Decoration is the final part of creating a dessert. This is perhaps the most difficult stage of work, combining the skills of culinary and artistic mastery. Like any science, you need to begin to comprehend it from the basics. For example, learn how to glaze cakes. One of the most popular options is caramel glaze, which looks like a self-sufficient cake decoration or serves as the basis for a complex presentation of dessert.
Having mastered the technology of preparing amber caramel, you can create real confectionery masterpieces at home.
Caramel glaze: the basics of technology
The main ingredient of caramel glaze is sugar. Simple recipes use brown sugar. The product does not require processing - the coloring of the filling occurs when sugar is dissolved in a liquid (milk, cream, water).
Ordinary sugar sand for the preparation of caramel glaze is melted in a bowl with a thick bottom at a little more than a slow fire. Caramel is made either exclusively from granulated sugar, or with the addition of a small amount of water.
Sugar is poured into a saucepan in portions, adding new ones as the product melts. The main thing in this process is not to mix the viscous mass so that solid insoluble lumps do not form. For uniform melting, the tank is only allowed to move and tilt slightly.
It is important not to burn the sugar. When the crystals melt, the mass will acquire a beautiful dark amber color, the fire under the saucepan is immediately turned off. If the moment is missed, caramel will become bitter.
For the preparation of mirror caramel glaze, confectionery corn syrup or glucose is used. You can buy these products or use an alternative option, i.e. boil invert syrup.
How to make invert syrup:
1. Pour 130 ml of water into a pot with a thick bottom. Heat up.
2. Pour 300 g of sugar. Stir. Bring to a boil over low heat.
3. Add a third of a teaspoon of citric acid. Stir.
4. Cook for 15-20 minutes.
Ready invert syrup should look like thick liquid honey.
Caramel glaze: a simple gelatin-free recipe
The easiest to make liquid caramel for cake. It takes no more than 20 minutes, but the glaze turns out to be surprisingly delicate in taste, with a beautiful glossy surface and a pleasant vanilla aroma.
Ingredients:
• brown sugar - ½ tbsp .;
• cream (more than 30%) - 3 tbsp. l .;
• butter - 30 g;
• powdered sugar - 1 tbsp .;
• vanillin - ¼ tsp
Cooking Technology:
1. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, melt the butter.
2. Pour the cream. Stir.
3. Pour sugar into a hot liquid.
4. Cook at a slow boil for 2 minutes. Sugar crystals should dissolve, the mixture slightly thicken.
5. Remove the glaze from the fire. Mix ½ tbsp. powdered sugar.
6. The mixture is slightly cooled. Add the rest of the powder and vanilla.
The finished caramel glaze is cooled to a working temperature before use.
Caramel Glaze: Corn Starch Recipe
Delicious, easy-to-use, flexible glaze for decorating desserts. The recipe contains sheet gelatin, but it can be replaced with ordinary granular or powder.
Ingredients:
• regular sugar - 180 g;
• cream (33-35%) - 150 ml;
• hot boiled water - 150 ml;
• corn starch - 10 g;
• sheet confectionery gelatin - 5 g.
Cooking Technology:
1. Gelatin is soaked in a small volume of cold water.
2. Starch sifted. Mix with cold cream.
3. Pour sugar in parts into a thick-bottomed pan (pan). Melt over low heat until the formation of amber-brown caramel.
4. In hot caramel, very carefully, constantly stirring, pour boiled water. Allow to boil and boil until the mass becomes homogeneous.
5. Starch cream is heated a little. A thin stream is poured into caramel, stirring vigorously with a spatula.
6. The emulsion is cooled slightly. Swollen gelatin is added. Stir.
Ready caramel glaze is cooled and stored in the refrigerator. Before use, heat up to 27 degrees.
Mirror caramel glaze: a classic recipe
An unusually beautiful coating for cakes that does not need additional decoration. The mirrored surface of caramel glaze in a frozen form is similar to real amber. Brown sugar was used in the recipe, but you can replace it with regular sugar, melting it, as in the previous version, on fire.
Ingredients:
• brown sugar - 250 g;
• powdered sugar - 500 g;
• butter - 120 g;
• milk - 75 ml.
Cooking Technology:
1. Melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Pour sugar. Mixed. They wait for the boiling of the mass, reduce the fire to a minimum.
3. Butter with sugar is boiled for 2 minutes. Pour in a little milk, stirring the mixture all the time. Wait for the moment of boiling and remove from heat.
4. The milk-butter mixture is slightly cooled. Pour in powdered sugar. Stir thoroughly.
5. Put caramel glaze in an ice bath. Stir periodically until the mass acquires an elastic flowing consistency.
Creamy Caramel Glaze
Thanks to the heavy cream, the taste of liquid caramel becomes unusually tender. The texture of the glaze is very elastic, pleasant to work with.
