Royal Glaze Recipe

It's finally here! The Royal Glaze recipe I have been talking about for a long time! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this all written out for you! Life has been insanely busy!! But no more waiting! It is HERE! :-)

I am so sorry that I forgot to mention the icing I tested here! It was so late when I posted this, I just forgot! So let me mentioned that!

I tested my icing again. But mixed the warm water and meringue powder together first to see if it made a difference. Which it did.

I tested Miss Doughmestic's Royal Icing as well. Which was awesome, but not what I was looking for.

I also tested Baking Sweet Hope's recipe and that is what inspired this recipe.

I tagged everyone when I made them all to test and from there, I tweaked things here and there to my liking. I used my royal icing recipe and technique and used Baking Sweet Hope's glaze recipe but changed a couple of things.

What I changed:

I added white food coloring to both the glaze and the royal icing. I added Almond Emulsion to the glaze and then to the royal icing. I also used my methods for my royal icing recipe testing as well - warm water, not cold as well as mixing the meringue with warm water. I also sometimes will add a little more corn syrup as well depending on how dry it is here in Arizona. And I will experiment with this more in the dead of summer too as it gets BLAZING hot!

So a couple of months ago, I got fed up with my my basic royal icing recipe as I was trying to watercolor on cookies. All it did was soak into the icing and it just left me frustrated. So I decided to do some research and see if I could find the best icing to watercolor on.

The good news is, I did. And boy is it an awesome recipe! I call it Royal Glaze, because it is a combination between royal icing a glaze. It has all the perks of both and non of disadvantages. Dries hard enough to stack cookies, but has a soft bite. Dries smooth not gritty. Dries just as fast as royal icing. Tastes GOOD, freezes well, doesn't really separate, stores well in the fridge, keeps a slight shine and it's awesome to watercolor on... or should we call it Everclear color or Vodka color? ;-)

I knew once I found this recipe that I had to share it. And for free. I don't believe in charging for recipes. Even though I spent hours and days perfecting it, I wanted you all to be able to try it and use it! And love it. haha!

I know, I'll stop talking and share.

ROYAL ICING RECIPE:

1 lb powdered sugar

1 1/2 tbsp meringue powder

1/4 c. warm water

1 tsp pure/imitation vanilla (look, no judgement here if you use imitation, you do you!)

1/2 tsp Almond extract or emulsion (optional)

2 tsp glycerin (optional but HIGHLY recommended) (I also sometimes will add 1/2 tsp more depending on the weather)

1 tsp white gel food coloring (do not add too much or your icing will taste bitter)

GLAZE ICING:

1 lb powdered sugar

1/4 c water

1/4 c corn syrup

1 tsp pure/imitation vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract or emulsion (optional)

1 tsp white gel food coloring (again, don't add more than that)

Start with the ROYAL ICING:

Mix the meringue powder and warm water in your mixer's bowl by hand with a whisk. Whisk it until it's foamy - resembling a watery milk froth from the coffee shop or beer foam.

On the lowest setting of your mixer (avoid those messes! haha), use the paddle attachment, add your flavorings, then add in your powdered sugar. Once everything is completely combined, turn the mixer to medium speed, whip the icing just until it becomes fluffy and holds a firm peak. (do not over mix)

Transfer the royal icing into tupperware with a lid. Just set it aside, you'll need it in a minute. You don't need to wash your mixing bowl.

Now we're moving on to the magic!

GLAZE RECIPE:
Add all the ingredients to the bowl. Go in the order of the ingredients listed, the powdered sugar should be on the bottom of the bowl. Beat at low speed with the paddle attachment until ingredients are combined.

Turn the speed up to medium, beating until the glaze is very well blended and smooth resembling thick honey. (approx. 3 minutes). Be sure to stop mid way into mixing to make sure all ingredients in the bottom of the bowl are thoroughly incorporated.

Now, add your royal icing back into your mixing bowl containing the glaze.

Whip on low 1-2 minutes, stopping at least once to scrape down the sides and the bottom of your mixing bowl.

Whip at low speed for another 30-60 seconds or until you can see that the two icings have unified and turned into a magical unicorn. ;-)

Voila! You now have my amazing Royal Glaze recipe!!  PLEASE tag me when you use it!! I definitely want to see all of your creations using it. <3

Side note: if you don't know about Anita of Baking Sweet Hope's diligent goal of bringing awareness to ALS, please read about it HERE.