Butter and sugar glaze recipie

[LMHmedchem]

Hello,

I have been making Kouign Amann for several years now and I really like the recipe. I will post the recipe I use if anyone here would like to see it. Just let me know.

You are supposed to sprinkle some sugar on the top edges of the pastry before baking but I find this difficult to do. For one thing, I use Turbinado sugar because I really like the caramel flavor and the crunch. This sugar comes in large crystals and these don't stick very well to the top of the uncooked pastry. My solution up to this point has been to take the pastry out of the oven about 5 minutes before it is finished and brush the tops with melted butter. Then I sprinkle some sugar on the melted butter. This works reasonably well as the melted butter helps the sugar to stick. It is also a pain and adds to the time it takes, which is already long.

I recently tried to make a glaze of butter and sugar in the hope that I could brush it on after the pastry was out of the oven. The glaze was a disastrous separated mess, so that was an absolute fail. I have tried looking for recipes but I have found google to be more and more useless in this regard. All I get are an endless list of recipies for buttercream frosting in every possible variety. Maybe I just don't know what it should be called.

I suppose I could just do a water and sugar glaze, possibly with a little vanilla. I was hoping to find a recipe for a sticky glaze made from butter and sugar and am hoping that someone here could help. I also thought about maple syrup with some melted butter but I would like something that would harden with a little crunch.

Thanks for the advice,

LMHmedchem

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I don't see why it's difficult to apply the sugar before baking.

Normally, a very light egg wash is brushed on with a pastry brush; then sugar sprinkled on. The sugar sticks to the wash and adds color and/or shine.

Whole egg + milk = even browning & richer color than no wash

Yolk + water = glossy shine & richer dark color

Egg White + water = shine

 

[LMHmedchem]

I don't see why it's difficult to apply the sugar before baking. Normally, a very light egg wash is brushed on with a pastry brush; then sugar sprinkled on. The sugar sticks to the wash and adds color and/or shine.

The reason I have stayed away from egg wash is that the top edges that get the sugar are the layers of the pastry that are supposed to expand and flake. For the same reason you manually knock up the edges after you have put together the top and bottom of a 2-piece puff pastry or don't twist with a cutter when cutting puff pastry I am concerned that the egg wash will glue the edges together and keep it from rising and flaking properly. There isn't much to this pastry other than the flake so that would be a big issue.

I trim all the edges of the pastry sheet before cutting out the individual pastries because all 4 edges of each pastry need to be loose and open to get the proper finish. The outer edges where the pastry was folded during the turns will not flake properly unless trimmed.

Do you think this would be a problem with the egg wash?

LMHmedchem

 

[Norcalbaker59]

The reason I have stayed away from egg wash is that the top edges that get the sugar are the layers of the pastry that are supposed to expand and flake. For the same reason you manually knock up the edges after you have put together the top and bottom of a 2-piece puff pastry or don't twist with a cutter when cutting puff pastry I am concerned that the egg wash will glue the edges together and keep it from rising and flaking properly. There isn't much to this pastry other than the flake so that would be a big issue.

I trim all the edges of the pastry sheet before cutting out the individual pastries because all 4 edges of each pastry need to be loose and open to get the proper finish. The outer edges where the pastry was folded during the turns will not flake properly unless trimmed.

Do you think this would be a problem with the egg wash?

[COLOR=%s]LMHmedchem [/COLOR]

Washes are routinely applied to laminated doughs. That's how the color and shine is created. It's done by pastry chefs all the time.

Problems happen when the wash is slatter all over the dough. Just lightly apply a sheer light layer with a pastry brush that is lightly loaded. You don't want it dripping wash everywhere.

A wash is meant to add color and shine. It will also hold sugar in place. A sheer layer is all that's need.

Home bakers tend to overload the brush; repeatedly brush over the dough. They end up gluing the dough down.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I was just looking at the current issue of Pastry Arts magazine. If you need reassurance that it's ok to apply a glaze/wash to laminated dough, here’s an example. The wash didn't keep the croissant from rising.