6 minute read
Dawn Foods: Underneath the glow – icings and glazings
A lasting glow
A glossy layer atop diverse bakery products is a great way to make a first impression and, more often than not, plays a decisive role in purchasing decisions. It keeps products fresh, and stable, it contributes to their flavor or color. It also helps to enable creativity in decorations and brand products such as cakes, pastries, muffins, donuts, or hybrid creations.
+Several solutions can be used to cover baked goods, including glazes, icings, frostings, or fondants. Although some might be called interchangeably, there are quite some differences between them. The needed functionalities and the working of the products are very much dependent on the type of application for which they are used.
As a company with American roots and European heritage, Dawn Foods has a background in the full spectrum of glazes and icings that are used around the world. Christopher Ries, Category Marketing Manager Wets at Dawn Foods EU & AMEAP, mapped the various types for us, with their benefits and utilization guidelines. Glazes can be divided into three major segments: + Hot glazes need to be diluted if a concentrated variant is used, and heated – often to the boil – before applying.
These glazes are used on fresh fruits to ensure a nice shine. Their functional role is to keep the fruits fresh for longer. Some can add flavor and color to the application (e.g. Strawberry glaze). Hot glazes can be applied with a brush or a spraying machine, which works very well when the fruits and the application that needs to be covered are delicate. “Our Belnap®-range is, for example, very suitable to apply with a brush on delicate fruits. The
Gelomat is developed for spraying applications,” Ries illustrates. + Cold glazes are ready to use cold, or only slightly warmed (up to 30-45°C). They are used for mirrors on mousse cakes, bavaroises, or entremets. They are easily tailored and customizable with flavoring pastes or colors, allowing bakers to be creative and develop signature applications. “With our
Decorgel® Plus range, customers can even go bold with shapes, as the glazes hold on vertical and round surfaces, such as domes – covering the application with an even layer of glaze,” Ries details.
The functionality of both hot and cold glazes comes mostly from pectins and gels. + Donut glazes, also called glaze icing, are specific to donuts and their product family, such as Berliners, yum yums and other local donut-alike specialties. These glazes are mainly applied directly after frying. They keep the donuts fresh for longer and have a nice ‘sugar bite’ to contrast the fluffy dough. The functionality of a donut glaze is mainly derived from sugar, like with fondants and icings.
Other categories to choose from are icings and fondants. The key to working with both is achieving a smooth texture and the characteristic gloss. Fondants have their origin in France (‘fondant’ comes from the French word ‘fondre, which means ‘to melt’). It is traditionally a white thick mass made of glucose syrup and sugar only, which requires more technical handling in its application. “Fondants need to be diluted with water and warmed to the right temperature, for the right viscosity and glossiness,” Ries explains. They are used widely in traditional
pastries across Europe, with typical applications including eclairs or other choux pastries, millefeuille, Berliners and other cakes.
Icings are often linked with American sweet bakery applications, such as dipping donuts or drizzling over muffins and brownies. “Icings are very convenient, easy to use and have an increased tolerance compared to fondants,” Ries continues. They are often ‘ready to use’, without the need to dilute them in water (many fondants do, for comparison) and freeze-stable. Pastries can be directly dipped into the icing, as its viscosity is adapted and it will not drip.
For best results in applications, “The smoothness of fondants and icings, in particular, is dependent on the particle size of the sugar: the smaller and more refined, the smoother the coating,” explains Thomas Deconinck, R&D Center of Excellence Manager Wets, Dawn Foods EU & AMEAP.
Thomas Deconinck, R&D Center of Excellence Manager Wets, Dawn Foods EU & AMEAP
The right shine
Dawn Foods has a broad portfolio of glazes and icings, the best choice among them depending on the application and its specific requirements. This category is also highly customizable, with solutions that can be adapted to specific flavor profiles or tailored to make the product fit functional needs. For example, most icings developed by Dawn Foods are freeze/thaw stable. Speaking of functional properties, the company’s recently launched Dawn Exceptional® Non-Sticky Donut glaze specifically addresses the issue of the glaze stability when it is applied on a donut intended to be packed in a tight packaging: “This innovative glaze is stable when a usual glaze liquifies and sticks to the packaging,” Deconinck says.
The development of new glazings or icings starts from the application for which they are going to be used and all its relevant characteristics, including the temperature of application, the water activity of the dough, cooling time, and the humidity in the packaging. “Is the pastry going to be sold fresh or frozen? All those parameters will influence the choice of the ingredients and make the product suitable for its application,” explains Ries. The application process itself is also factored in. Ries shares the example of the Dip Quik® icing, in this regard, which does not even need to be warmed up and can be used straight out of the pail for fast donut or muffin decorations. For fruit glazes, Dawn typically uses gelling agents, which create a mirror or shiny cover that preserves the fresh fruits in the application. The main functionality in fruit glazes comes from gelling agents, or hydrocolloids. “Ingredients such as hydrocolloids are carefully selected and tested, to ensure they have the needed functional properties. These properties are defined by our application chefs and product developers based on our customer insights regarding their expectations from the glaze or icing, the intended utilization and the type of product to decorate,” Deconinck says.
Local market preferences also influence how Dawn develops custom glazings and icings. For example, fudge icings are popular in the UK, and are not sold elsewhere. They have a higher amount of fat and are quite different in terms of applications and mouthfeel than some of our other icings, Ries details. Aside from market-specific trends and flavor preferences, decoration materials also follow general consumer trends. “Hot glazes, for example, support the preservation of the freshness of (soft) fruits, preventing them from oxidizing or withering and turning brown,” Deconinck shares. Another important function of icings and glazes is the ability to extend product shelf life, minimizing food waste. +++
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