Chocolate Mirror Glaze
Leave it to the Japanese to come up with a beautiful and simple alternative to the high-gloss tempered chocolate coating that so many of us envy but doubt we can pull off without an industrial tempering machine. This glaze produces a very satisfying sheen, albeit without the “snap” of a true chocolate glaze. Thanks to reader Paul for submitting his favorite version.
2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
3.5 ounces (1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon) cold water
3.5 ounces (1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon) heavy cream
5.25 ounces (3/4 cup) sugar
1.75 ounces (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) cocoa powder
Pour half the water into a small dish and stir the gelatin into it. Allow it to sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Combine the remaining water, cream and sugar in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Take the pan off the heat and add the gelatin, stirring until it’s fully dissolved. Whisk in the cocoa until the mixture is smooth.
Strain the glaze into a glass bowl (metal will affect the taste). Allow it to cool for five minutes or so, until it’s right about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, before applying. The pre-made glaze can be stored in the refrigerator and re-melted in a double boiler or in the microwave (a few 5-second bursts on high heat) for later use.
Joe,
Until I make this to find out myself, how thick is this glaze? Will one coat give a nice, dark, shiny glaze or do you need to layer this to get an nice even glaze?
I generally only do a single heavy coat with this glaze
Paul
Thanks Paul!
joe, you need more pictures. not a ton, really, but just a couple. even us nerds like pictures 🙂
question- there’s this cake a pastry chef near me makes, and it’s got a soft shiny chocolate glaze over it. i have NO idea how he does it, but it’s even all over, perfectly shiny, and the consistency of like…fudge that one would pour over ice cream, in the hard-but-soft state it takes when it hits the cold ice cream. does that make sense? anyway, how does one make THAT? is the recipe you posted for this nebulous stuff i’m describing?
Hey Yasmin!
The site is LOADED with pictures! Just start clicking over in the archives on the left! Ive been traveling lately so I haven’t had the chance to bake much. So, stay tuned! But I think the thing you’re describing is the glaze I’m talking about that. There’ll be plenty of my normal photo tutorials coming over the next several days to demonstrate it.
More soon!
– Joe
Hey J,
can you elaborate on the “standard” recipe that requires precrystallized chocolate?
Chris
Sure!
Hi!
After discovering it I have been using the chocolate glaze recipe of Michael Laiskonis. You can find it in the pdf here:
http://mlaiskonis.typepad.com/workbook/2009/02/sliced.html
It looks close to the one posted here, but there is less water. Do you think one could just change the amount of it to “tune” the thickness?
Hey Marco!
That amount of water probably won’t make terribly much difference in a recipe of this volume, at least I don’t think. For a thinner glaze I’d suggest varying the amount of gelatin.
– Joe
Would reducing the sugar affect the sheen?
I don’t think so, Henry. I think you could do it with less.
– J
I tried this recipe, and the result was beautiful! However, I only used 50g of sugar and it was plenty sweet enough for my taste. Also, I could never get the mixture cooler than 90F – because of the room temperature? I wonder if adding corn syrup with improve the viscosity of the glaze (as RLB does in her lacquer glaze recipe).
Hey Henry!
Adding corn syrup will do a couple of things: add to the sheen and increase the flow. Personally I think this formula flows well enough and doesn’t really need any more luster. As for the temperature I can’t think of any reason it wouldn’t cool down other than the room temperature. You could try a little refrigeration, but only for a few minutes at a time between stirs so it doesn’t set up prematurely.
– Joe
Hi Jo!! I wanted to say thank you for this receipe i just used it to cover some chocolate & Baileys cake filled with caramel cheesecake and they look divine!!! Super glossy ….. I loved it!!! Thanks for sharing!
And me a picture, Laura! And you’re entirely welcome. I love to do what I do!
– Joe
I meant Joe!!
I figured! 😉
Hi Joe
For us vegetarians, could you replace the gelatine with agar?
You rock!
Hey Moo!
You certainly can…but what about the rest of the pork pie??? 😉
– Joe
Joe – first of all, love your site. I need an answer – I operate mostly in kitchen enviroment with gelatine in leaves, can you tell me how much leaves of gelatine I should put ? Thx
Frank
Hey Frank!
Thanks very much! 2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin is equivalent to just over 5 sheets of British leaf gelatin…about 5.25 according to my math. Best of luck with the glaze!
– Joe
I halved the recipe and halved the gelatin and this was WAY too much gelatin. It ended up like cocoa jelly. 1 leaf is enough
Thanks Rochelle, I’m not en expert at powder-to-leaf conversions clearly. Sorry for any inconvenience this caused you, and thanks for checking back in on it!
– Joe
Hi! How much does this recipe make? Will it completely cover a 9″ layer cake (4 cake layers plus 3 ice cream layers)?
Hey Tiffany!
This makes a little over two cups which is enough to cover a layer cake (I expect you’re splitting two standard layers, yes?). However you may want to increase it by 50% just to make sure you have enough. Also I should say that you’ll want some sort of crumb coat on the cake to make sure it’s as smooth as it can reasonably be before you put the glaze on. You may know this already, but the glaze is very thin and will show any dimples or holes in the cake quite clearly. Have fun!
– Joe
Hi joe,
I saw this guy bessam on facebook use it in many different colors. How can I make it in other colors besides chocolate? Oh & instead of water could you use tonic water? I’m new to cake decorating but have some crazy ideas I can use this recipe for.
Thanks
Hey Jen!
I’d imagine you can substitute just about anything for the cocoa powder in this recipe and it’ll work. Indeed you can probably leave it out altogether and just add whatever coloring you wish to it. The cream should make it white and opaque and ready to take any color you’d like to give it!
Cheers and have fun!
– Joe
Hi Joe,
This is a beautiful glaze and it looks wonderful on baked goods. I made way too much though (have enough extra to cover 1.5 cakes!). Can the excess be frozen for future use? I was thinking no because of the gelatin but wanted to double check with you. If not, any suggestions on how I can use it up?
Thanks!
Hello! After reading all posts about this mirror glaze or icing, your article and recipe , my question is, is this the same used by sensation sucree? Adding different colors or cocoa? Also, I do caramel sauce and it is very shiny while hot, but how it can still shiny? Is because I have to add the gelatin? Or is there any other method or recipe?
Hello Gisela!
Looking at those photos it seems that many of the fruit coatings are something along these lines: gelatin-thickened fruit glaze. Some of the chocolate are probably similar, some may be hard coatings that are just well tempered. Shiny caramel is a bit of a challenge. Perhaps a thin caramel sauce thickened with gelatin would work. I never considered it before, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t.
Cheers and good luck!
– Joe