Making fondant

[piggy]

Hi, this is my first post.
Has anybody tried making fondant by boiling liquid ambrosia syrup to 117C?
I could just try it but you might save me from making a mess ........
Thanks

 

[Goran]

Mess isn't a problem, problem is "Hydroxymethylfurfural" which will kill Your bees. If I have to warm syrup I don't use temperatures over 60C and shorter period I can.

 

[piggy]

Thanks Goran.
I'm using a video on the forum (made by Rosti) showing how to make fondant using white sugar and liquid glucose and boiling to 117C. I've made fondant using this method but the result is quite 'grainy'. The ambrosia fondant and Fondabee fondant is very much finer grained and doesn't seem to go hard so quickly.

 

[Goran]

Well I'm not so experienced to feel free to say the way I make it will be OK for You. Cause also I made them for the first time now, and still gonna see what I did. There are here more experienced beekeepers who can give You proper answer. Also use forum search

All the best..

 

[Winker]

at £14.93 for 12.5kg from Bako why waist your time? Its almost as cheep as making it.

 

[Easy Beesy]

Thanks Goran.
I'm using a video on the forum (made by Rosti) showing how to make fondant using white sugar and liquid glucose and boiling to 117C. I've made fondant using this method but the result is quite 'grainy'. The ambrosia fondant and Fondabee fondant is very much finer grained and doesn't seem to go hard so quickly.

When I first started making fondant using Rosti's video, I had a few mishaps too. I have made it often enough now that I can do it right and it turns out lovely and smooth and soft just like Bako stuff. I get free sugar so for me it's cheaper to make my own.

 

[Winker]

When I first started making fondant using Rosti's video, I had a few mishaps too. I have made it often enough now that I can do it right and it turns out lovely and smooth and soft just like Bako stuff. I get free sugar so for me it's cheaper to make my own.

I like free

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

at £14.93 for 12.5kg from Bako why waist your time? Its almost as cheep as making it.

How much! just over £12.00 at our Bako a few months back when we bought ours.

 

[Winker]

How much! just over £12.00 at our Bako a few months back when we bought ours.

Thats the price they are quoting on their website

 

[stumorph]

Thats the price they are quoting on their website

Which bako fondant do you use I see they have 5/6 differnt ones

 

[Winker]

Which bako fondant do you use I see they have 5/6 differnt ones

The one that can be found HERE

 

[Rosti]

Thanks Goran.
I'm using a video on the forum (made by Rosti) showing how to make fondant using white sugar and liquid glucose and boiling to 117C. I've made fondant using this method but the result is quite 'grainy'. The ambrosia fondant and Fondabee fondant is very much finer grained and doesn't seem to go hard so quickly.

If grainy then look again at the dissolving stage for the sugar, make sure that you have no lumps left that can burn or seed later.
Second, the early stages of gentle agitaion during cooling are also important. I knead mine to get a uniform paste, if you pour direct to a mould you'll also get a coarser product.

 

[itma]

Buying *is* generally easier than diy.

For the determined diy enthusiast, I'd suggest the following
- don't use a non-stick pan (stirring the grainy sugar during melting is abrasive!)
- don't skimp on the glucose. If anything, use extra.
- add a bit of fructose (about as much as the glucose). It helps prevent it drying out in storage.
- if anything, *under* rather than overshoot the final boiling temperature. Try stopping a degree or so early.






/// When creaming honey, we add a trace of deliberately very tiny seed crystals, to get tiny 'smooth' crystals in the granulated honey.
Has anyone tried a similar deliberate 'seeding' of their fondant to make it "creamier" rather than grainy?

 

[piggy]

I've made Rosti's recipe many times last summer and fed it to the bees with great success but I intend to do some queen rearing this coming summer and have read on the Forum that in mininucs people tend to use ambrosia or similar fondant as its more easily converted by the bees than home made or Bako's.

My original question was has anyone used ambrosia syrup to make home made fondant? Additionally, would the consensus be that this would be identical or very similar to the ambrosia fondant that you can buy?

Thank you for all the replies so far.

 

[Ailsaboat]

How do you know if the fondant you get has Hydroxymethylfurfural in it??
Do you just trust that the maker knows what they're doing, or is there a way to tell?
And if it has, what will happen - will the bees 'get sick' and a quick removal of the fondant will cure, or will it wipe out the whole colony before you realise??

 

[Hivemaker.]

I intend to do some queen rearing this coming summer and have read on the Forum that in mininucs people tend to use ambrosia or similar fondant as its more easily converted by the bees than home made or Bako's.

I use nothing but Bako plain white fondant in all my mini mating nucs, have used this for many years.

 

[Hivemaker.]

How do you know if the fondant you get has Hydroxymethylfurfural in it??
Do you just trust that the maker knows what they're doing, or is there a way to tell?

If you mean the commercially made fondant,like from Bako, then very little heat is used in it's manufacture, homogenized sugar paste, unlike the home made stuff.

 

[itma]

How do you know if the fondant you get has Hydroxymethylfurfural in it??

HMF is a yellowy-brown colour.
Baco white fondant is... errr... white!


//And don't use syrup if it has gone a straw colour ...

 

[user 6228]

if you do under reduced pressure you can reduce the the amount of HMF produced as it will be at lower temperatures

 

[Hombre]

@Piggy, the short answer to your question is, that I don't know.

I have used Frisbee's fondant recipe and until this month, I have have variable mileage from it, but as Rosti has pointed out to you, the problem was in the sugar boiling stage.

Let's look at some facts. the Frisbee recipe calls for 1/2 pint water to 2lb (1kg) of sugar and a table spoon of liquid glucose (buy a big bucket, not a tube from the local supermarket). Be generous with the glucose. I used a desert spoon and as much as would make the trip from bucket to put.

Like you, I turned up the wick under a stainless steel soup pot, with both a 2kg and 3kg (sugar weight) batch on the lowest light that I could manage. My thinking was as follows:

If I make up 4.5:1 syrup, then I know that when it cools, that the supersaturated syrup will inevitably crystalise. I used a flat wooden spatula as recommended and ensured that the sugar was all dissolved before it started to give indications of coming to the boil.

If you make jam, you know that once you start to boil the sugar, then the friut will no longer soften. Similarly when you bring sugar to the boil, any crystals that haven't dissolved are unlikely to, so take it slowly.

Once you have your supersaturated sugar syrup in the sink and start stirring, you only need to remember that it can't do anything other than crystalise as it cools. Stir with your spatula, taking any thickening components from the sides and bottom of the pan as you can and stir in. Eventuall it will start going milky and personally I like to start dispensing it while it is still very runny, as by the time I am finishing, it is stiffening up both in the bags that I use and in the pot.

I suspect that with Ambrosia, bringing it to the boil is likely to make you toffee and is at best an expensive way to make fondant.

I am happy now that I can get consistently repeatable results. The difference between the 2kg and 3kg sugar weight batches, was that it took a significantly long time stirring before the 3kg batch gave indications of becoming milky, but all you have to remember is that sugar can't defy the laws of physics and will crystalise.