Reader Bailey wants to know why she should go to the trouble of making actual poured fondant for her black and white icing instead of just using a simple powdered-sugar-and-water mixture. It’s a terrific question and the answer is all related to crystals. Sucrose crystals to be precise.
Icings are forms of crystalline candy that flow…at least for a while…until they set. Their consistency, the way they feel in the mouth, is a factor of the size of the crystals they contain. The smaller the crystals the smoother the icing feels on your tongue, and the more consistently it behaves as a topping.
Simple icing is made by — simply — stirring powdered sugar into water. This makes a sort of slurry of small sugar crystals and a thin syrup of water and free sucrose molecules (plus a little corn starch, the anti-caking agent that’s in powdered sugar). It has a pourable consistency when you first make and apply it, but shortly the forces of crystallization — random crystallization — take over and the texture starts to change. The sucrose molecules in the solution start to find one another and stack up like LEGOs forming all sorts of odd shapes, many of them very large. As this occurs, water is forced out from between the crystals and evaporates. The icing becomes firm, then brittle and crunchy. The once-smooth and glossy finish turns dull as the syrup in it disappears, and starts to warp and buckle. The end result is a top coat that looks worse the longer it sits and shatters and crumbles when you bite into it. It also feels grainy in the mouth.
Fondant gives a much different result because it’s made differently. It starts out as a dense, hot sugar syrup, a so-called supersaturated solution which is created with heat. Boiling water, you see, will accommodate a lot more dissolved sucrose that cold water will, over twice the amount. So right away you’re dealing with a syrup with a much lower moisture content (only about 13%).
But that’s not where the advantages end, oh no. For if you cool a supersaturated sucrose solution and then agitate it briskly, you get a controlled crystallization that produces crystals of a size so small that they don’t register on the human tongue. Better still, those tiny crystals end up floating in a dense syrup of invert sugar (basically non-crystallizing glucose and fructose molecules) and water. That small crystal-syrup combination keeps the fondant not only smooth and uniform but pliable even after it’s been applied. Sure, it’ll still form a bit of a crust when it sits for a while, but it won’t lose its luster and/or crack like a coating of simple icing will. Plus is feels silky when you eat it.
Is poured fondant absolutely indispensable for a doughnut or a black and white? Not for home cooks it isn’t, no. But black and whites with real poured fondant absolutely do taste better. ‘Nuff said.
I have never had the desire to eat fondant until reading this. In my mind it conjures up thick slabs of frosting used for decorating very smooth but flavorless and rigid cakes that are more for presentation than for eating. Thanks, as always, for the explanation!
Hey Erica!
Yes, fondant get a bad rap in many circles. The kind you’re thinking of is “rolled” fondant, the thicker, putty-like version. It can be over-used for sure. But like most things, the home-made version is better!
Cheers,
- Joe
I’m visiting Scotland on vacation right now. While we were out for tea this afternoon, my girlfriend insisted I try an ‘empire biscuit’. I don’t know if you’ve tried an empire biscuit, but it’s a large, jam-stuffed sandwich cookie. The cookies were something like a cross between a french sable and a scottish shortbread. The top biscuit was glazed with a proper fondant icing.
The icing was how you describe: silky, flowing, unctuous. . . It’s funny to see this post on fondant up now, because when I ate the cake I was thinking to myself, “so that’s why you go through the effort of making true fondant. In your mouth, the biscuit and its icing melt together in a pleasant and unexpected way. If I hadn’t had that experience today, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
Funny how things work out sometimes, eh? But what are you doing reading me on vacation?
I love empire biscuits, and haven’t had a good one since I was last in Scotland over 20 years ago. Maybe it’s time to make some!
Thanks Evan!
- Joe
This is so very true… I’ve had my share of fighting against random sugar crystallization.
On a related topic, my simple syrups crystallize every time I make them without cream of tartar, or a good glug of glucose syrup. Could you provide any tips for that?
Thank you Joe!
Hey Fleur!
Yes, without the protection of invert sugar (heating the mixture with acid) or some glucose, the solution will re-crystallize in time, no question. Those are really the only solutions — no pun intended — that I can recommend!
- Joe
How fun, the fondant/fudge/buttercream range is one of my current areas of interest! Thanks for the illuminating articles. I wanted to follow up Fleur’s question with one of my own, though. I always try to keep my use interfering agents to a minimum, but I think it’s mainly superstition on my part – I’m not sure if they really do have a discernible impact on flavor. What have you found in this case? Am I right to be judicious, or do you have to get a whole ton of em in there before you notice the flavor?
I love these posts behind the science-y part of cooking. I must admit, I often just go for the simpler icing instead of making fondant but I’ll think of this the next time I want to be lazy.
-Sally
Thanks, Sally!
Make it ahead! It’s fun and it keeps extremely well.
- Joe
Hello Mr. Joe
Thanks for the fondant posting. How I wish we could digress a bit to Rolled Fondant, which I use mostly for cake, unlike poured fondant…never used it or make it from scratch.
I am looking forward to you talking on Rolled Fondant, because I have a whole lot of concern and research in making the best fondant at home.
I have 3 major fondant recipe I want to blow into pieces, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Kim Payne and Colette Peters.
My area of focus is to mimick the fondants of Satin Ice, Bakels, Carma Massa Ticino and Albert Ulsters Imports Massa Fondant.
Also the use of fondant additives such as Tylose, CMC, Gum Tragacanth and Gum Arabic, Flavor Emulsions/Extracts, Preservatives etc.
Please can you kindly create a section for us to discuss on rolled fondant, I have alot on my mind to pour out. I need your help in developing a superior homemade rolled fondant.
Thank you.
Wale
Hey Wale!
Have you seen my rolled fondant recipe? It under Components. But by all means voice your concerns right here on this post. Other readers will see them since this is new content and will be more likely to pitch in!
- Joe
Hem hem, nudge nudge… ^_^ Sorry to nag, Joe, but I think my earlier comment on this page might have gotten overlooked?
Hey April!
I think I approved everything you wrote, didn’t I? I also followed up with this post right here:
http://www.joepastry.com/2013/syrup-good-crystal-bad/
But tell me: what did I miss?
- Joe
You did approve everything, thanks! But my main question was more relating to the flavor imparted by interfering agents. I’m always hesitant to toss a ton of karo syrup into my fudge, thinking it might make the flavor a little weird. Same with cream of tartar. What have you found in your own cooking – do you try to keep additives to a minimum? Or is it really nothing to worry about?
If you did cover this in that other article, then I’m sorry, I’m a ditz. xD But I don’t see anything!
Hey April!
Overall I wouldn’t be too concerned with flavor when you’re talking about corn syrup…there’s very little aftertaste even when you eat it straight. As an ingredient is just adds sweetness. And the worst cream of tartar will do is add tang. All in all there’s not much to fear taste-wise!
- Joe
Awesome! Glad to hear it. Thanks so much for following up, I really appreciate it!
Whatever I can do, April!
- Joe