ZaSu’s Dippy Chocolates

“I was between pictures, and I was bored.”

This is how ZaSu Pitts--the silent-era comedienne who stretched her career into the early days of TV--begins her tale of chocolate dipping in her cookbook, “Candy Hits” (Duell, Sloan and Pearce), published the year of her death, 1963.

Any candy book can list the basic recipe for fondant, but Pitts revels in the frivolity of her subject. The first lesson she gives in the section she titles “How to Master Chocolate Dipping in Ten Hard Lessons!”: “Pray.”

I can’t think of a more charming guide for the first-time chocolate dipper than the following passage from the actress who first dreamed of making candy as a girl in Santa Cruz, and who later became almost as famous for her completely round Brentwood kitchen as she was for her funny-sounding name. Consider it a Valentine gift. And if you ever see a copy of Pitts’ “Candy Hits” in a used bookstore, grab it.

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“I wandered around my gleaming-white, arena-like kitchen. A new French cookbook had just arrived. I flipped it open and discovered magnificent illustrations--boned chickens trussed up on elaborately garnished platters--soups steaming from colorful tureens--and the bonbons! They were irresistible. An array of chocolate creams were presented like jewels. Here was my challenge.

“There were drawings of hands in action--fingers so delicately sweeping pale fondants through luscious melted chocolate, the thumb and index finger so fastidiously holding a Brazil nut over a gleaming copper kettle. I glanced at my hands. Could they capture my dream?

“I was off on a confectioner’s cloud. An hour later my tears were washing away the chocolate smears on my face. My hands and arms were covered with a brown, sticky goo, my beautiful kitchen was a mess--my cloud had burst. I blamed it all on the fact that I couldn’t read French. It was the only way I could save face; that and a hot shower.

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“Later in desperation I had the directions for Bonbons au Grillage translated into English. I then learned that couvertures cannot be made from just ordinary kitchen baking chocolate. This chocolate is very special. Professional candymakers can count on it behaving properly. Already I had learned that sugar is temperamental and I treated it with respect. But chocolate! Chocolate is the devil incarnate. It not only must be treated with respect--it must be catered to and cajoled into acceptable behavior. After that first exultant burst of enthusiasm the ‘bloom’ was on my cheek--a dark, dismal chocolate ‘bloom.’ And beneath it, was my face red!”

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Pitts has lots of advice when it comes to dipping chocolate. Professional coating chocolate is what she considers the “very best coating chocolate.” Never dip chocolate on a hot or damp day. Ideal conditions are when the room temperature is between 60 and 65 degrees. “Take care to protect your chocolate from any temperature changes or drafts,” she says.

If you don’t have a dipping fork, Pitts advises the candymaker to “make one from a coat hanger. Use the wire for a handle and twist the end into a loop to rescue and turn the candy.”

And if something goes wrong, Pitts has lots of theories: “If the coating streaks, is spotted, turns gray, or ‘blooms,’ as the professionals say, a number of things could be wrong--chocolate too hot, too cool, too poor a grade, or maybe you yourself are feeling anemic.”

Streaks or spots, she says, might mean the chocolate wasn’t creamed enough as it melted, or the chocolate may have dried too slowly. Too much of a base may mean the chocolate wasn’t cool enough during dipping or that the room was too warm during drying. Too rough of a coating may mean the chocolate was too cool.

Your goal: for the coating to harden immediately and stay dark, smooth and glossy.

“But for this first success,” Pitts warns, “give all credit to fate. You probably can’t do it again right away. This is a delicate art, and can’t be mastered in a flash. However, you’ll continue to punish yourself until you are successful. Once your ambition has led you this far, there is no turning back.”

CHOCOLATE-DIPPED FONDANT (Adapted from ZaSu Pitts”’Candy Hits”)

Basic Fondant

1 pound dipping or coating chocolate, shaved into small pieces

Place chocolate in top part of double boiler. In lower part, place enough warm water (100 to 120 degrees) to touch top pan. Keep water temperature constant. Melting chocolate takes time. Do not hurry.

When chocolate is softened, remove top of double boiler from water and stir vigorously until smallest lumps are all worked out. This creaming develops chocolate texture; it must be repeated often throughout dipping.

Exchange warm water for cooler water (85 degrees) in bottom of double boiler. Make sure chocolate does not come in contact with steam or water, even trace can spoil it.

Pour 1 cup of chocolate onto marble slab or into small bowl. Work back and forth with fingers until chocolate feels cool, 83 degrees is perfect. (Knowing when chocolate is cool comes with practice. To test, let it string from tip of hand into melted chocolate. If it holds ruffly appearance on surface for few seconds, it is ready for dipping.)

Drop fondant or other center of choice into cooled chocolate, roll to coat, and lift out with dipping fork. Scrape off excess chocolate. Drop onto wax paper, right-side-up. As candy drops from dipping fork, twist thread of chocolate to make swirl across top of candy. Makes enough to cover about 3/4 pound of fondant.

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Of fondant, Pitts says, it “is agreeable and co-operative in nature. It as obliging as an old friend. . . . It is as basic to the candymaker as the ‘little black dress.’ ”

Basic Fondant

3/4 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Heat water to boiling in 2- or 3-quart saucepan and remove from heat. Add sugar and cream of tartar. Stir with wooden spoon until all sugar dissolves, 6 to 8 minutes, taking care not to splash mixture on sides of pan. Place syrup mixture over medium-high heat. Heat almost to boiling. Cover pan tightly with lid and remove from heat. Let stand 3 minutes.

Uncover, return to heat and boil briskly. Do not move pan or stir during this time. While syrup cooks, wash any crystals that form on sides of pan by wrapping damp cloth around tines of fork and wiping crystals out with upward motion so that no crystals fall back into syrup.

Continue cooking until syrup reaches soft-ball stage, exactly 238 degrees on candy thermometer, about 35 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand very few minutes, or just until bubbles disappear. At once, pour onto marble slab or large, shallow platter. Do not scrape pan. Let cool undisturbed until slab or bottom of platter feels comfortably cool to palm of hand (about 105 degrees), about 50 minutes.

Now start turning edges of candy in toward center, using spatula or wooden spoon. As candy turns creamy and crumbly, gather mixture up in your hands and knead as you would for bread until you get smooth, white ball of fondant. Wrap fondant in plastic and store in glass jar covered with tight lid. Let fondant mellow 24 hours to 3 days.

Remove fondant ball from jar and form into small balls. Makes about 3/4 pound.