Fruit and Pastry glazes

As no one has nibbled on your original query, I thought I'd ask why you have so much trouble with getting the glaze made from fruit jams onto your pies/tarts. Perhaps you're not thinning them down enough? I find I don't have any problem using them. I've never tried either glaze you mention.

My experience has been that if you call KA during their regular hours, they are very happy to answer questions about their products.

I don't understand why you have so much trouble with the jelly glaze. I'm not a particularly experienced pastry chef, just a a home cook and I've never had problems. I like it to be just a thin glaze, not jelled.

First of all, use a very good quality preserve, apricot or red currant are good choices for most fruit. (I also like lemon or other citrus with certain fruits.) Heat it, strain in whichever order works best, add some liqueur, then reduce to a thick enough consistency so it will adhere to the fruit. As for introducing another flavor, that's bad?? I like the additional flavor element. I usually do up a larger batch than I need and keep the glaze in the fridge, just heating it enough so it will have a little flow to it.

It is also useful to use the glaze on the crust instead of eggwhite when you have a filling that may make the it soggy but are not prebaking it.

Hey - I'm an inexperienced, very new, pastry chef! When I was taking classes, I tried using jams rather than buying a 5 gal bucket of glaze - my whole kitchen is about 5 gal size! And no matter how I blended or thinned the jams, they were sticky and, well, jammy. I wanted a professional taste/appearance, not smuckers on a slab!

Cooks Illustrated rated a modified food starch product: clear-jel, as tops in glzing strawberry pies. King Arthur sold (sells?) it in little packets, and I liked it. I put a package of frozen strawberries in the food processor, then beat in clear-jel/sugar. Not extremely shinny, but delicious. I foudn a place on the web that will sell the stuff by the pound, and I can send it to you. I also used it in Pierre Herme's glaze recipe (which I posted in another thread here somewhere) rather than the Oetker's he called for-again, delicious, but not glistening. I can't find Oetker's around here - but I think it's agar based.

One other place to post a question about KA products is the KA baking circle website. It's company-run, but KA is a nice company, and I've seen posts about what dough relaxer really is!

Hi homechef!
I did post a thread on glazes a while back, in Pastries and Baking General called "favorite glaze for mousse cakes" if you could search for it. Everyone seems to use the professional bucket of glaze. A company called the European Connection does sell a 1 kilo package - I should be calling them in the next week, adn will check the price.

The website for cleargel information is http://www.theingredientstore.com/ge...etails/310.htm
The company was lovely to do business with, and the price was much cheaper than KingArthur (also a very nice company!)

I'm disillusioned about clearjel though - it's hard to make without lumps. It tastes pasty and uncooked - although in pureed strawberries neither is a factor. I would never eat instant pudding - one of clear-jel's uses! So, Cooks illustrated was on the right track - a strong fruit flavor stays fresh, but otherwise....

Good luck!

A strawberry tart I recently bought had a clear, basically tasteless glaze on it that was delicately soft and seemed pretty tasteless. When I went back yesterday, I asked what sort of glaze it was and was told the baker "makes it, using pectin."

Can someone explain what that means to me?

Fruit pectin is a natural thickener found to some degree in may fruits. When you cook your cranberry sause for turkey day, it's the pectin in the cranberries that gives the sauce its gel like consistency. You can buy fruit pectin to uses as a thickener or, as this baker did, a glaze.
Commercially the glaze provides a seal to protect the filling on tarts and arguably enhances the appearance of the product. IMHO it looks "fake" and does nothing for the tart's appearance.

Jock

homechef, one of the advantages of the preserves is that you can use different flavors, depending on the filling. For example, cassis and blueberries is one of my favorite combinations. So I can take a black currant (or even red), reduce it, then thin a bit with the cassis. Another advantage is that you can use the same glaze on the bottom crust before you fill it.

And btw, currant jam is a very good alternative to apricot, anyway. I think that citrus preserves work well, too, in some cases.

Also, for a home made tart, I don't think it's important to get the glaze down into all the crevices. We don't have to worry about protecting the fruit from the air the way a commercial baker does. I often just hit the high points to give the fruit (and some on the crust too) a little glisten.

There is instant clear-gel and regular clear-gel. Both are a modified corn starch, I believe. The instant is used in a cold thickening process, and the regular in a heat thickening process. Just like carn starch, mix with sugar to prevent lumping.
The key to glazing IMHO is to seal the perishable product from air. Prevent oxidation.If you can achieve this without altering the flavor, Great. If not the use something to enhance or complime3nt the flavor. Reducing sugars combined with fruits is a good application. Apple jelly is also good.

For the most part I don't use glazes much and definately not on my fruit. My personal opinion is....that's what the grocery stores do with their tarts and it's grossly heavy handedly applied. It's meant to preserve the fruit so it looks good longer and I want people to know mine is fresh and "real".

The only times I use glazes might be ontop of a joconde wrapped fruit mousse torte. But then I'll use the puree or a sauce thickened with gelatin and lightly coat the top. But I'm not opposed to using preserves....it a quick great way....but you can't thin them down and expect them to set.

Good morning, homechef: I have some Patisfrance GelStar apricot glaze I could send you. You could contact me through a private message, adn we'll get in touch.

I don't know about W. DeBord, but when I use fruit purees, I take a couple of cups and try it out. I had some very thick mango puree, that had a nice texture with 1 gelatin sheet/ 2 cups puree. I started with 2 sheets/2cups and got rubbery jello. It's one of those feel things, where with more experience I can look at the puree, and add exactly to the molecule, the right amount of gelatin. Happy baking!

When you get the glaze, would you post what the ingredients are? I'd be interested, and was thinking of ordering some myself!

Thanks, Ann