Glaze is the main decoration of Easter cakes and Christmas gingerbread cookies. Its composition is very simple, but everyone knows that making this delicious decoration is quite difficult. Our article is devoted to the intricacies of the preparation of milk glaze. If you listen to the tips below, even cooked for the first time, it will delight you with its excellent quality. In the first part of the article we will tell you how to make classic glaze. And the second part will be devoted to a lighter version of decorative glaze for baking.
What should be the icing
If you are going to make a classic glaze, stock up on patience and free time. This is a rather difficult matter. Much depends on the skill and intuition of the cook, because at each stage the consistency of the milk glaze is different. Actually, this is where the complexity of its manufacture lies.
Ready glaze should not crumble, break, be rough, too thick or transparent. The ideal milk icing for cake, Easter cake or gingerbread - white, smooth and shiny. Usually it is not prepared for the future, as it quickly hardens and its elasticity is not restored. This does not apply only to the first recipe.
Three types of consistency
For cakes and Easter cakes, milk glaze is made more elastic and thick than for gingerbread. It should spread slightly and adhere well to the surface of the biscuit. Thick smudges are allowed on the sides of the Easter cakes - this is an additional tasty decoration.
As for the gingerbread cookies, on which lace is painted with glaze, it should be more liquid, because the thinner the lines, the more beautiful the product.
The third application of glaze is the decoration of gingerbread houses. In this case, it is tinted with food colors. It should not run off structural elements, crack and be too thin or dense.
As you can see, milk glaze is different. From the cook is required a very well-thought-out approach, even a kind of flair. Learning to glaze desserts is possible only through trial and error. Our recommendations have been repeatedly tested empirically by many culinary specialists. We hope that they will help you in your culinary experiments and you will also cope with your task.
The secret to proper consistency
To understand how to make milk glaze viscous, uniform and white without adding milk or dye, you need to understand the technology. After all, icing is, in fact, sugar syrup, and, as you know, it tends to crystallize, or to sugar. In industrial production, this property is fought by adding invert sugar syrup or molasses. At home, it is more convenient to use citric acid for these purposes. It is more expensive than molasses and ivert syrup, but it preserves the structure of sugar crystals much better. For homemade baking, citric acid needs very little, therefore, it will not be too burdensome for your wallet. It is added during cooking syrup.
Sugar crystals in the glaze are very small, indistinguishable to the eye - because of this, the glaze looks soft and creamy.
Recipe 1 (classic)
To prepare the glaze, it will take 250 g of granulated sugar and 30 g of lemon juice. Water is taken in proportion to sugar, as one in three. This is the minimum amount of water in which sugar is completely dissolved. In our case, this is approximately 80-90 g. The ratio of ingredients is rather arbitrary - the readiness of the lipstick is determined in the process of boiling the syrup and evaporating excess water. If it turns out to be too much, then this is better than too little - you just need to hold the syrup on the fire a little longer.
First step
Take an unenameled pan with a thick bottom and pour sugar into it. Pour in water and put on a small fire. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved.
Make the fire strong and bring the syrup to a boil. Wash sugar clots from the pan from time to time. This is convenient to do with a silicone brush. If the clots are not washed, then they will fall into the finished glaze, and sugar will quickly crystallize into large fractions. In sugar production, it is with the help of crystals of finished sugar added to the syrup that sugar is obtained with crystals of the same size and shape.
Let the syrup boil for 4-5 minutes. Then add citric acid to it.
Second phase
Now it's time to determine the syrup's readiness. Everything needs to be done very quickly and carefully. Firstly, because every extra second will affect the quality of the glaze, and secondly, because it is hot and sticky, you can get a serious burn.
The availability check is defined as follows. You need to prepare a bowl of cold water in advance - you will lower a spoon with syrup into it and check its softness. To do this, scoop a third of a teaspoon of syrup and dip it in water for a few seconds. Remove immediately and remember carefully. If you succeeded in making a soft ball - immediately remove the syrup from the heat. He's ready. Now the time has come for the next stage.
Third stage
In order for the resulting clear syrup to become a milky-white glaze, it needs to be whipped. This is a simple matter. Classical glaze is kneaded to the state of a white cream by stretching it with a porcelain knife on a marble board.
