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Dessert

Cream Fondant

A sugar confection made by cooking sugar, glucose, butter, and cream to a hard ball stage and folding in a tough cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Fondant

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tough cream

  1. Combine 6 pounds of sugar, 3 pounds of glucose, and enough water to dissolve them in a kettle.

  2. Cook to 238°F (114°C).

  3. Pour the mixture onto a damp slab.

  4. Start creaming it immediately to create a tough cream.

  5. Set aside.

Make the fondant

  1. In the kettle, combine 8 pounds of sugar, 16 pounds of glucose, ½ pound of nucoa butter, 2 ounces of cocoa butter, and ½ gallon of cream.

  2. Stir and cook to 270°F (132°C).

  3. Add an additional ½ gallon of cream.

  4. Cook just until it reaches a crack stage.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir in the tough cream until well dissolved.

  7. Test for a firm, hard ball consistency.

  8. Pour the mixture onto the slab.

  9. Let it sit for five minutes.

  10. Fold the mixture.

Flavor and shape

  1. Cut it into three equal pieces.

  2. Mix almonds into one piece.

  3. Mix chocolate into another piece.

  4. Leave the last piece plain.

  5. Roll out the pieces to the height of caramels using a heavy rolling pin.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cocoa butter + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + cocoa buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides the main sweet, crystalline body of the confection.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the fondant smooth and tender rather than grainy.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sugar structure.
Cocoa butter
Adds fat for a smooth mouthfeel and a melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Nucoa butter
Adds fat that softens texture and contributes richness.

The step that matters

Cook to a crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set the right balance of water and sugar. Undercooking leaves the fondant soft and sticky; overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Cooking too fast or stirring while crystallizing can cause large, grainy crystals.

“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.

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