Fondant can be confused with sugar paste which is similar but contains arabic gum. Sugar paste is called fondant ribbon in the USA.
The finished product solidifies and may be stored until needed, when reheating returns it to a liquid state. As a liquid it may be poured into molds, or over cakes and pastries as a form of icing. The word fondant comes from the Old French fondre and Latin fundere, meaning "to melt."
In an intermediate temperature between liquid and firmly solid, fondant may be rolled or molded. In this state it is often used for making "cream"-filled chocolates, and elaborate cake decoration, including a flat base for the decoration of wedding cakes. Fondant may be used as a substitute for chocolate in coatings for candies, either as mock white chocolate, or with cocoa added to the fondant, as a chocolate-like covering.
Cherries or other fruits preserved in liqueurs or syrups are dipped in liquid fondant, which is then allowed to solidify. When the fruits are subsequently dipped in chocolate for an outer hard shell, the fondant liquifies again inside the chocolate.
When used as an icing for cakes, petit fours, and certain pastries, fondant is often put over a base layer of marzipan. Fondant is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes, giving them a smooth look.
Some fondant manufacturers add in hydrogenated vegetable oils to give it a "creamier" texture and longer shelf life.
[edit] Physical analysis
Fondant is formed by supersaturating sucrose in water. The water can only dissolve a limited amount of sucrose at a given temperature; by raising the temperature of the liquid, more sugar can be dissolved.
Then, after the sucrose is dissolved, the solution if left to cool and the sugar will remain dissolved in the supersaturated solution until nucleation occurs. If, while the solution is supersaturated, a seed crystal (undissolved sucrose) falls into the mix, or the solution is agitated the dissolved sucrose will crystalize to form large, crunchy crystals. If, however, the solution is allowed to cool and then stirred furiously, violently mixing the entire mixture, it will form many tiny crystals and result in a smooth texture.
