fondante

Fondante is a feminine form of the adjective fondant in French and Italian, used to describe textures or preparations that melt, soften, or have a molten center. In culinary contexts, fondant-related terms convey a sensation of liquid or supple interior, or a smooth glaze.

In French cuisine, fondant commonly refers to desserts with a soft interior or a melt-in-the-mouth quality, such as gâteau fondant or chocolat fondant. The noun fondant can also denote fondant icing or sugar paste used to coat pastries. When the noun it modifies is feminine, the adjective may appear as fondante, for example in phrases like pâte fondante or surface fondante, though the masculine fondant is frequently used as a general descriptor.

In Italian cooking, the standard adjective is fondente; for example cioccolato fondente means dark chocolate. The idea of a molten or soft center appears in phrases such as cuore fondente. The form fondante is much less common in Italian and tends to occur mainly in translations influenced by French usage or in rare regional uses.

Beyond desserts, fondant concepts appear in pastry terminology borrowed from French, including fondant icing or glazes. The English term fondant is widely used in many languages to describe both the paste used for coating pastries and certain molten-center desserts, whereas the feminine form fondante is more of a grammatical variant tied to gender agreement in French and Italian.

Etymology: from the Latin fundere “to melt,” via Old French fondant, with gendered endings in French and Italian. See also fondant, fondante, fondente, molten center, lava cake.