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Chocolate Fondant for Dipping Candies

A chocolate fondant mixture used for dipping candies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Fondant for Dipping Candies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fondant

  1. Melt the fondant over hot water, adding hot water gradually.

  2. Stir in grated chocolate and vanilla extract to achieve desired flavor.

  3. Add more hot water as needed while the mixture thickens.

  4. Drop hardened creams into the fondant using a wire hook.

  5. Place the fondant on oiled paper.

Make the sugar mixture

  1. Boil sugar, cream of tartar, and hot water in a separate pot until a soft ball forms in cold water.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a marble slab.

Work and rest

  1. Cool the mixture slightly.

  2. Scrape the mixture to one side and work with a spatula until creamy.

  3. Add glycerine to prevent granulation.

  4. Knead until smooth.

  5. Cover with oiled paper.

  6. Let stand for 24 hours to season.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fondant
Forms the base that is melted and shaped into the dipping fondant.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and the crystal structure that gives the fondant its body.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar from crystallizing too coarsely.
Glycerine
Interferes with sugar crystal formation, keeping the fondant smooth and soft.
Grated chocolate
Adds flavor and shade to the fondant.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma and rounds out the flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar to a soft ball stage. The final temperature controls how much water remains in the sugar syrup. Undercooking leaves the fondant runny and soft, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle once worked.

“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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