Inspiration! Fondant Filled Apricots and other stuff.

I'm getting ready for a big party this weekend. I've finally gotten over my do it all attitude and have been asking some friends to come over and keep me company while I cook. Yesterday it was the lovely K who ended up making the mini quiche and the lemon feta tarts. Today it was the fabulous D who dropped everything to pop over in the middle of the day and keep me on task. She helped bake up the backlog of cookie dough and chopped onions. We had time to make some fondant filled apricots. While I love the recipe it makes a boatload of fondant. Once the tray was filled with lovely apricots, there was still a huge bowl of fondant left. Miss D kept looking at it and bemoaning the fact that it would likely all go to waste. Until inspiration struck! She suggested putting it between two cookies. Looking around I realized I had a whole tin of thin sharp ginger cookies. We tried one. YUM! So we made a whole bunch of fondant filled ginger sandwiches. What a great invention.

Fondant.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
powdered sugar

Beat powdered sugar into the condensed milk until you make a very stiff dough. It takes quite a bit of sugar but the exact amount depends upon a lot of things including how well you scraped out the milk can and how humid it is. This behaves a little bit like a slurry of corn starch. It can be kind of liquid but as soon as you push on it it stiffens up. You want it to be thick enough to mostly hold its shape when you roll it in to a ball. It can relax a little but too much and it slide right off the fruit.

Fondant Filled Fruit

Fondant
Dried Fruit
Nuts

Roll the fondant into a little ball and place it in a dried fruit. Top with a nut.

I used to use all sorts of dried fruits including figs and dates. But I don't really like figs and dates. So I only use dried apricots. I only get the real California style dried apricots. The plump Mediterranean style ones are too artificial, don't have as much flavor and are full of stuff I don't like to eat. I only use pecans for these. But any nut you like will do. Try a variety and see what you like.

Gingersnap Fondant-filled cookies.

Put a ball of fondant between two cookies. Press gently together. Yum.

See easy peasy and no waste. Thanks Miss D.