Pastry Glaze: Tips & Techniques

[cyd]

t,

we always used just chocolate, cream and corn syrup, but just a touch of the last. always kept things glossy/shiny. you might want to play with it to get the thickness you want for the eclairs, but it went something like:

1.9 k dark chocolate

2 qt heavy cream

1/4 cup corn syrup

good luck!

[nightscotsman]

For shiny fondant glaze you need to start with fondant (pouring, not rolled). Most people buy it in buckets and it shouldn't be very expensive.

I can describe how I was taught to prepare the fondant for glazing, though it's one of those things (like chocolate tempering) that's better to show in person.

Put some fondant in a saucepan and add a very small amount of simple syrup. Heat over low heat just until the fondant starts to melt a bit on the bottom. Remove from the heat and "stir" - it will be super thick and hard to work with at first. Keep working at it until it becomes smooth and soft. Check the temperature by touching it. The key to getting a shiny finish on the final product is to warm the fondant just to soften, but if heated too much (higher than body temperature), it will go dull and hard in the cooler. When you have it at the right temperature and smooth, add small amounts of simple syrup to make the consistency a bit more fluid. The trick here is you want it to be fluid enough to flow off the wooden spoon to make a thin glaze, but not so liquid that it won't set up and just run off the eclair.

The other tricky part is getting the fondant on the eclair. The traditional method is to pick some up on a wooden spoon or paddle and let it flow off in a kind of waterfall which you can pass the eclair through to paint a wide stripe of glaze on top. This takes a bit of skill and quite a bit of practice to get professional results. The other common method is to turn the eclair upside-down and dip the top in a prepared pot of fondant. We used the first method at Bellagio, though many people prefer the look of the second.

[chiantiglace]

To add, or slightly change suggestions of what Neil already said:

YOU NEED CORNSYRUP. Man has this been drilled into me like I was in army bootcamp. over and over they ask you, what is the cornsyrup for? reply, for shine Chef!

try a 1 part ratio of corn syrup, sugar, and water instead of just simple syrup.

I've really only done fondant over a double boiler, but I guess if you are good enough you can throw it right onto the heat. For someone trying it for the first time I would suggest using a double boiler like tempering chocolate. Bring it to 100 degrees and keep it as close to 100 as you can.

Make sure the fondant flows properly, similarly to what Neil already said. Pour it down and move the spoon away to watch the fondant slowly work itself back into the mass. I suppose it will be similar to honey, probably a little thicker. You will get a knack for it once you practice with the viscosity.

Also, that chocolate glaze you were already using should be fine. Touch the glaze a little with the torch before they are put on display. The direct heat should bring back the shine.

[schneich]

@nightscotsman: thanks, as always very sophisticated information...

@chiantiglaze: we dont have corn syrup in germany, i always thought one could substitute glucose for cornsyrup....

[Kerry Beal]

@nightscotsman:  thanks, as always very sophisticated information...

@chiantiglaze: we dont have corn syrup in germany, i always thought one could substitute glucose for cornsyrup....

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Glucose is cornsyrup is glucose. Enzymatic hydolysation of a solution of corn starch results in glucose syrup. The addition of a bit of water and some vanilla flavour makes the white or light cornsyrup you can buy in the store in north america. They can be used interchangeably in fondant making, but it will take a bit longer to get up to temperature with bottled cornsyrup because you have to boil off more water.

[doughgirl]

I have made so many desserts that turned out to be utter disasters that I'm hoping you can help me figure out if this recipe is a good one or a bad one.

I am looking at this recipe I'd like to make for dessert tonight, it's from a Foods of the World cookbook, circa 1968, The Cooking of Vienna's Empire. First off, I was wondering if anyone had heard of the pastry, it's either Hungarian or Viennese, and called either an Indianer or an Indianerkrapfen. It basically looks like an upside down cupcake filled with whipped cream, chilled and covered with a chocolate glaze and chilled again.

