To use the fondant for icing, heat as much as is needed to lukewarm in a small saucepan with a very little water or light sugar syrup. Spread the lukewarm fondant on éclairs or cakes. If it cools so that it does not spread easily, warm it again. Do not allow the fondant to get too hot, however, or it will lose its shininess. Fondant icing may be colored with a drop or two of vegetable coloring, to produce a pastel shade.
Coffee Fondant
Add to ½ cup warmed fondant 1 tablespoon warm, strong coffee.
Chocolate Fondant
Add to ½ cup warmed fondant 2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate.
Liqueur Fondant
To ½ cup warmed fondant, add 1 tablespoon Kirsch or other liqueur.
Quick Fondant
Sift 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar and add ½ teaspoon lemon juice and, very gradually, enough water to make a thick mixture that will spread. To use the fondant, heat it to lukewarm by placing the pan or bowl over hot water. Add any desired flavoring.
Here are some of the many ways in which chou paste is used for dessert.
Profueroles
Form balls of chou paste about as big as nuts on the baking sheet and when the tiny puffs are baked and cooled, fill them with whipped cream or vanilla icecream. Serve from 2 to 4 puffs to a portion and spoon hot chocolate sauce over them.
Pain de la Mecque
With a pastry bag form a large round of chou paste on a greased baking sheet, starting at the center and going around in a spiral. Sprinkle the round with granulated sugar and bake it until it is brown and light in the hand. Cool the cake, split it and fill it with whipped cream, Saint Honoré cream, or preserved fruit.
Pâte àFlan (Tart Pastry)
Cream ½ cup butter and add ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 small egg. With a pastry blender lightly work in 2 cups flour. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons cold water gradually, using just enough to make a dough that is quite firm. Handle the dough as little as possible. This dough is used for fruit tarts and in combination with other piles, for great gâteaux.
Polka Tartlets
Roll pâte à flan, or tart pastry, about 1/8 inch thick, cut it in rounds about 3 inches in diameter and place the rounds on a greased baking sheet. With a pastry bag and small round cube, make a little rim of pate àcbon around the edge of each. Brush them with dorure (1 tablespoon milk added to 1 beaten egg) and bake them in a hot oven (425° F.) for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they arcbrown. Cool the tarts and fill them with spoonfuls of crème pâtissière. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, then caramelize the sugar by passing a red-hot iron rod above it.
Gateau Saint-Honoré
Roll tart pastry 1/8 to ¼ inch thick and from it cut a circle 9 or 10 inches in diameter. Lay the circle on a greased baking sheet. Using a pastry bag with a plain round tube, make a border of chon paste about as thick as a thumb around the edge of the pastry circle. Brush the paste with dorure. Bake the cake in a hot oven (425° F.) for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the edges puff and (he (art is brown. Meanwhile, make 18 small cream puffs from balls of chon paste about the size of walnuts. Cool the puffs and make a small hole in the shell of each with a small kitchen knife. Using a pastry bag with a small tube, fill the puffs through this hole with crème pâtissière or whipped cream. Dip the bottoms of the puffs in warm caramel syrup and arrange them around the edge of the cake. Fill the center of the cake with crème Saint-Honoré.
Croquvenboucbe
Make about 3 dozen small cream puffs from balls of chou paste about the size of walnuts. The puffs must be baked very dry; put a piece of paper over them after they have browned and let them bake about 5 minutes longer than usual. Cool the puffs, make a hole in the side of each with a small kitchen knife and using a pastry bag with a small round tube fill the puffs half full with crime pâtissière.
Prepare 1 cup of caramel syrup. Put a filled puff in the pointed end of a large, well-greased cone-shaped mold. Then dip each puff in caramel syrup and build the pyramid up, filling the mold with the puffs in an even, well-balanced fashion. When the caramel has cooled, unmold the pyramid carefully onto a plate.
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