Ingredients:
• brown sugar - 250 g;
• powdered sugar - 450 g;
• butter - 120 g;
• cream (35%) - 1/3 st .;
• vanilla extract - 1/3 tsp.
Cooking Technology:
1. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, melt the butter. Add sugar. Warm up over medium heat until crystals dissolve.
2. Pour the cream. Stir. Cook at a slow boil for 2 minutes.
3. The fire is turned off. Vanilla extract is mixed into the mass. Cool down.
4. A container with hot caramel glaze is placed in an ice bath.
5. Powdered sugar is introduced in parts, intensively interrupting with a blender.
6. Finished glaze is filtered through a fine sieve.
If the emulsion is too thick, you can add a little warm cream to the cake before applying it.
Mirror caramel glaze with milk chocolate and condensed milk
A stunningly beautiful dessert decoration with a reflective surface in a pleasant chocolate-nut color. Thanks to gelatin, the glaze hardens well and has an unusually mild taste.
Ingredients:
• sugar - 100 g;
• invert syrup - 100 g;
• water - 110 ml;
• milk chocolate - 100 g;
• condensed milk (not boiled) - 70 g;
• gelatin - 1 tsp.
Cooking Technology:
1. Gelatin is poured into 60 ml of water. Leave to swell.
2. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, sugar is melted.
3. Invert syrup is combined with 50 ml of water. Put on a slow fire. Constantly stir to make the consistency homogeneous until boiling.
4. Pour boiling invert syrup diluted with water into molten sugar in a thin stream. The mass is stirred all the time.
5. Pieces of milk chocolate are put in the blender bowl, condensed milk is poured. Swollen gelatin is added.
6. Pour everything with hot liquid caramel. Interrupt the emulsion with a blender at low speeds until smooth.
If the caramel icing with chocolate turned out transparent or the color is too dark, white food coloring will help to rectify the situation. It is advisable to keep the finished emulsion before use in the refrigerator for a day. Before applying to the cake, heat to 32 degrees and beat with a blender.
Caramel glaze on boiled condensed milk
In this recipe for caramel glaze, you can use both boiled condensed milk and ordinary toffee toffee. Or, even better, Cow sweets with soft caramel filling. The taste of glaze is moderately sweet, with a pleasant creamy tint.
Ingredients:
• sugar - 100 g;
• boiled condensed milk - 250 g;
• cream (20%) 250 ml;
• gelatin - 10 g.
Cooking Technology:
1. Gelatin is poured into 50 ml of cream. Leave to swell for 30 minutes.
2. Condensed milk is poured into a thick-bottomed pan. Pour sugar. Add cream. Mixed.
3. The mixture is heated over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Caramel slightly cool. Swollen gelatin is added. Stir until smooth.
Ready caramel glaze on boiled condensed milk is filtered through a sieve. Cover with cling film to prevent contact with air and set to insist in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Before applying to the cake, they are heated to 35 degrees.
The subtleties of applying caramel icing on a cake
- Ideal caramel glaze has the form of a homogeneous emulsion. Therefore, after connecting all the components, the mass is thoroughly punched with a blender. The device is turned on at minimum speed and lowered into the bowl at an angle of 45 degrees. It is important to prevent the formation of bubbles, otherwise the texture of the emulsion will be loose. If nevertheless this could not be avoided, the hot mass is filtered through a fine sieve.
- Ready caramel glaze should not be used immediately after cooking. But it is better to let it freeze for 8-15 hours in the refrigerator under a cling film. Store liquid caramel in the freezer (up to 3 months) or in the refrigerator (7-10 days).
- Before use, the solidified thick emulsion is heated to operating temperature (depending on the recipe, 30-45 degrees) and re-punched with a blender. It is important not to overheat the icing, otherwise on the cake it forms too thin, a translucent layer. But you can not water desserts with cold caramel glaze - the layer will turn out too thick and uneven.
- You can apply caramel glaze to gelled and hard cream (curd, creamy, buttery). At the same time, by the time of decoration, the dessert should be chilled in the refrigerator (8-12 hours) or aged in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
- The volume of caramel glaze should always be larger than necessary to create a continuous coating on the cake. Dessert is set on a stand and a wide dish so that liquid caramel flows freely from its sides.
- Glaze is poured spirally starting from the center of the product. From the flat top of the cake, the excess caramel is removed with one movement of a wide pastry knife. Glaze residues collected on a dish can be collected and reused.
- Dessert covered with caramel glaze is sent to the refrigerator for at least an hour to completely harden.
