Coffee Fondant Creams
Coffee creams recipe made using traditional boiling sugar method. Infused with coffee and enrobed in dark chocolate, these coffee creams are perfect as gifts and treats.
Equipment
- Medium size saucepan
- Thermometer - Digital or Traditional
- electric whisk hand-held or mixer
- pastry brush
- bowls for mixing & melting chocolate
- kitchen fork or chocolate dipping forks
- baking tray lined with greaseproof paper
Ingredients
- 350 grams caster sugar 1 3/4 cup
- 100 ml water 1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoon of liquid glucose
- large pinch cream of tartar
- tiny pinch fine salt
- 2 teaspoons coffee extract
- icing sugar for dusting
- 200 grams tempered dark chocolate 1 cup + 2 tablespoons
Instructions
Making the fondant cream filling
- Tip the caster sugar into a small saucepan and add the liquid glucose, cream of tartar, salt and the water.
- Slowly heat the mixture to dissolve the sugar and then bring to the boil.
- Cook until the sugar syrup reaches 114C and then pour straight into heatproof bowl, add the coffee extract. Swill the coffee extract in, but don't stir.
- Leave to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes, until the mixture has thickened with a skin covering the surface.
- Using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the syrup until it thickens and becomes a smooth thick white paste. This will take about 3-5 min at slow to medium speed.
- Once the coffee cream mixture starts to get thick, remove the fondant from the bowl and knead it by hand until it’s silky and smooth.
- Add more water, essence or alcohol if needed to create a firm sugar dough.
- Cover with cling film and leave to cool down completely for few hours or overnight.
- When ready to continue, lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar and roll the fondant out to a thickness of 2-3mm Using a cookie cutter, stamp out rounds or squares and place these on a parchment lined tray. Chill for 20 minutes.
- Alternatively, roll pieces of the fondant creams in your hands and flatten them a little to create oval shapes.
Melting and chocolate tempering
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave (or in a bowl set over simmering water in a saucepan) in 10 seconds intervals, steering the chocolate after each interval. Let the chocolate to melt only half way (when most of the chocolate has melted, but there are still some chocolate buttons remaining) and then take it out of the microwave (or away from the simmering saucepan). Stir slowly until all the chocolate has melted away.
- If you have a digital thermometer, you can check the chocolate temperature - it should be somewhere around 32 Celsius for dark chocolate, 29 Celsius for milk chocolate and 27 Celsius for white chocolate. If you are above those temperatures, carry on stirring until the chocolate cools down a bit. If your temperatures are lower, return the chocolate to the microwave (or saucepan) for 5 seconds at the time.
Dipping the fondant creams in melted chocolate
- Dip each fondant cream in the melted chocolate using kitchen fork (or specialist chocolate dipping fork). Lower the fork with the fondant into the chocolate and then as you are lifting the fondant tap out the excess chocolate.
- Decorate with cocoa nibs as you go - one coffee cream at the time.
- If your chocolate thickens (cools down) return it back to the microwave for 5 seconds (or warm over the saucepan), stir and continue with dipping your fondant.
- These coffee fondant creams are best eaten within 2 weeks. Keep in cool place in an airtight box and separate each layer with baking parchment.
