I am making some cookies for teacher appreciation week and I made some Glace by Toba Garrett. I love the taste and soft texture, also the translucent quality is quite pretty. The problem I am having is that the icing has a lot of bubbles. Even when I poke em with a toothpick or needle, there are still bubbles that form during the drying process. Do any of you have any tips/techniques that you use to help remove the bubbles from your cookies?

Sorry, I have not tried it. But here is a bump.

Have you tried mixing up the glacee and then letting it sit for at least an hour. Covered with Saran set right on top of the icing and up the sides of the bowl so no air gets in?

That should help.

I have not tried Toba's glaze, but my suggestion would be to make your icing ahead and let it sit for a while to let the bubbles work themselves out. Obviously, you'll want to put a sheet of plastic directly on the icing so it doesn't dry out, but that should help.

Also, I might suggest tapping the bowl on the countertop to help those bubbles release themselves and rise to the top (much the way you might before you put a cake in the oven).

These are just suggestions, but I hope that they help you out.

Odessa

I used her glace this weekend and only had a couple bubbles. Try tapping the bowl like you would if you were settling some chocolate in a mold to see if the air bubbles come to surface. I poured the glace in a plastic bottle and don't know if that had anything to do with it. You may have overstirred, because I think it says to add the corn syrup until just blended????

I use an offset spatula to spread the icing over the cookie, which eliminates any air bubbles. I still get the bubbles if I have a puddle of the icing in the design. I haven't found a way to get rid of this, but knowing it's failings help when doing the design.

Thank you all so much! I will give all of your suggestions a try and then get back to you.

ILOVEMY6BOYS

Everyone already shared the same advice, I mix up my glace, seperate add colors, pour it into bottles and let it sit for a few hours. This gives most bubbles time to clear out and also lets my colors mature. Good luck!

On a side note, I thought Teacher appreciation day was the first week of May or does it vary by location? Hmm, don't wanna miss out on doing cute teacher cookies!
Andrea

I would love to hear if you can get it to work. I never could fix the problem, even with the help of hte fine people on CC and I have gone back to Antonia's (or occasionally another recipe I like) RI.
Heather

I frosted a batch of cookies with her glace last night and I had the same problem. I mixed it in the morning and frosted at night. There were a ton of bubbles when I opened the lid to start so I cut through it with a knife, thought stirring it more would make it worse so I did the knife, but after I flooded all of the cookies they still have tiny pin point bubbles all over the surface. I was soooooo mad!! I do however have a tendency to overmix things (once I start I just can't stop!!) and I mixed it by hand so next time I am going to use a hand mixer and do it ONLY until there are no powdered sugar chunks left. I'm so glad you posted this! How did yours turn out? I like the idea of the ofset spatula but I always just flood with a bag and fill in with the tip so I never use a spatula or knife. We've got to figure this out beucase so far this is my favorite icing, minus the bubbles of course.

I know I'm talking about royal icing here but there's bubbles in that all the time when I mix it. But then I let it sit so they can all rise to the surface. I then use the back of a spoon to spread the surface only which pops all the air bubbles but I never dip down into the icing to stir it. To me, that would only add more bubbles. Also I put saran wrap over top of the bowl, not directly on the icing itself. This may give more room for the bubbles to reach the surface. When you pour the icing into your bags or bottles you also have to be careful how you "scrape down" the bowl so you don't incorporate bubbles while doing that either.

Yup, I have no problem getting bubbles out of the royal icings. For some reason, they work a lot easier than Toba's. I have not yet been able to work with Toba's b/c of the neverending bubbles. Royal icing is so different......I don't know why. None of the usual tricks will work for me with Toba's. I keep waiting for someone to suggest something totally new and different to try. But at this point, I think I've mostly given up on it.

giraffe, I know what you mean about wanting to give up. Me too. It has to be something to do with the corn suyrup as BC and RI don't get bubbles that carry over into the frosted cookie. Next time I'm going to try mixing the heck out of the milk and sugar like the recipe says to, and then I'm going to mix the corn syrup into that mixture and mix it like 15 strokes or until it's just mixed. I think the thicknes of the glace due to the corn syrup has got to be why the bubbles can't escape. I really like this glace though, especially for the taste. I will try a few more times before giving up. There has to be SOMETHING that works!!

