Petits Fours, Anyone?

I can remember, as a child, being offered a petits fours -- one of those fondant-coated nibbles of cake made to be eaten in one or two bites.

I put the entire square in my mouth because the icing looked so yummy ... and then proceeded to spit the entire mouthful right back out because I found the taste -- and smell -- of marzipan (almond paste) to be revolting. Right up there with mushrooms and green peas! And Beef Stroganoff. Gag me.

So I was not overly enthusiastic when Chef told me to make a tray of petits fours in baking class. 

That is, until I took a tentative bite of my finished product and found -- to my amazement! -- that I now find marizpan quite delectable! (Mushrooms and green peas are okay now, too.)

However, I will probably never make petits fours again -- unless I'm forced to. Because I HATE working with fondant!!! (Look, Ma, my baking classes did teach me something important!)

Too, the little treats are labor intensive. Because before you FINALLY get to the fondant stage, you must bake up three half-sheet pans of cake (choose a firm, close-grained cake), which you then spread with a THIN layer of flavoring (such as raspberry preserves). To the top layer of your tower of cake, you then finish up with a thin layer of marzipan. 

(Yes, making the marzipan by blending almond paste with corn syrup and powdered sugar in an electric mixer adds yet another step!)

After the cake layers are assembled, you will need to wrap the cake, right on the sheet pan, in plastic and put it in the freezer to firm up. Doing so allows you to easily and neatly cut the cake into strips, and then into small squares or diamonds, as pictured below. Or you can use a cookie cutter to make circles, though you'll end up wasting a good bit of cake.

Now comes the part I hate: messing with the fondant.  ;-(

In class, we get fondant in big, white blocks. Which means that it's super fresh and soft when first opened, but quickly turns hard after students get lazy about closing its protective plastic bag. So yeah, I was hacking away at the hard block, trying to free enough to coat my little nibbles. 

Chef, ever watchful of an opportunity to slip in a lesson on profit and loss, pronounced the fondant "still good" and that it just needed to be "briefly rehydrated" by soaking it in a bowl of warm water, as shown below.


As the photo clearly shows, fondant (which is technically defined as "icing made from boiled sugar syrup that is agitated so that it crystalizes into a mass of teeny, tiny white crystals") is thick stuff. Which is why you must warm it over a double broiler (we use stainless steel bowls placed atop pots of steaming water), adding water to thin it to the consistency you need. 

Chef has us use our hand, rather than a spatula, when warming fondant, so that we can easily test the warmth and thickness. Tip: When the fondant thinly streams down your gloved fingertips, it's ready. 



If the fondant is not thin enough (which it is NOT in the photo above!), you won't be able to easily pour it over the top and down the sides of each petits fours. 

In the next photo, Chef demos (the dude LOVES to demo stuff, God love him!) how to use a ladle to apply the fondant. Hurry, hurry, the fondant is cooling!! 

Notice that Chef has placed the petits fours on a cooling rack positioned atop a sheet pan. And that he didn't line the sheet pan with parchment paper. Can you figure out why?

If you guessed it's because you reuse the fondant that pools on the tray, get yourself a cookie. (If you added parchment paper, you'd just make a big mess trying to scrape it off the paper.)

I guess if your bakery is lax about expenses, you could just toss the pooled fondant. But for the rest of us Joe Blow Bakers watching the bottom line, it's time to pull out our trusty offset spatulas and get to scraping.  ;-)

The recycled fondant can be reheated again .... and again .... and again(!) until all of your petits fours are coated. Just remember that each time you warm the fondant, you will probably need to thin it with water.

We're almost done, folks! Stay with me!  ;-)

After the fondant has set up, use a paring knife or offset spatula to carefully lift the petits fours from the sugary rack and onto decorative paper cups. Add a bit of melted chocolate (via a small piping bag made from parchment paper) to the top of each one, and you end up with a darn attractive little nibble to share -- or eat yourself.

JUST DON'T EAT TOO MANY, OR PAY THE CONSEQUENCES!!!  (Yes, Junior, there really is such a thing as a fondant high!)

Bonus quiz question: what does "petits four" mean in French?

a. "tiny potato"

b. "small oven"

or 

c. "enough for the masses"

---ready? 

---ready?

----THE ANSWER IS:

b. "small oven." 

Get it right? GO GET YOURSELF ANOTHER COOKIE!  ;-)