"Bill Truesdell" wrote:
> Both are fondant if you are a cook, in fact most recipes call for 234F
> for fondant. The reason is the fondant is made with sugar only and you
> need that temperature to have a paste, otherwise you are working with a
> thick syrup.
Agree that cooks would not make any fine distinction, but the Bakers'
Fondant that I buy is heated to only 221F and is a very firm paste.
Obviously consistency will depend on the amount of water added to the
sugar/glucose syrup.

> Websters defines fondant as "candy made of a thick creamy sugar paste" so
consistancy
> defines fondant, not temperature.

I prefer the authority of the Oxford dictionary, which gives candy as 'sugar
crystallised by repeated boiling and slow evaporation' - i.e. the sugar
solution is 'cooked' for some time to evaporate the water, resulting in the
temperature of the mixture rising.  In contrast, it tells us that the
etymology of fondant is French 'melting', from the Latin 'fundere' pour.  So
the Bakers' Fondant is heated just enough to 'melt' the ingredients, whereas
a candy is then cooked further.  That is my view anyway!

> You are still a long way from carmalization which is 310-338F.

Agreed, the famous Mrs Beeton states that if sugar boiling is prolonged
after it reaches 312F then it some begins to acquire a golden colour.

> There are fondants on the market that use Tartaric Acid (an ingredient
> in some cookbooks and recipes for bee's overwintering syrup) and other
> ingredients which are not good for overwintering bees in cold climates.

Not just cold climates, acid inverted sucrose is stated to be toxic to bees
(LE Dills 1925).

Peter Edwards
[log in to unmask]
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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