Using a Glaze for Cooking

A glaze is a smooth, glossy coating. A glaze, whether used on meats, vegetables, or desserts, should enhance both the flavor and the appearance of any food.

Glazes for roasted or grilled meat are usually brushed on the meat during the lat part of cooking. The heat melts the glaze slightly to give a smooth, shiny coating. Baked ham is often glazed with brown sugar, jelly, or a fruit juice-honey mixture. Piquant, spicy, and fruity glazes give poultry an extra special finish.

Vegetables such as carrots and squash can be cooked in a brown sugar mixture that adds shine as well as a special flavor. Molded cold meat or fish becomes an elegant buffet main dish when glazed with a crystal clear gelatin aspic.

A glaze is often used on pies, cakes, and other desserts to add a complementary flavor as well as a pretty finish. To achieve the desired lacquer like finish, the glaze is usually poured onto the food where it hardens to a smooth, glossy finish. A sparkling, clear glaze full of fruit, such as pineapple or strawberries, gives a glorious finish to cheesecakes. Melted jelly makes an excellent glaze for fruit tarts. Fruitcake can be glazed with warmed corn syrup. A thin icing is often used as a sweet glaze for cookies, cakes, éclairs, cream puffs, sweet rolls, and yeast raised doughnuts.

A glazed finish on pies is achieved by brushing the top crust with melted butter or beaten egg and then sprinkling it with sugar. As the pie bakes, the sugar melts to give the pie a glossy coating.

Try the following recipes for using a glaze to enhance the food.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:

1 ½ 1-ounce squared unsweetened chocolate

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 ½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the butter or margarine and the unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until crumbly. Blend in 3 tablespoons boiling water and add enough water (about 2 teaspoons, a teaspoon at a time) to form medium glaze of pouring consistency. Pour quickly over the cake and spread evenly over the top and the sides.

Glazed Almonds

Ingredients:

1 cup whole blanched almonds

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

½ teaspoon vanilla

In a heavy skillet, heat and stir the almonds, the sugar, and the butter until the almonds are toasted and the sugar is a golden brown. Stir in the vanilla. Spread this mixture on a sheet of foil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Cool the candy and then break into pieces.