Fondant Recipe

[Mothman]

Having looked at the recipes for fondant here I note Northants Beekeepers have given the recipe as 4 parts sugar to 1 part water and a teaspoon of vinegar - is vinegar a good substitute for glucose syrup?

 

[alanf]

Having looked at the recipes for fondant here I note Northants Beekeepers have given the recipe as 4 parts sugar to 1 part water and a teaspoon of vinegar - is vinegar a good substitute for glucose syrup?

Not really. Vinegar (or cream of tartar in some recipes) is an acid, the chemistry is that you're hydrolysing the sucrose to fructose and glucose. In an acid environment that will go on to produce HMF from the fructose. HMF being harmful to bees. Exactly how much HMF you're producing is going to vary with timing, temperature and acid concentration all of which you're not able to control with a lot of accuracy so best avoided.

 

[RogueDrone]

Can someone inthe know point in the direction of a working recipe

 

[enrico]

I don't want to sound patronising but I have made candy for the past 28 years by boiling 2 parts sugar to one part water long enough for it to show hard ball on a cooking thermometer. I then poured it into margarine tubs and let it go hard. I had always used this until two years ago when I bought bako icing fondant from my local bakery....why oh why didn't I do that before! It isn't expensive, it takes no effort except to cut it and bag it, it stores well, the bees use it happily. All those years of standing over a hot stove....and on this forum I have been told that that is not how to make candy anyway..... Both work, both keep the bees alive but one is so much easier than the other!
E

 

[george]

Nicely put .
G

 

[Bob Bee]

Can someone inthe know point in the direction of a working recipe

Our association favoured recipe is:
Fondant Recipe (Winter Feeding)
4 parts by volume white sugar
4 parts by volume 2:1 sugar syrup
3 parts by volume water
Boil the water and slowly add the sugar and syrup, stirring until all is dissolved.
Keep heating until the temperature reaches 114°C (238°F).
Let the mixture cool, without mixing, and when just warm to the touch begin to mix again and allow the mixture to air, it should lighten in colour.


or the vusual version with glucose:
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/video.php?do=viewdetails&videoid=96

 

[Elaine]

1KG bag sugar
350ml water

boil until reaches 115 degrees C

stir in 1 tablespoon glucose syrup

Cool for 20 mins , use electric whisk until too stiff for blades to move freely, cool and bag.

 

[mbc]

I don't want to sound patronising but I have made candy for the past 28 years by boiling 2 parts sugar to one part water long enough for it to show hard ball on a cooking thermometer. I then poured it into margarine tubs and let it go hard. I had always used this until two years ago when I bought bako icing fondant from my local bakery....why oh why didn't I do that before! It isn't expensive, it takes no effort except to cut it and bag it, it stores well, the bees use it happily. All those years of standing over a hot stove....and on this forum I have been told that that is not how to make candy anyway..... Both work, both keep the bees alive but one is so much easier than the other!
E

Fondant from bako is cheap and convenient, I like to get enough to feed the mini nucs through the summer and to have a strategic reserve ready to put a block on anything that hefts light during the winter.

 

[Phil Henry]

Bakers Fondant

2lbs sugar
1/2 pint of 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 thicker move to work surface and whisk with mixer until soft and white.

It is quite easy to make Baker's Fondant without a thermometer, which aren't too accurate 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

280f = small crack - used for spun sugar (candy floss)

310f = hard crack - used for more brittle sweets like barley sugar

345f = caramel



WARNING:- Once the water has been absorbed and you are boiling sugar the temp rises fast.

Have a bowl or sink of cold water ready. 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, when it gets thicker move to work surface and whisk with mixer until soft and white.

 

[drstitson]

go to local bakery or BAKO depot and buy a box.
simples.

 

[hallshoney]

click on video at the top of the page then click on video search. fondant. Rostis recipe and full instructions on how to make.

 

[BeeNice]

Ok, easy, just made some today, big pan, 500ml water, 2 litres sugar. Put water in pan, heat, put in all sugar, stir all the time till heat gets to 117 degrees, you need a cooks thermometer. Fill sink with cold water. Once up to heat, take off heat and put in sink (still in the pan) and stir until it thickens and turns milky, pour into beefeeding containers (plastic food container), let set. Done. Hope this helps.
regards
Steven

 

[peterbees]

Bee candy recipe, from an old-time beekeeper, for winter feeding.
22oz of water (one pint and 4 table spoons), bring to the boil and add
6 lb’s of white sugar slowly and add one tea spoon of cream of tarter. Bring the mixture to the boil and keep boiling fast for HALF A MINUTE ONLY. Leave to cool, and when cloudiness appears stir vigorously and then immediately pour into container(s)- before it begins to set.
It takes no time at all to make, but waiting for the mixture to cool takes longer then all the rest.
It works - I have been using this method for years for emergency winter food.
The cream of tarter I think prevents it setting too hard. If you get it wrong it will set hard like stone and can not be used.

 

[enrico]

You can still use it hard!!! In the nicest possible sense! If the bees need it they will lick it to live! Better softer though!
E

 

[itma]

Can someone inthe know point in the direction of a working recipe

click on video at the top of the page then click on video search. fondant. Rostis recipe and full instructions on how to make.

Yes there is one (with video demo) here on the forum.
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/video.php?do=viewdetails&videoid=96


I'd suggest a little more glucose, a little less boiling (end a degree or so lower) and adding some fructose (to help keep it moist).

But after you've done it once, just buy some Bako fondant. Really.

Or for a small quantity (more for queen cages in summer than starvation avoidance in spring) just buy some supermarket "ready to roll fondant icing". Per kilo its about twice Bako's price. And has various minor additives (that might just be beneficial, rather than harmful, to the bees.)

 

[dubbySwords]

hard or soft

Hi!
I tested a few recepies last winter but all ended up quite hard.
I thought this was a problem.
Does it work to feed them hard fondant?

Thanks in advance,
DS

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Not tried any myself but im taking the advice here and getting some from bako. Problem though not really any local bakers anymore here replaced with greggs.

I phoned up a local biscuit making company on the trading estate and they have a bako account and are willing to give it to me at cost price, so if you do your research you should be able to get it as I thought it was game over locally, when I get a some honey i'll give them a few jars to keep them sweet too .

 

[dubbySwords]

Unfortunitelly I'm based in Stockholm and when I mentioned fondant to the local baker he priced it at 5 to 10 times the price of sugar. I don't know what the name is for the substance mentioned here in Sweden.
I still come back to the question is a hard result ok?

/DS

 

[protheroe]

my fondant always ends up like a brick for whatever reason but the bees still get through it ok