Glaze

Glaze is defined as a thin liquid sweet coating that adds shine and color to pastries.  Also used as a protective coating to prevent the fruit on the top of tarts from drying out and looking unattractive.  Apricot jam and red currant jelly are the two most popular ingredients used to glaze fruit tarts.  Heat the jam or jelly until liquid, strain if there are lumps, and then lightly coat the fruit with the glaze with a pastry brush.  Pie and tart recipes that call for a pre-baked pastry crust and have moist fillings also benefit from glazing to prevent the crust from becoming soggy.   Apricot jam, raspberry preserves, red currant jelly, lightly beaten egg whites, or even melted chocolate make good glazes.  Just make sure the glaze used complements the flavors in the filling.  To glaze:  pre-bake the pastry crust, let cool, and then lightly coat with desired glaze.  When the glaze is completely dry, add the filling and continue with your recipe.

Recipes -

Chocolate Glaze

Apricot Glaze

Top 40 Recipes of the Last Year*

*Top 40 Recipes based on actual site traffic from October 1, 2008  to September 30, 2009.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies	2. Red Velvet Cake	3. New York Cheesecake	4. Shortbread Cookies	5. Carrot Cake
6. Royal Icing	7. Vanilla Cupcakes	8. Sugar Cookies	9. Apple Crisp	10. Banana Bread
11. Pound Cake	12. Ganache	13. Oatmeal Cookies	14. Chocolate Truffles	15. Pavlova
16. Lemon Bars	17. Gingerbread Men	18. Biscuits	19. Cream Scones	20. Apple Pie
21. Yellow Butter Cake	22. Fruit Tart	23. Pumpkin Pie	24. Pumpkin Cheesecake	25. Whipped Cream Frosting
26. Coconut Macaroons	27. Lemon Curd	28. Rum Balls	29. Boston Cream Pie	30. Snickerdoodles
31. Butter Tarts	32. Molten Chocolate Cakes	33. Nanaimo Bars	32. Melting Moments	35. Chocolate Crinkles
36. Chocolate Cupcakes	37. Almond Biscotti	38. Thumbprint Cookies	39. Lemon Frosted Lemon Cake	40. Peanut Blossom Cookies