Glaze is poured onto the board. Then the knife is lifted, moved and lowered until it becomes uniformly white. This process is quite long. If you have a mixer and nozzles for whipping the dough, it can be reduced several times.
To work with the mixer, you need to take two bowls of different sizes - put ice in a large bowl and pour syrup into a small bowl. It is also advisable to pour large pieces of ice on it (chestnut-sized). Beat icing with ice. It will melt and cool the icing, but the water does not mix with it. You then just pour it. Whipping with ice reduces the time it takes to turn the syrup into icing by 10-15 minutes, while mixing on a marble board lasts at least 40 minutes.
Determining the readiness of the glaze is very simple. This is evident by the way the syrup changes its texture and color. When it turns white, it stops sticking and will easily form, like a heated plasticine, the glaze is ready. Wrap it in a wet cloth and place in a plastic container. After a day, the glaze stabilizes, and it can be used - just warm up a little in a water bath or near a warm battery. It can be applied both with a spatula, spreading the surface of the biscuit, and placed in the cornet, for extrusion in the form of a thin thread and drawing.
The icing made according to this recipe can be stored in the refrigerator for as long as you like.
Next up are three more recipes. They are much simpler than the first, but in terms of taste and appearance they are in no way inferior to it.
Marshmallow
Easily and quickly you can make glaze from marshmallows. Unlike the classic recipe above, it is not stored for long. It is applied immediately. The main advantage of this glaze is that even a beginner can make it. It always turns out homogeneous, tender and ductile. From above, it freezes, while inside it remains moist and soft. For this reason, if the plans include decorative sprinkling of cake or Easter cake, this must be done very quickly, until the icing has lost its stickiness. By the way, it is this milk glaze for Easter cakes that is most suitable.
To prepare it, you need to take a 100-gram packet of marshmallows, a tablespoon of butter, the same amount of lemon juice and from 120 to 150 g of powdered sugar. The secret of the excellent consistency of this glaze is in the use of powdered sugar. Sand - by no means! Instead of marshmallows, you can take marshmallows, but you can not replace the powder with sugar. Its crunchy crystals spoil the whole dessert. This icing is also being prepared very quickly, so that it does not burn, use a water bath.
Pour marshmallows into a small saucepan, add oil and citric acid. Dip this pan in a larger container with hot water. Put on fire. Stir. After the zafir melts, start pouring powder. Bother me all the time. Determine the density empirically. Too thin drains from the biscuit, and very thick will be difficult to apply.
Pour the icing cake with hot glaze, sprinkle with colorful dragees on top and leave to solidify. After a couple of dozens of minutes, the icing will acquire what is called a presentation.
With creamy taste and vanilla aroma
Milk-white icing with a creamy taste can be obtained if you act according to the first recipe, but instead of water, take milk. Citric acid is not allowed, as it instantly curdled milk and no glaze will not work. Instead of acid, use molasses or glucose syrup. With them, the glaze will have to be cooked a little longer, but it is guaranteed not to crystallize. 50 g of butter, added at the end of cooking, will make the icing shiny and vanilla flavorful. The readiness of the glaze can be checked as follows: drip a little glaze in a glass of cold water. If it falls to the bottom in the form of a thick cake, then it’s ready. Apply it with a brush in several layers.
Made of chocolate bar
White icing made from milk chocolate is made after cookies, Easter cake or cake have already been baked and cooled. They do not do it for the future. Of course, frozen azure can be returned to a liquid state, but this is a rather long and laborious process. As a rule, only glaze according to the first recipe is made in advance.
For milk chocolate glaze, break the bar of chocolate (100 g) and put in a pan. Place this pot in a bowl of boiling water. Add some milk (30-40 g) and powdered sugar (175 g) there. Stir until completely homogeneous. Apply glaze while it is warm.
Black chocolate will turn brown, and white chocolate will produce a completely traditional white milk glaze. The recipe and cooking technology are the same in both cases. The only condition is that in chocolate, for obvious reason, there should be no nuts, popped rice and candied fruit.
Confectioners say making good icing is easy, but it never works the first time. The reason is that the thickness of the glaze and the thickness for all come out different, because the properties of the syrup depend on every second, on the temperature of the flame of the burner, even on the thickness and diameter of the bottom of the pan. You need to be prepared for this. The correct consistency is usually achieved only with the second or third attempt.