“Be inspired to create masterpieces from
​your own kitchen”.

Chocolate Mirror Glaze 

The mirror glaze is something to behold on a cake. This glaze is so shiny, that it becomes mirror like. Reflecting back to you the light around you.  Look close enough and you will see your own reflection. 
​

The mirror glaze is very close to a ganache, but not quite. The ganache is simply heated heavy cream poured over chocolate. When warm, ganache is then poured over the cake as a glaze. 

Instead of hot heavy cream to melt the chocolate,  the mirror glaze needs a hot syrup to melt the chocolate.  This syrup consist of sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup and sugar, cooked until just under boiling.

​ This syrup, along with the addition of unflavored gelatin is what makes this chocolate glaze so shiny.

It's these additional ingredients that changes a ganache to a mirror glaze.

​ The mirror glaze is used primarily over cream based dessert cakes, like a mousse cake. Or these little Bavarian Cream Dessert Bombs.

Picking Your Chocolate

Which Chocolate is For Me ?

I have my favorite chocolate brands that I like to work with. Especially those with a high cocoa butter content.

The  ones that do , will tell you on their packaging their percentage of cocoa butter content.

​But if all you have access to are the chocolates found in the grocery aisle, go ahead a get it. 

I must add, all chocolates are not equal, however. Most chocolates found in the grocery store lack the cocoa butter content that makes the chocolate so rich in the first place. When you read some labels, I promise you will find a lot of the cocoa butter has been replaced with  palm kernel oils.

I like the Hershey's brand because there is cocoa butter on the ingredient list. They just don't tell you how much. 

​​The milk that they add, contributes to the creaminess, due to the fat in the milk. Yes, cocoa butter is a fat, too. 

Let's Talk About the Glazing

Before you get started, your chosen dessert needs to  start out frozen,  first. 

​This is necessary for the dessert to retain its shape once the warmed glaze covers it.

​Generally, the mirror glaze is not as thick as the one you see in this picture. 

The idea temperature you want for 'the perfect' glaze consistency is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  

 This glaze here, I let the temperature go down as low as 87 - 88 degrees Fahrenheit.  That's why it is so thick. 

 I was experimenting to see how much coverage I could get with just one coating.

For these little desserts, I ended up layering them with two coatings of glaze.

Beautiful coverage.

​Beautiful shine.

The Chocolate Mirror Glaze

Ingredients	Ounces	Grams	Measured
Sugar     ​	10.5 ounces	​ 300 grams	1 1/3 cup +1 tablespoon
​Corn syrup	10.5 ounces	300 grams	1 1/3 cup +1 tablespoon
Water	5.2 ounces	150 grams	1/2 cups+ 2 tablespoons
Sweetened condensed milk	7.05 ounces	200 grams	7/8 cup = 14 tablespoons
Chocolate of choice	​10.5 ounces	300 grams	1 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon
Gelatin  powder		20 grams	4 teaspoons
Water	4 ounces

Yields 4 cups 
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​Procedure
​

Step 1
1. Bloom and clarify the gelatin in 2 ounces of the water.

Step 2
In a medium saucepan, add the sugar, corn syrup and remaining water. On medium heat, heat just until under the boiling point. 

Step 3
Remove from the stove and add the condensed milk. Stir to combine.
Add the bloomed gelatin  and stir.

Step 4
Pour the contents over the chocolate, and allow to just sit for one minute.  Stir until completely blended. Strain through a strainer if necessary.

​Step 5
Allow the glaze to cool down to 90° F, before using it for glazing.