I'm not very good at figuring out how something is going to taste just from looking at the ingredients and a few things in the recipe have given me pause. First the cupcake, (they call them "puffs"), it has 1/4 c. cornstarch (along with 1/2 c. flour, 4 separated eggs, 1/4 c sugar and vanilla). What is the cornstarch for, exactly? Will it give the "puffs" a funny texture?

And my other question is for the glaze, it's basically unsweetened chocolate heated with heavy cream, sugar, water, corn syrup and vanilla and the part of that is whisked into an egg and then all of it mixed back together. I don't think I've ever made a glaze with an egg in it...any idea of how this kind of glaze will set up?

Thank you so much for your help!

[naes]

Adding cornstarch to all-purpose flour is a way of reducing the flour's ability to form gluten, i.e. make it "softer." For example, for every 1 cup of AP flour, if you take out 2 tablespoons of flour and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, then you get cake flour. A good rule of thumb to know just in case you need cake flour but only have AP.

As for your recipe, that is a lot of cornstarch given the amount of flour. What kind of mixing method does it use? If it is something like a separated sponge method, then the structure for the cake will come from the whipped eggs as well as the flour. Since you say the recipe calls for the eggs separated, I'm guessing that's what it is. The result should be a light, but dry cake. Does it call for any sort of sugar-based liquid to be brushed on after the cake is baked?

Finally, the ganache. I have never seen a glazing ganache with a raw egg added. I'd be interested to see how it turns out. However, if you are serving this to anyone with a less-than-strong immune system (children, elderly, etc), then I would not use the raw egg. I'm just guessing here, but if you leave out the egg, you might need to reduce the amount of water since the egg protein won't be there to bind it in the glaze and it might make the glaze too runny.

Best of luck!

Sean

[John DePaula]

I found a recipe for Puffs with Whipped Cream (Indianerkrapfen).

Looks like your recipe is more or less identical and you should be fine with that amount of corn starch. Actually, the recipe I found uses a ratio of 1:1 flour to cornstarch rather than the 2:1 that you’re using…

For the ganache, the glaze should set up just fine. The recipe has you mixing the heated ingredients with the eggs, and then adding that back to the remaining mixture. This is known as ‘tempering’ your eggs so that they don’t curdle i.e. so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs.

To address any health concerns, I think you could return the final mixture to a gentle boil, whisking constantly and then immediately off the heat continuing to whisk a few moments.

Hope this helps.

[doughgirl]

I found a recipe for Puffs with Whipped Cream (Indianerkrapfen).

Looks like your recipe is more or less identical and you should be fine with that amount of corn starch.  Actually, the recipe I found uses a ratio of 1:1 flour to cornstarch rather than the 2:1 that you’re using…

Hope this helps.

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That is the exact same recipe! I wasn't paying attention while I was typing, it is a 1:1 ratio, but luckily I am more observant while I am baking!

Thanks so much for both of your replies! I went ahead and made the Indianers and they were delicious! I have a terrible camera and I was in too much of a rush to make them look nice, but I did take some photos!

They tasted a lot better than they looked!

Thanks again!

[John DePaula]

Actually, they look pretty delicious; congrats!

[Geminigirl]

YAY! I always wanted to try to make this....been contemplating at it for a while. Now you have given me a valid reason to try it out.

I would like to know, what's did you use as a mould? Was that a muffin pan? What size was it?

Thanx a million.

Geminigirl

[BarbaraY]

I have had these books since they first came out and most of the recipes that I've tried turned out very well. I don't think I've ever made anything from the Vienna book, though.

Those look very good and I think you did a nice job.

[doughgirl]

YAY! I always wanted to try to make this....been contemplating at it for a while. Now you have given me a valid reason to try it out.

I would like to know, what's did you use as a mould? Was that a muffin pan? What size was it?

Thanx a million.

Geminigirl

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I just used a regular 12 hole muffin pan....worked perfectly, just enough batter for each cup. Definitely try.....they were a big hit with all our guests, both adult and children.

