Glazes for Finished Pastry

Many glazes added after cooking are fruit-based. Red currant jelly glaze is used for tarts filled with berries and red fruits such as plums. All other fruits—green, gold or white—should be coated with apricot jam glaze or a glaze of a similar color such as orange marmalade. When fruits are poached in syrup, a fruit syrup glaze can be made by reducing the poaching liquid, then thickening it with cornstarch or arrowroot. If brushed on a cooked pastry shell, fruit glaze protects the pastry and helps prevent the juice of ripe fruit from saturating it. Other possibilities, particularly for puff and choux pastry, include sugar icings like glacé, fondant, and melted chocolate. Hot caramel, another good insulator, sets to a thin brittle sheet.