Hello cookie friends!

I have a few questions about glace icing that I was hoping someone could answer for me. I think I'd like to give it a go, but I'm a little unsure....

About the recipe....would you suggest I use Toba's recipe, or is there another you would recommend I try? In the past, I've only used royal icing.

About the consistency... do I try to make it the same as I would for RI?

About the drying...what is the drying time? Is it similar to that of RI? After it is dry, I am able to package but not stack, right? So I wouldn't really be able to box them and ship them, right?


Thank you SO much in advance for helping me and answering all of my questions!!

~Bonnie

Ok, I will try to answer what I can. Toba's is pretty much the same as any other glace. Another one that is popular is Tara1970's icing. Seriously, same recipe for the most part.

I suspect the consistency is about the same, however I can't give you a solid answer, since I've not used royal.

Drying time is slightly longer that royal from what I understand. After they are dry, you can stack just fine. I even put 2 dozen in vacuum seal bags and sent them halfway around the world, no problem. The glace is nice and sturdy, not sure why you would think you couldn't stack or ship.

Hope that helps!

I have also stacked glace cookies with no problem. It tastes better than RI in opinion too. The texture is somewhat "stringier" than RI. Not much but I can tell the difference. I have had bubble problems with Toba's glace but many people haven't. Good luck!

thanks for your help!

For some reason, i thought that the glace (maybe it's only Toba's recipe?) didn't dry as hard as royal does.

what about coloring it - you use the same gel food colorings, like Wilton or Americolor, right?

A little clarification. The standard royal icing dries rock hard. Antonia's recipe supposedly doesn't. Glace dries quite hard, it doesn't crush immediately, but when you bite it, its nice and soft. I think it actually keeps the cookie softer as well. I've stacked at least 5 high but I'm sure they wouldn't stand up to a whack.

Coloring it is just like any icing. Dark colors take a little time to sit and develop. I'm a big fan of Americolor.

thanks for that. I already use Antonia's royal icing recipe, so it does dry hard enough to stack and ship with no problem, but it's not too hard to eat.

When I make my icing, which is pretty much the same as Toba's, I always add some brite white food color. I used to have some problems with the glace getting cloudy and spotty if the decorated cookies got cold. I don't have that problem since adding the brite white.

For consistency, I always add more powdered sugar than the recipe calls for. I only use one consistency of icing for initial outlining and filling, and I like it to be slightly thicker than Elmer's school glue. To prevent any bubbles, I fill in the area in a zig zag pattern and then smooth the icing out with a tapered off-set spatula. Last, I will add more powdered sugar to thicken the icing to the consistency of peanut butter when I do the final details and any outlining I want.

As for drying and stacking...the icing is firm to the touch, but soft underneath. I would give the icing a good 24 hours of dry time before stacking, or it will slightly crush the details.

GeminiRJ -- how do you go about adding more powdered sugar? When I have mixed up Toba's Glace, I ended up with a glop I could hardly stir. Or am I adding the sugar too quickly? Do you mix it by hand or with the mixer?

Also, do you ever dip the cookie? We want to do 60 large butterflies this weekend that have a white base coat of icing. I experimented with dipping some smaller cookies yesterday, and it seemed to come out fine.

Thanks for your help!

I use Toba's Glace as well. I sift the powdered sugar before adding corn syrup and milk (I add corn syrup first and then add milk- less than is called for- until I get the consistancy I want).
After it's mixed up, I send it all through a wire mesh strainer thingy (that's a technical term ) to smooth it out.
I've noticed a HUGE difference in the consistancy of my glace since I added on the strainer. I know a lot of people use (new) knee highs also to achieve the same results.

Thanks GeminiRJ -- I'll have to give it a try your way. I have Toba's book, and I was trying to do it as she described. She says to thoroughly mix the milk and sugar first, it being very soft and having a heavy-cream texture BEFORE adding the corn syrup and mixing just until combined.

Mine with just the milk and sugar seemed more like mixing cement at that point, so I added a bit extra milk to smooth it out before adding the corn syrup.

I used to mix the sugar and milk first, too, before adding the corn syrup. Then, when I was putting together the instruction booklet for my 3D cookie cutter kit, I had a couple people test everything out and give me their feedback. The number one complaint was how hard it was to mix the icing. Now, I just add the two wet ingredients to the dry and mix away. I haven't noticed any difference.

thanks everyone - I really appreciate the help and suggestions.

If Toba's glace has milk in it, how long is it good at room temperature (be conservative with your estimate, I'm a food safety nut)?

I've had it sitting on the counter for a week, no problem. The amount of sugar in the recipe conserves the little bit of dairy that is in it. People are, in my opinion, WAY too sensitive about leaving things on the counters. The cookies also sit out for at least a day letting the icing dry and I've not once had someone say they were stale or bad in any way.

The high sugar content acts as a preservative. You don't need to worry about the icing spoiling. You'll want to eat the cookies within a week, just for freshness purposes, and the icing is definitely fine for that length of time.

is the corn syrup and milk to help keep the icing shiny after it dryes?