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By coupling the cakes with a rich selection of frostings, fillings, glazes, poured Fondant, and decorations, home bakers can easily create their own irresistible combinations. (Glaze choices). A glaze for baking recipes, is a thin icing coating applied to foods to incrust, cover or overlay that dries with a thin, glossy surface. It is applied by pouring, drizzling or brushing it on either before or after baking, depending on the glaze and the effect desired. It is generally made as a simple syrup, the use of corn syrup, or a syrup made from the extraction of fruits such as apricot or other preserves, but it can be more. Glazes serve many purposes when used on baked goods:
Different types of glazes range from simple to complex recipes. With all recipes, glazes are used to coordinate with it's type and flavor. Glace de sucre, literally meaning a glaze of sugar, was traditionally divided into two categories.
Many pastries are glazed with an egg/water mixture before baking. Fruit tarts and small pastries are glazed with diluted and strained apricot preserves. Ganache is a rich chocolate mixture made by combining chopped semisweet chocolate and boiling cream and then stirring until smooth. The proportions of chocolate to cream can vary, and the resulting ganache can be used as a cake glaze or beaten until fluffy and used as a filling or as the base for truffles and other chocolate confections. 4 cups is usually enough to cover an 8-inch cake. For desserts and breads, a glaze can be anything from melted chocolate to thin icings that cover cakes to provide a surface for decorating on.
In breads and pastries, a glaze is a wash of egg or melted butter to result in a golden color after baking. For doughnuts, a simple sugar recipe used for coating. Fondant, a cooked sugar syrup based glaze makes a thick shiny opaque glaze for cookies or cakes. Caramel is used to glaze some cakes and small pastries to give pastries a sheen but no color. There is even a White Chocolate Glaze, perfect for petit fours that dries perfectly smooth and can be decorated on. Pie and tart glazes are made from sieved jam, preserves and/ or jelly, as in the Apricot Glaze, adding a glassine look when dry.
TO PUT A GLAZE ON A CAKE OR COOKIES, ETC: Glaze can be poured, drizzled or brushed on with a pastry brush on the outside of cakes or cookies or in between cake layers for different looks. Once applied, the glaze sets up very quickly, so you only have a small window of time in which to use it. If you are going to add chopped nuts or chocolate sprinkles on top of the glaze, do so before it sets so that they will adhere. Once it does, you mustn't touch the glaze any more or you will mar its surface. Before serving, a glazed-topped recipe must
be allowed to set uncovered for about 2 hours in a cool place or a refrigerator,
if contains a perishable filling.
If you need to touch it up,
slip narrow pieces of waxed
paper under the cake's edges to keep platter clean. Drizzle glaze and remove
waxed paper after it has set.
Pour a Glaze or Fondant: 1. If you're going to glaze an iced layer cake with a ganache glaze or a Poured Fondant, first refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour so that the glaze will not melt the frosting underneath. Before using a Poured Fondant glaze, make sure the cake's covered in a hardened Apricot Glaze or a thin layer of icing first so it will stick. 2. Prepare a pan to catch the excess glaze drips: using a jelly roll pan, place a piece of parchment or waxed paper in the bottom. Place a cake cooling rack in or on top of the pan.
3. When ready to glaze the cake, place the assembled cake on a cardboard round the same size as the cake. (Or, you can cut the cake into slices, and pour glaze or ganache over each one !) Brush all the crumbs from the surface of the cake. Place cake on prepared wire cake rack set in pan to catch any drips. The key is to have two sets. That way, you can move your cake still on the rack, over the next set and pour the excess for your next coating. 4. Make sure glaze or ganache is of pouring consistency but not hot. It should pour like corn syrup does. If you lift it and pour it back into the bowl it should hold a slight trail. If using a warm glaze, use an Instant Thermometer to make sure it has cooled to 86 to 91 degrees F for a glaze or 100 to 105 degrees F for fondant before pouring. 5. The glaze should be poured at once onto the center of the cake, allowing the excess to flow down the sides. The glaze cools quickly and will thicken, so you only have a few minutes to be able to spread it smoothly with a flat and large metal spatula. Do not keep smoothing it, otherwise it will get messed up; at some point you can't fix glaze unless you re-glaze the cake.
Carefully tilt the cake and the rack from side to side so that some of the glaze runs down the side. If necessary, smooth quickly and evenly with a metal spatula held about 1/8-inch high, moving it lightly back and forth across the top and to add more to the sides from the excess that has fallen onto the baking sheet. If you want to cover the cake more thickly and evenly, two coats of glaze can be applied. To do this, after the first coat is applied, refrigerate the cake for 20 minutes or until the glaze is firm. Apply a second coat of tepid glaze. (You will need 1 1/2 times the glaze for a double coat.) 7. Lift cake from rack using a broad spatula and set on a serving plate or on a clean rack if planning to apply a second coat of glaze. 8. Place glazed cake in a cool room so it can harden (unless it has perishable fillings, then the cake must be refrigerated). Allow cake to set for at least 2 hours at room temperature or . If in a rush, refrigerate cake for an hour to set. If there are air bubbles use a pin and pop them before the chocolate sets. NOTE: Refrigerating the cake will dull the glaze slightly. It Adapted from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum, William Morrow, New York, 1988 Drizzle the Glaze: Place cake or cookie on a wire cake rack set in or over a low-rimmed, parchment lined cookie sheet, to catch any drips. Using a spoon or other implement and drizzle the glaze over the top. Or, for no muss or fuss, pour glaze into a heavy plastic food-storage bag, snip off a tiny corner and squeeze. Snip off a little more of the corner if you want a thicker drizzle. Glaze can be drizzled in all sorts of directions; it will drip down the sides and go where it wants to. Brush on Glaze:
Place cake or cookie on a wire cake rack set in or over a low-rimmed, parchment lined cookie sheet, to catch any drips. Make a simple glaze: Combine 1/2 cup apricot or any flavored jam and 1 tablespoon water. Heat the apricot jam in a pan with the water, then rub through a sieve to remove any lumps and seeds. Return to the pan and heat until boiling before brushing carefully over the cake. Brush off excess crumbs and start at the top in the center and work outward. Dip in Glaze: The easiest is to simply dip the top of the cookie into the glaze until fully covered. Just hold the cookies around the edges with your fingers to do this. You aren't trying to dip the back of the cookie. Place the cookie on a wire cake rack set in or over a low-rimmed, parchment lined cookie sheet, to catch any drips. Or you can put the glaze into squirt bottles and use them to 'fill' in areas previously outlined while the cookie is set on the cake rack. Also, you can dip a cookie in one color, and while it is still wet on the cookie rack, apply a different colored glaze with a squirt bottle in a decorative fashion. |
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