Making Fondant

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Gscot

New Bee
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Location
Central Scotland
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First try at making fondant Added sugar,glucose and water brought to the boil cooled it fast while stirring.The problem is I dont know what fondant is supposed to look like when finnished.It seemed to go back looking like sugar."Could any one help and let me know if the picture attached looks anything like fondant".
 
Hi................. I tried to make some last weekend.........and my 1st attempt looked just the same.......

Hmmmmm

roy
 
I used to buy good clean (no additives) fondant from my local baker sadly now closed down. I tried to make some using a recipe given to me on here but ended up so hard I could barely dent it. Chucked the lot. I bought a jam thermometer too which has an indicator for 'soft ball' temp when it hit this I cooled v.fast. I think the trouble was it didn't get up to that temp quick enough so ended up over cooked.

I think someone well versed in making fondant should oblige with a YouTube video?

Any volunteers? I'll load it on my website to if it will help.
 
I suspect you had large undisolved sugar crystals still on the side of your mixture/pan when you cooled it, and stirred,causing it to granulate coarsly...like back to sugar,..that is providing you got it to the correct temp to start with?
 
Hi Gscot,
It looks a bit like my first attempt last year, not very inspiring, is it?

Given that you are using the recipe given earlier, 1kg sugar, 200g glucose and 150ml water, it looks like you might have brought it to a boil, but the object is actually to slowly dissolve the sugar.

When making 2:1 syrup, we are just about on the edge of how much sugar can be reliably dissolved in warm/cold water, after which it quickly reaches saturation. Raising the temperature of the solution allows more sugar to be dissolved. If brought to a rapid boil then the game is lost as you will lose water and the crystals will remain as large as they are.

Keep the solution hot and below boiling while stirring to dissolve the crystals. The glucose is there to seed the crystal growth in the syrup as it cools. I use a wooden spatula that allows me to scrape the bottom of the pot reliably, in a way that your metal spoon cannot, due to the shape and it's a good heat sink, so probably not quite as efficient as it might be.

I know from the batch that I made last night that the amount of water at 150ml seemed to be exceedingly low, but I persevered and I think that my result was about 95% good.

So, knowing the target, I fell short, but only because I too still had sugar crystals in the solution when I took the heat off. How would I change things? I will tonight add another 50ml of water, bringing it to 200ml and make sure that I get to a syrup stage, without boiling before taking it off the heat.

Why? Well, to make it slightly easier for the sugar crystals to dissolve fully in the first place. I am confident that even with the slight increase in water content, that the sugar will not be able to remain in solution without crystalising. I expect that the fondant might be slightly more mobile, but I'll still have room in the tetra-pack carton

Interestingly if you take a 1 litre-tetra pack that fruit juice and some milk comes in, and open up one side (top, side, bottom) to make a box for the fondant. I found that it all fitted nicely, with about 1/4 inch to spare. I placed it on a kitchen towel with the open side against a wall or batten of wood, so that it is supported and sets straight, rather than bulging. A neat disposable storage solution.

You can stack it up for storage and open the flap and pop it on the bees in 1kg portions.

In the past I think that I have followed recipes to the best of my ability without thinking through the mechanics of the process. Also, thinking about it, this cold weather is probably the best time for making fondant.

Liquid glucose 150g from the supermarket baking section £1.19? Glucose powder 450g packet (with added vitamin C (wow)) £1.39. You do the sums, the powder also mixes more easily with the dry sugar than the liquid glucose.

Confession, I only used 150g of liquid glucose, because that was the size of the tube available; nothing to get too anal about in the greater scheme of things.

Any one else got any insights into the actual process and tips for those that still have to be confident about getting a good result every time?

Gscot, don't try to reprocess your current batch as you will be coming from an indeterminate starting point. Make it into syrup and start again with a fresh bag of sugar. If the bees don't take it over the winter, consider some peppermint essence and feeding it to the kids/grandkids in the spring :) :)
 
just did two lots. My way to say if it is a good batch or not is to taste it and if it melts in your mouth with in 1 sec. leaving nothing but sweet taste it is good stuff.
The trick is to make sure that before you get to this soft ball stage you have no sugar crystals in you syrup. if you have, you end up like you have in your pot.to save it i would just add a small amount of water and bring it slowly to boil again.

good luck.
Lauri

PS! i would also use a bigger pot..
 
Thanks for the quick replys, I have made another batch with the advice of you guys and it seems to be o.k.The problem was that I over cooked it .This batch is light grey, solid and when you poke it with your finger it forms a dent.Thanks again for the valued information and help.
 
Thanks for the quick replys, I have made another batch with the advice of you guys and it seems to be o.k.The problem was that I over cooked it .This batch is light grey, solid and when you poke it with your finger it forms a dent.Thanks again for the valued information and help.

Result :)
 
Just made some fondant, 1kg Sugar, 200mgs Glucos, 200mls water. I rolled and kneaded it on a board sprinkled with icing sugar .Its my second attempt and lm very pleased the way the fondant turned out , my only worry is the icing sugar contained a small amount of maize starch, would the maize starch be harmful to bees. l,d be pleased if it was not harmful as l now have enough to feed my nuc in the new year.
Regards
Liam C
 
Starch in food is not good for bee's,depends how much.
 
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This is not fondant, it should look like that roll on icing that you buy in the supermarket.
My recipe is 2lb of sugar, 7ounces of boiling water, simmer until it has all melted in the water (only a couple of minutes). Then put pan into a sink of cold water and keep stiring, it should turn into thick icing type of consistency. Then put on a board and knead it - a bit of icing sugar helps.
Louise
 
I did turn it out on to a board and knead it and did use icing sugar on the board as you suggest ,put it into a freezer bag and stored it in a fridge but l saw afterwards that the icing sugar container maize starch and am wondering about the starch. The amount is very small.
Regards
Liam C
 
I think that you have it just right Liam. 150g water a bit stiff, 250g water a bit loose.

Skip the icing sugar bit, you don't really want to handle the stuff anyway. Your choice freezer bags, but the shape is not so good perhaps unless restrained during the final cooling/setting phase of the operation.

The Bako fondant that you buy is poured directly into the blue plastic bags for the 12.5kg boxes, which I wouldn't mind betting are supported by either the box or some other former until it is cool. Even new boxes on a pallet have a few that are beginning to flow out-of-square slightly.

As mentioned earlier, my take is to use milk or fruit juice tetra-pak cartons as shown. The 150g is on the left and 250g on the right. The difference in colour is merely a colour cast reflected from the lid. Just so that no one thinks that I'm making any of this up.

I found it easier to put the boiling water into the measuring jug and then directly into the pot. Dump in the sugar and then the glucose and dibble it with the wooden spatula. Pouring the liquid onto the sugar I found didn't wet the sugar quite as effectively, but is no great deal. I leave it standing for a while, with occasional stirs until I'm ready to melt the sugar into solution.

Bigger pot soon with a 3kg batch of sugar with just 450g glucose, because that's the size of a new packet. :) :) Just need a few more cartons first.

Oh, and yes the wax on the outside of the carton is apt to run a little, so be careful where you sit it when it's warm.
 
For some reason I am not able to find glucose in any shops anywhere.
 
Really useful thread, thanks all (in particular Hombre) and if I recall correctly some good stuff on temperatures in another thread posted by Frisbee.
I am having a go at making not buying this year, so thanks also to Gscot for sharing and taking some of the learning curve out of it for me. At about £18 per 12.50Kg block delivered (and I need a couple) it's worth a go. R
 
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Up here in Kendal Mint Cake country there's lots of fondant.
 

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