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Obtaining commercial confection ingredients as a home cook?


jrshaul

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I'd like to obtain commercially produced fondant and invert sugar to produce some of the recipes in Greweling's book - the homemade fondant is a pain, and my invert sugar likely contains enough cream of tartar to disrupt recipes anyway. All the fondant I can find online or in stores is the greasy cake-topping stuff, and invert sugar on Amazon is almost $10 a pound - I pay less for coverture!

Any ideas on how to find this without a business license for a cash-n-carry?

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More often than not I can get my supplies via Amazon at a better price than my distributors...often times because the suppliers of my distributors are on Amazon. When you search, if you want lower prices aka larger volume, search for "bulk."

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1 hour ago, jrshaul said:

I'd like to obtain commercially produced fondant and invert sugar to produce some of the recipes in Greweling's book - the homemade fondant is a pain, and my invert sugar likely contains enough cream of tartar to disrupt recipes anyway. All the fondant I can find online or in stores is the greasy cake-topping stuff, and invert sugar on Amazon is almost $10 a pound - I pay less for coverture!

Any ideas on how to find this without a business license for a cash-n-carry?

I have used Pastry Chef for larger amounts, Chef Rubber for smaller, and (most often) L'Epicérie. "Pouring" fondant is what you are looking for. If you have freezer space to spare, larger amounts will save you money, but unless you produce a lot, you need smaller containers into which to put them for freezing.

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30 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

More often than not I can get my supplies via Amazon at a better price than my distributors...often times because the suppliers of my distributors are on Amazon. When you search, if you want lower prices aka larger volume, search for "bulk."


This is the only pure-sugar fondant I could find. Bit more than I wanted, unfortunately. I might need to just start producing the stuff in bulk by seeding a syrup with old fondant.

https://www.amazon.com/Fondant-Patissier-White-Pastry-Icing/dp/B01HBSHE34

 

 

12 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

I have used Pastry Chef for larger amounts, Chef Rubber for smaller, and (most often) L'Epicérie. "Pouring" fondant is what you are looking for. If you have freezer space to spare, larger amounts will save you money, but unless you produce a lot, you need smaller containers into which to put them for freezing.


I am unable to find straight-sugar fondant on these websites - L'epicerie seems to be out, and I'm having trouble finding it on the other two at all.

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6 minutes ago, jrshaul said:


This is the only pure-sugar fondant I could find. Bit more than I wanted, unfortunately. I might need to just start producing the stuff in bulk by seeding a syrup with old fondant.

https://www.amazon.com/Fondant-Patissier-White-Pastry-Icing/dp/B01HBSHE34


I am unable to find straight-sugar fondant on these websites - L'epicerie seems to be out, and I'm having trouble finding it on the other two at all.

Here it is on Pastry Chef (it's a large quantity, but it lasts forever).  I've done some more looking online, and aside from L'Epicérie and the Amazon link you gave, that's the only source I can find.

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4 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

Here it is on Pastry Chef (it's a large quantity, but it lasts forever).  I've done some more looking online, and aside from L'Epicérie and the Amazon link you gave, that's the only source I can find.


Hey, that's more like it!

I'll see if anyone has it locally; if not, I get to figure out how to make this stuff in a stand mixer.
 

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1 hour ago, jrshaul said:

I'd like to obtain commercially produced fondant and invert sugar to produce some of the recipes in Greweling's book - the homemade fondant is a pain

May I ask you why the fondant is so difficult to produce? I've always used the his recipe for fondant, always worked, and the stuff lasts forever. Quite frankly, I used to agitate on a stone slab, but in more recent years I pour the boiled syrup into a mixer, allow to cool to 120f, then turn the mixer on the slowest speed and let agitate for about 10 minutes, then store. Really I was just curious if what was a pain was the manual agitating on a slab or something else. That does get old, especially cleaning off that layer of crystallized sugar. 

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1 minute ago, minas6907 said:

May I ask you why the fondant is so difficult to produce? I've always used the his recipe for fondant, always worked, and the stuff lasts forever. Quite frankly, I used to agitate on a stone slab, but in more recent years I pour the boiled syrup into a mixer, allow to cool to 120f, then turn the mixer on the slowest speed and let agitate for about 10 minutes, then store. Really I was just curious if what was a pain was the manual agitating on a slab or something else. That does get old, especially cleaning off that layer of crystallized sugar. 


The short answer is that I don't own a slab, and making it in my food processor is a lot of work and mess for not a lot of fondant.

I was in the process of making a new thread to ask if a stand mixer would be a viable substitute.  Evidently, it is.

Incidentally, have you tried using  the stand mixer to agitate fudge?

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9 minutes ago, jrshaul said:


The short answer is that I don't own a slab, and making it in my food processor is a lot of work and mess for not a lot of fondant.

I was in the process of making a new thread to ask if a stand mixer would be a viable substitute.  Evidently, it is.

Incidentally, have you tried using  the stand mixer to agitate fudge?

 

That makes sense, I never considered a food processor. Try it in the mixer, it honestly is super simple. I'd say the hardest part is waiting for it to cool. Poured out on a slab, obviously it will cool down to 120f pretty fast, but since I pour the syrup into the mixing bowl, it does take some time to cool, I just moniter the temp with an IR thermometer. Then add the paddle when cool enough, and put it on speed 1. You'll hear the moment the fondant has fully crystallized, the mixer will go from mixing smoothly to struggling. But just do some trial and error, it's just a different way of agitate the syrup. 

 

On the topic of fudge, I haven't used a mixer for that, I've only done fudge on a slab. I suppose you could do it in a mixer, but I think you would need to watch it closely, I'd be concerned with it fully crystallizing in the bowl, which would prevent or at least make it very difficult for you to shape by hand or put into a form. It probably would work if you kept an eye on it and removed it quickly before it sets. By contrast, the fondant doesn't worry me in a mixer since the shape it takes in the mixer doesn't matter, since it will be heated up again and deposited or used as an ingredient, such as in fudge. How are you currently doing your fudge?

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I find the easiest way to make fondant is to start with a small quantity of the commercial stuff - make a 'bob' syrup (ie all the fondant ingredients cooked to 115º C), cool to 60º C or so, add the pre-made fondant and pour into your container for storage. It may require a bit of kneading when you are ready to use it. 

 

 

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I’ve used Burke Ingredients before and they were good to work with 

 

https://burkecandy.com/

 

also, Albert Uster has some containers of those ingredients that are smaller in size (like the invert sugar).

 

also, contact your state office of small business.  When I was in Virginia they gladly provided me with names of businesses that were happy to do business with Small Business Owners.  

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A lot of cash and carry places will sell to the public. If you live near a city large enough to have any bakery supply companies, they might sell to you if you ask. You might have to buy 50 lbs of cream fondant, but you will likely get it cheaper than a much smaller amount elsewhere. It keeps for a long time, and you'll probably use it for other things as well.

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