I should've thought of this to begin with but you should really pm kneadacookie with your question. I believe she uses Toba's and it doesn't look like she has a problem with it. She also has a website you can check out with fabulous cookies. I'd give her a try.

I thought I would jump in here and say that Antonia's glace icing is the only one I ever use because I love the satin look and great , soft flavor. The trick with it is to not stir more than a FEW easy strokes after adding the corn syrup. I barely stir it after adding the coloring, kind of like when making biscuits LOL

A batch of spring cookies I did last week were over stirred and full of tiny bubbles. The Cat in the Hat cookies I did this week I hardly mixed the glace after the corn syrup and I had maybe 2 or 3 tiny bubbles out of 60 cookies.

I also make sure and give myself enough time to mix the glace well ahead of time and pour it into my bottles so it can settle even more.

Hope that helps--bubbles are so frustrating!

Kris

Sheesh long day, sorry. I meant to say Glace by Toba Garrett, not Antonia.

Kris

Thanks Kris! I am going to mix up a batch later today to do baby cookies with. I am going to mix the milk and sugar until smooth and then use my whisk to beat the corn syrup in only a few strokes. I really hope that helps. This is the icing I want to use for all of my cookies but unless I can figure out the bubble issue I won't be able to.

I use Toba's for everything. I've never used a mixer for any of it - always mix by hand and I've never had a bubble issue. I love the taste and texture too.

Sorry this is out of the conversation, but can someone give me the recipe to the Toba Garrett glace??

The recipe is:

1# powdered sugar
3/8 c milk
3/8 c corn syrup

Mix the sugar and milk first, then mix the syrup in until just combined.

I made it for the second time today, mixed it by hand, and there were so many bubbles in it after sitting for 6 HOURS that it ruined my cookies. WTF am I doing different that you guys aren't? It is beyond frustrating because I really want to use this recipe but unless I'm doing something that I totally don't see, I'm going to scrap it. I won't even outline my cookies with this batch, I will have to make a RI to do that. Each cookie has about 30 teeny tiny pin point bubbles in it and some even have these big splotches that looks like a drip of water got onto the wet frosting and spread, except there was so water around that I know of.

I did the nipples of my baby bottles which is just the little tip, and on each one right in the middle of the frosting, it caved in, making it look like a hole in each one. I am so annoyed. I think I'm done with this recipe.

Next I'm going to try Antonia's RI with egg whites (the pasteurized kind in the little carton) instead of MP. Has anyone done this before?

hello all....

i just sent out a response to someone asking about the glace icing. i figured i would also post my response here.


I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help you, but I'll try.

I've never made the glace by hand, so I'm not sure how much that has to do with it. I have to say that I seriously just throw everything in the mixing bowl all at once and turn it on low. I throw in the sifted powder sugar, water, corn syrup and flavoring. I add a couple drops of white coloring and turn it on. It usually stays on for at least 5 minutes. I really think it needs to mix for quite awhile.

Once it's done, I usually transfer to a large plastic bowl. I start out by putting some white in a large squeeze bottle. I use that to fill my bowls for coloring. It seems easier than pouring from a giant bowl each time. Anyways, each color I need gets put in a seperate bowl for mixing. I then put maybe 3/4 of that into it's own squeeze bottle and add more powdered sugar to the remaining for outline consistency. Each of those goes into a bag with tip #3.

I can remember getting a lot of bubbles at one point. I really don't get a lot anymore. I always outline each color and then come back and fill in. If I have a large area to fill, I run along the outline with the fill and use the squeeze bottle tip to move it aroung. If I move it around a lot, I'm guarenteed more bubbles. I have also found that the bubbles in Toba's glace pop a lot easier than royal icing bubbles. I always have a toothpick on hand when filling. I rarely get more than maybe 6 or 8 bubbles nowadays.

I do mix glace by hand. I don't use whisk because it beats too much air in it.

Use fork or wooden spoon. It is virtually impossible to get air bubbles this way.