[oli]

I made a lemon tart last night and decorated it with sliced strawberries. This morning, 4:30, I glazed the strawberries with apple jelly, and I've noticed now that all the glaze has melted or oozed away, leaving the strawberries dull looking. Is there any off the shelf product that will hold up for about 8 hrs. before slicing?

[sugarseattle]

That's really strange...it seems to me that the glaze just didn't adhere to the strawberries, which I've never had a problem with. I used to use apricot glaze, or hero glaze which is similar to apple jelly in that you heat it up before using it. But then I discovered cold set glaze, which I get through my bakery supplier Puratos in Seattle. It saved a lot of time not having to heat up the glaze, etc. for each little random thing I wanted to glaze. However, the ingredients are not that great with potassium sorbate and some other nasty thing in it, so since we're trying to go all natural, I went searching to find a recipe for a similar thing on the web. I haven't tried it, but it seems easy enough. http://www.herbstreith-fox.de/fileadmin/tm...ge_englisch.pdf

Let me know how it goes!

[sugarseattle]

here's another really really random link I found, which shows that puratos is one of the patent holders for inventing cold set glaze..interesting stuff for the geeks...http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2005077195

[CanadianBakin']

I often use apple jelly on lemon tarts topped with blueberries and haven't had that problem. I'm not sure what to suggest.

[gfron1]

I understood the problem a bit differently. I assumed that it was a moisture problem. Try dabbing the berries dry before glazing. Or, its possible that the jelly was too thin (was it a Farmer's Market jelly or was it a overly gelatinized Smuckers?) and again the moisture broke it down. But my money (and I'm pretty poor) is on moisture.

[oli]

I understood the problem a bit differently.  I assumed that it was a moisture problem.  Try dabbing the berries dry before glazing.  Or, its possible that the jelly was too thin (was it a Farmer's Market jelly or was it a overly gelatinized Smuckers?) and again the moisture broke it down.  But my money (and I'm pretty poor) is on moisture.

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I decorated the tart with the strawberries the night before, and I waited until morning to glaze with the apple jelly just so that the glaze would remain shiny. The apple jelly is not Farmer's, it might be Smuckers, I am not sure since I am not at home right now. Perhaps you might be right with the moisture.

[MarkIsCooking]

At my school, we always use apricot jam, which we heat in a saucepan to make it more liquid and then we strain it.

Always seems to work for us (and I can't say that about most things we try )

-mark-

[sugarseattle]

did you heat the apple jelly before glazing? I'm with gfron1 about the moisture..strawberries love to ooze when they are cut and come into contact with any sort of sugar. Seems to me an overgelatinized jelly would be good to seal in the action, no?

[oli]

did you heat the apple jelly before glazing? I'm with gfron1 about the moisture..strawberries love to ooze when they are cut and come into contact with any sort of sugar. Seems to me an overgelatinized jelly would be good to seal in the action, no?

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Can't, at least I am not able, to glaze without heating it first. Maybe I should add a little gelatine next time when I know it will be some hours before feasting. Or, I will just glaze a little before I cut into it.

[gfron1]

Lately I've had a bunch of recipes that call for me to glaze using melted jams or jellies (v. gelatin), and I've yet to have it result in a smooth, sexy finish like when I use gelatin. I am straining, and I've done both microwave and stovetop melting. What's the difference - are they intended for different things? Is jelly a shortcut? What's the intent here? Thanks.

[Tri2Cook]

I wish I could help but I've only used melted jelly (usually apricot or red currant) to give a shiny finish to some things, I've never used it to make the "smooth, sexy" surfaces on things you're talking about.

[gfron1]

OK I think I asked that poorly - we're talking about the same thing. The uses are brushed on top of fruit tarts or poured and spread on top of a cake that has a frosting dam around the edges.

I can never seem to melt them smoothly enough and they feel lumpy. The poured on cake version that becomes very important. So maybe I just don't know how to melt jelly (is that like not knowing how to boil an egg?).