- Joined
- Nov 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,439
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Nr Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 8
Bakers Fondant
2lbs sugar
1/2 pint or less water
1 tablespoon liquid glucose
Heat water, sugar and glucose together until sugar has dissolved, bring to boil, boil to 240f. Put the pan into a sink of cold water and start stirring with a flat wooden spatula. It is important to keep the mixture moving, when it gets harder to stir and has cooled sufficiently to work with hands pour out onto a clen worktop splashed with water, knead the mixture like bread until cool. Wrap in cling film. The glucose keeps it supple.
It is quite easy to make Baker's Fondant without a thermometer, which aren't too acurate in any case.
The temperatures for sugar boiling and the results are :-
240f = soft ball - if you drop a splodge of mix into a bowl of water the resulting cool ball of sugar will be soft like a chewy mint.
250f = hard ball - same splodge, hard ball (I think this is what you boiled to)
280f = small crack - used for spun sugar (candy floss)
310f = hard crack - used for more brittle sweets like barley sugar
345f = caramel
When I learnt my sugar boiling skills at catering college we didn't use thermometers as the state of the syrup is better at showing the temp than a dodgy thermometer.
Once the water has gone and you are boiling pure sugar the temp rises reasonably quickly.
Have ready a bowl of cold water. When the mixture boils it will take a few minutes for the water to evaporate off, the easiest way to describe it is the boil "slows down" the temperature will then rise quite quickly. After it has "slow boiled" for 1 minute and using the spoon you are stirring with, drip a drop of mixture into the cold water, follow it with your fingers, if the temperature is right the drop will form a small soft ball, if it disintegrates under your fingers it has not boiled enough, keep boiling and trying till you get the "soft ball" When this happens stop boiling immediately, turn off the heat and put the pan into a sink of cold water and start stirring.
2lbs sugar
1/2 pint or less water
1 tablespoon liquid glucose
Heat water, sugar and glucose together until sugar has dissolved, bring to boil, boil to 240f. Put the pan into a sink of cold water and start stirring with a flat wooden spatula. It is important to keep the mixture moving, when it gets harder to stir and has cooled sufficiently to work with hands pour out onto a clen worktop splashed with water, knead the mixture like bread until cool. Wrap in cling film. The glucose keeps it supple.
It is quite easy to make Baker's Fondant without a thermometer, which aren't too acurate in any case.
The temperatures for sugar boiling and the results are :-
240f = soft ball - if you drop a splodge of mix into a bowl of water the resulting cool ball of sugar will be soft like a chewy mint.
250f = hard ball - same splodge, hard ball (I think this is what you boiled to)
280f = small crack - used for spun sugar (candy floss)
310f = hard crack - used for more brittle sweets like barley sugar
345f = caramel
When I learnt my sugar boiling skills at catering college we didn't use thermometers as the state of the syrup is better at showing the temp than a dodgy thermometer.
Once the water has gone and you are boiling pure sugar the temp rises reasonably quickly.
Have ready a bowl of cold water. When the mixture boils it will take a few minutes for the water to evaporate off, the easiest way to describe it is the boil "slows down" the temperature will then rise quite quickly. After it has "slow boiled" for 1 minute and using the spoon you are stirring with, drip a drop of mixture into the cold water, follow it with your fingers, if the temperature is right the drop will form a small soft ball, if it disintegrates under your fingers it has not boiled enough, keep boiling and trying till you get the "soft ball" When this happens stop boiling immediately, turn off the heat and put the pan into a sink of cold water and start stirring.
Last edited:
. If you only have one or two hives though a 12.5 kg box is too much and I actually enjoy making stuff like that and probably wouldn't buy it - I know I'm strange. . . . . some would even say "difficult" but there you go 
