Glaze Icing on Sugar Cookies (with liquid glucose)

Happy Pongal To All My Readers

Hope you all are celebrating Pongal today. Though it is Pongal, I am writing a post on cookies. I am that crazy. Last week, I wanted to try my hand at glaze icing the cookies. I have already posted my adventures with Buttercream icing and plain icing sugar glaze icing. Today I will be sharing with you my experiment with Glaze Icing using liquid glucose. The actual recipe uses corn syrup but in India as corn syrup is not available, we usually substitute it with liquid glucose. This substitution works best and my cookies turned out beautiful, though I had wrist pain for two days.

As I used the heart cutter for my cookies, I wanted to base the decorations on Valentine's Day theme. So you will see many love cookies among others. To make a grand looking cookie, I added some silver sugar pearls before the icing dried. They look really cute and they were my daughter's favourite. Polka dots are very easy to make and they make the cookies gorgeous. If you are trying this, stick to the design you are comfortable with. Even simpler designs look great once the icing dries. I used only two colours as I was in no mood for elaborate work. If you have loads and loads of patience, then make colourful cookies and make your loved ones happy.

Once the cookies are baked, they need to cool completely before adding the icing. Even a little bit of warmth in the cookie will melt the icing. First prepare the icing with which you will be outlining the cookie. You will need the tiniest nozzle for outlining. Allow it to dry completely before flooding the icing. Flooding is the method used to fill the cookie with the icing. I made a 20 second icing for flooding. After preparing the icing, run a spoon through the icing. A line appears and will disappear in 20 seconds. Yes, I counted to 20 and the line disappeared exactly at 20 seconds. If the line disappears very fast, then it is very thin and you need to add icing sugar. If it takes more than 20 seconds, then you need to thin it down with a little milk. I learnt it by reading so many blogs. I did a lot of research before actually attempting on icing the cookies. They surely helped a lot.

For flooding the cookies you don't need a piping nozzle. You just fill the piping bag, cut a small hole and flood the cookies. It is quite easy. And keep a toothpick ready to spread out the icing. The outline helps in keeping the flooded icing within the cookie surface with out it falling on the sides. But if you add a lot of icing during flooding, then it will definitely spill over the outline. So be careful. Once you flood the cookies, it is time to take rest. And allow the icing to dry completely before designing. I just kept it inside my oven with the door slightly open and left it overnight. The next day the cookies were ready for decoration. And once the decorations are over, dry the cookies again for at least 4 hours before storing in airtight jars. They will stay crisp even after a week.

Eggless Sugar Cookies

This sugar cookie dough was great to work with. Unlike the other sugar cookie recipes, it doesn't need refrigeration. Knead the dough and make the cookies immediately. It is quite easy breezy. Do not forget to dust the counter with flour as the dough is a little sticky. The cookies does not spread and I was so happy that I found a perfect recipe finally. The recipe for the cookie is from food.com. I have read about sugar cookie dough and every recipe asks you to chill the dough so that the cookie doesn't spread. But this recipe doesn't chill the dough and it also doesn't spread. They make perfect rolled out sugar cookies. This recipe had an egg in it and I substituted it with 1/4 cup of milk.

Recipe Source: Food

Makes 4 Dozen Heart Cookies

Ingredients:

Butter-1 cup

Granulated Sugar-1 cup

Milk-1/4 cup

Baking Powder-2 tsp

Vanilla Essence-1 tsp

Flour/ Maida-3- 3 1/4 cups

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Cream together butter and sugar until pale.

3. Add in vanilla and milk and beat until fluffy.

4. Mix together flour and baking powder in a bowl.

5. Add a cup of flour and beat to incorporate.

6. Now add the second cup and beat again to incorporate.

7. Finally add the third cup of flour and mix by hand to make a sift dough.

8. If you feel the dough sticky, then add extra flour until it becomes non sticky.

9. Dust the counter with flour.

10. Divide the dough into four equal portions.

11. Roll a portion into a 1/8" thick disc.

12. Dip a cutter in flour and cut out cookies out of the rolled out dough.

13. Place on a greased tray.

14. Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookie needs to brown a little. If they don't brown, you will end up with soft cookies.

15. remove the tray from oven and let it sit on counter for 10 minutes. When they come out of oven, the cookies will be very soft and any attempt at removing them from the tray will result in broken, disfigured cookies. So try to remove them after 10 minutes.

16. Touch the cookies to see whether they have firmed up. Remove them carefully with a spatula and arrange on a wire rack. Finish with the remaining dough.

17. ALlow all the cookies to cool completely before icing them.

Cream together butter and sugar.

Add milk and vanilla.

Add a cup of flour and beat.

Mix the final cup with hand.

Make a soft non sticky dough.

Roll into 1/8" thick disc.

Cut out preferred shapes.

Arrange on baking tray.

And bake until brown.

Cool on wire rack.

Glaze Icing with Liquid Glucose

The addition of liquid glucose give a shiny finish to the cookies. And use sifted icing sugar as any lump in the sugar will make it very hard to pipe using the tiniest nozzle. I made two batches for 4 dozen cookies and still have some in my fridge. This icing stays good even after refrigeration. Just bring it to room temperature and use it on cookies. You will never find the difference. It works well.

Recipe Source: I Am Baker
Ingredients:
Liquid Glucose-1 tbs
Milk-1 tbs plus extra
Icing Sugar-1 cup
Lemon Juice - 2 drops ( to cut down the sweetness of sugar)

Procedure:
1. Take milk and liquid glucose in a bowl and mix until the milk thins the glucose. Add the lemon juice and mix.
2. Sift the icing sugar directly into the milk glucose mixture and mix. If the icing is very thick, then add a tsp of milk and mix.
3. You need to get dropping consistency. If you feel that you have added lots of milk, then add icing sugar to bring it to the correct consistency.

Take liquid glucose.

Add milk and lemon juice and mix.

Sift icing sugar into the bowl.

Mix. It is very thick. I added a tsp of milk to thin it down.

It should for a string when dropped with a spoon.

Insert the coupler into the icing bag and place it inside a tall glass.

Now fill it with the icing.

Cut away at the end, fix the coupler with the nozzle and screw it to the coupler inside the bag. Tie the end with a rubber band to avoid spilling of icing.