"Fondant" as a chocolate-related term?

[roosterchef21]

This may well be a stupid question but why is chocolate fondant (as in the pudding) called a fondant? I always thought a fondant referred to that white stuff found in confectionery? How did it get the name? My Larousse, La Repertoire, a culinary dictionary and Penguin Companion to Food all say the same thing. Is it a translation and shortening from a larger word? Is it just a common mistake?

[Kerry Beal]

No helpful answer to the question - but I, like you, was surprised to discover an interesting little flat cake thing being called fondant. The first I ran in to it was in schneich's shop in Cologne - it's apparently one of his best sellers. His was very, very tasty!

The Chocolate and Zucchini website had a recipe here - basically an almost flourless chocolate cake, baked, then left to sit in the oven for a short while. Best if it sits overnight.

Edited July 10, 2010 by Kerry Beal (log)

[roosterchef21]

I had also heard of the biscuit thing. It was in my Escoffier. As a pudding I couldn't find it anywhere but the word is used everywhere for it. Strange. I'd love to know how it came to...

[Kerry Beal]

I had also heard of the biscuit thing. It was in my Escoffier. As a pudding I couldn't find it anywhere but the word is used everywhere for it. Strange. I'd love to know how it came to...

I wonder if they mean pudding as the British do - ie dessert.

[roosterchef21]

I thought it might have translated to pudding. But everywhere I look comes up as a French form of icing. I wondered if it had been adapted but it doesn't seem to be. Maybe it's a word that has been misused by someone without understanding it and kind of stuck? I know fondre means to melt so maybe it came from there? I would of thought they would have come up with a different word for it than fondant since it already has a meaning. Especially in a culinary sense so as not to confuse the diner.

Edited July 10, 2010 by roosterchef21 (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I wonder if the derivation has anything to do with the fudgy texture of the chocolate fondant.

[HQAntithesis]

I think it's meant to describe the texture. Fondant in French translates to melting.

[ChrisZ]

I have also wondered this, and my theory is that it's because a recipe for chocolate puddings with soft centres appeared on the everything2 website in 2001, and the creator used the word fondant thinking it meant "melted". The recipe was so brilliantly decadent that it went viral, and almost 10 years later a chocolate pudding that is liquid in the middle is still called a fondant.

The recipe is here, dated September 2001. I am not a food researcher but this is the earliest reference I have found for a chocolate pudding that is liquid in the centre. Even if it's not the first, it's definitely the best recipe I have seen. It's the recipe I credit for not being single.

I found this recipe on the Everything website in January 2002 and it quickly became my "signature dish"- as much as someone can have a signature dish they didn't create. It's the thing that I can cook that people still talk about years later. There are people who don't know my name but know me as the chocolate pudding guy. I feel deeply attached to the recipe and have been slightly disappointed at the way chocolate fondants have spread so far and so quickly around the world. When I saw Sainsbury's selling them a little part of me died (although that may be from all the butter).

I have always assumed that the popularity of chocolate fondants - they've since appeared in Jamie Oliver books, restaurants everywhere around the world, supermarkets and more recently on Australian Masterchef - has stemmed from that posting on the Everything website.

Matt Kane - "Ascorbic" on the everything2 website - I salute you.

[Snadra]

I always thought they were lava cakes (or molten chocolate cakes) under a pseudonym. I saw recipes for those in the late 90s in Gourmet, I think. They're the reason I acquired dariole moulds, which still haven't been used for anything else.

WRT the name, the relationship to melting makes sense to me.

And not that they aren't wonderful, but I was a bit disappointed to seemthem on masterchef's masterclass. Surely amateur cooks of this calibre are familiar with them? And there's nothing that surprising about the technique. Still it was better than that 'hamburger' travesty!

Edited July 10, 2010 by Snadra (log)

[RichardJones]

Just a few thoughts based on my time in France/with French.

As mentioned fondant comes from the French fondre, to melt. Its use maps on to patisserie in different ways, though.

It is clear how the liquid-centre sponges acquired the name fondant because the middle appears to be molten (and really is, if you've used a ganache).

But fondant also applies to texture, notably a melt in the mouth type texture. You might contrast fondant with croustillant which means a bit of a bite or crunch. In fact, as luck would have it, I have a clip of the chef pâtissier at Ladurée using both words to describe a macaron:

At 1.29 you hear him describe the shell as croustillant and the cream filling as fondante at 1.32. Again, at 1.35, he uses fondant to describe the interior texture of the shell.

Later in the clip there is an interview with Hermé. It's a little disappointing as far as interviews with heros go - but I'm happy to translate it if anyone would like to read what he says (including describing the macaron as fondant at 5.03!).

Hopefully that makes a little more sense now - it is easy to imagine how a flourless cake, for instance, may be seen as sufficiently fondant to merit that as a name in itself.

[gap]

Nice explanation - thanks

[LucyInAust]

The recipe is here, dated September 2001. I am not a food researcher but this is the earliest reference I have found for a chocolate pudding that is liquid in the centre. Even if it's not the first, it's definitely the best recipe I have seen. It's the recipe I credit for not being single.

Didn't Michel Bras and even Heston Blumethal's copy of that come way earlier?!?! Michel Bras call his a chocolate coulant - perhaps someone misheard 'coulant' as 'fondant'?

This link says 1981!! http://www.finediningexplorer.com/rest_of_france/michel_bras_3.php

I made this one when it first came out:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Molten-Chocolate-Cakes-with-Mint-Fudge-Sauce-104604 ... dated January 2001.

[RichardJones]

Didn't Michel Bras and even Heston Blumethal's copy of that come way earlier?!?! Michel Bras call his a chocolate coulant - perhaps someone misheard 'coulant' as 'fondant'?

Coulant means 'flowing' so you can see why it's called that. Since fondant also makes sense I don't think this is a case of Chinese whispers.

[ChrisZ]

The recipe is here, dated September 2001. I am not a food researcher but this is the earliest reference I have found for a chocolate pudding that is liquid in the centre. Even if it's not the first, it's definitely the best recipe I have seen. It's the recipe I credit for not being single.

Didn't Michel Bras and even Heston Blumethal's copy of that come way earlier?!?! Michel Bras call his a chocolate coulant - perhaps someone misheard 'coulant' as 'fondant'?

This link says 1981!! http://www.finediningexplorer.com/rest_of_france/michel_bras_3.php

I made this one when it first came out:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Molten-Chocolate-Cakes-with-Mint-Fudge-Sauce-104604 ... dated January 2001.

Oh I hate it when I type quickly and hit the 'post' button too soon... I meant to add that I don't think my theory is actually correct, it's just my own private daydream... I'm slightly embarrassed for suggesting that I actually know what I'm talking about! Thanks for the links, very interesting!