Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the creams
For dipping cream, mix sugar with a small amount of glucose or cream of tartar.
For center creams, add 4 ounces of glucose to each pound of sugar and boil slightly higher.
Color and flavor the creams as desired.
Finish the dipping cream
Warm the dipping cream in a double boiler, stirring gently until soft enough to cover fruits or nut pastes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the base of the fondant, crystallizing into a smooth, fine-textured cream when cooked and worked.
- Glucose
- Interferes with sugar crystal formation, keeping the fondant smooth and soft rather than grainy.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the sugar syrup, helping prevent crystallization and keeping the cream smooth.
The step that matters
Boiling the center creams. Boiling the sugar and glucose to the right temperature sets how much water remains. Too little cooking leaves the cream soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More fondant recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.