b) Coated chocolates, pralinés etc.
These delicacies are now held in high esteem, and of late the consumption of pralinés and cheaper forms with imitative contents has increased very considerably.
The designation praliné (properly pronounced prahlin) has been applied to sugar-coated almonds and is derived from the name of a cook in the employ of Marshal du Plessis, which was Pralins. This “chef” belonged to the age of Louis XIV. and was the first to make these sweetmeats. But now the term is applied to sweetmeats of various forms, soft fruit-sugar, marmalade, cream, nut-paste etc. respectively enveloped in chocolate. The special formulae employed in the preparation of different kinds of pralinés are comprised in the confectioner’s art, and do not need to be dealt with here.
The substances themselves are called fondants. Formerly the sugar was boiled, placed upon a slab, and there manipulated with a spatula, an operation difficult to manage, indeed almost impossible in the last stages. In consequence of the increased demand for such preparations, machines were introduced several years ago whereby the operation is mechanically performed. Such a machine is shown in fig. 70.
Fig. 70.
The bed-plate as well as all the working parts of the machine are constructed of stout copper. The working parts admit of being raised or lowered by means of the hand-wheel above, and they remain fixed whilst the bed-plate turns and its underside is played upon by water. The machine is capable of working up pure fondant without any syrup addition, as well as that made up with syrup. The boiled sugar is poured on the bed-plate of the fondant machine, cooled down from 10-20 minutes according to the syrup content, and to such an extent that the machine can be set in motion, whilst the working parts are gradually lowered to the previously mentioned bed-plate. The sugar poured out is then cooled by means of the action of a ventilator fitted on a crossbeam, occurring in the middle of the wooden cooler, and working in conjunction with the ventilator, in consequence whereof a cooling current of air is brought to strike the hot sugar centrally.—When pure sugar is used, the fondant is finished within six minutes, but in the case of a syrup addition the time required is lengthened.
Fig. 71.
A quite recent type of fondant machine is given in fig. 71. It achieves its end by employing an air-current and a cylinder with screw, which is provided with water cooling apparatus. The modus operandi presents many and obvious advantages, chief among which is the possibility of conducting new material to the machine uninterruptedly, and further the preservation of the flavour of the chocolate worked up. The result is a production of first-class quality in respect to taste and flavour, which is quite ready to be passed on to the next processes.