Easy Fruit Glaze Recipe: Perfect for Tarts and Pies
Making your own Fruit Glaze
As I was walking through Costco one day looking for a dessert to bring to a holiday function, a tart loaded with fruit and shiny fruit glaze caught my eye. So I purchased it…and the kids devoured it before I ever made it to the party. The joys of teenagers and their friends!
Since we pick and use a lot of berries here in Alaska, I got to thinking about how beautiful it looked and wondered if I could make my own fruit glaze. The ones purchased at the store are not thin enough and designed more for pie filling. After playing around with a few versions, we came up with this one that’s actually pretty versatile and have used it on our fresh fruit creations. It’s really easy to make and only takes about 15 minutes to prepare.
The thing about Fruit Glaze recipes…
Is that they often only provide for 1 consistency. Well, there’s different functions for different glazes. Perhaps you only want to paint the fruit delicately like in the picture below:
Or maybe you want it slightly thicker, or even really thick! The pie on the left below shows a painted side, and a slightly thicker side where we drizzled it on allowing it to pool. The pie on the right shows a really thick version of the glaze.
It’s all about how much “thickener” you put in. The standard for most fruit glaze recipes I’ve seen is cornstarch. We’ve used this in the pie on the right and you can see it’s not quite as clear as the pie on the left. For that pie, we used Ultra Gel (which you can find in your common grocery store) and this resulted in a clearer glaze. The conversion is 1 Tbsp cornstarch = 2 Tbsp Ultra Gel. The recipe below provides adjustments for three glaze thicknesses. But you could certainly play around with it to find your ideal thickness.
I also like using the actual fruit juice verses a packet of fruit flavored drink mix that is called for in some versions. I don’t know, just something weird about that. And a final tip, if you do chose to paint the fruit glaze on, I HIGHLY recommend looking for a brush similar to the red one pictured above. It’s super soft rubber verses the bristle brushes, so its nice on delicate fruits and really holds the glaze. (Of note, they make big ones that we love to use for meats we baste.)
Fruit Glaze
Easy Fruit Glaze
Ingredients
For the Fruit Glaze:
- 1/2 c. Sugar
- 1 1/2 c. Fruit Juice
- Corn Starch or Ultra Gel *See Below
- 2 Tbsp. Corn Syrup
Instructions
To make the Fruit Glaze:
- Mix cornstarch OR Ultra Gel and 3/4 c. fruit juice** in a separate small bowl, stir until dissolved.
- Mix sugar and 3/4 c. fruit juice together in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Add cornstarch/fruit juice mixture to boiling sugar/fruit juice, reduce heat and cook until mixture thickens and is turning clear, stirring constantly.
- Add corn syrup and cook for 1 minute.
- Cool fruit glaze slightly and then drizzle, lightly brush, or "paint" onto fruit.
Notes
- This glaze works well for fruit in a tart, pie, fruit pizza, cheesecake or regular cake to give it that glossy, professional look.
- *For thin glaze, 1 Tbsp cornstarch or 2 Tbsp Ultra Gel. For medium glaze, 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch or 3 Tbsp Ultra Gel (my favorite consistency). For thick glaze, 2 Tbsp cornstarch or 4 Tbsp Ultra Gel.
- **The glaze will pick up the flavor and slight color of the fruit juice you choose, so pick your juice based upon this. Apple and pear juices are the mildest and clearest, while grape and berry juices are a darker, reddish color with more intense flavor.
Thank you so much, janet—-we just picked tons of strawberries here (west of Chicago), and I am making a tarte for Dad’s Day. Awesome commentary.
Thank you for the feedback! I hope it goes well with those delicious fresh berries and tart. I’m jealous as our berries aren’t quite on yet ?
Hi Janet I’m going to try to make this. But want type of fruit juice do you use?
Elizabeth
I usually use apple or pear!
Thanks Janet. I will try it. Beautiful yellow berries, what are they? They sure look delicious.
I hope you like it! The berries are Salmonberries and they come on around mid summer here in Alaska. The coloring can vary from yellow to orange to red. I find them similar to a raspberry, very delicious, juicy and sometimes fragile. One of our tasty varieties when we go berry picking!
I have used apricot preserved and added a little bit of water and heated as directed on the direction, however it looks really good fir a while but I have noticed it became watery and made the tart soggy. Will this do the same?
This recipe should hold up much better with the thickening agent compared to jam version. I’ve tried that one before we worked on this recipe and found it did not hold in solution well.
One thing to remember is anytime enzymes and acids from fruits are introduced to an environment with sugar, it will begin to break it down no matter what. But I do think overall, you will have better luck with this version, especially the paint on glaze that you can control where it is applied. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Can i reuse leftover tart glaze and if yes, how long does it store in fridge and what are the producedures to use a second time?Pam
Great question Pam. I actually don’t recommend storing in fridge and using much later than a day out. The reasons are this is a fruit juice based recipe. Depending on the juice you will have acids and possibly enzymes in the juice which will begin to breakdown the carbohydrate structure in the glaze making it separate.
If you look at commercially based products that are glazed, they need to be eaten relatively quickly for this reason or they become “soggy” in the fruit, crust and filling. Commercial fruit pie glaze has a stabilizer added generally to hold it in solution so to speak but even it will break down when added to fresh fruit. This recipe works better made fresh, brushed or poured on your dessert then eaten within 1-2 days. Hope this helps?
Can I replace corn syrup with other ingredients?
I honestly have not tried it with another ingredient. The corn syrup is a sweetener certainly, but also works to clarify the mixture at the end. You could possibly try honey, coconut nectar, maple or birch syrup; but it may affect the color slightly. I’m curious myself now, so I’ll do some testing and an update if alternatives work well:). Great question though!
Hi, I made this glaze but instead of fruit juice i used water. since there’s no fruit juice, how long can i store this glaze in an airtight container?
It should definitely hold better than the version that contains fruit juice. I would think it would hold typically for 3-7 days without the fruit enzymes breaking it down quicker. Carbohydrate in thickeners will eventually degrade and release the “water” causing it to separate, but water only should buy you a little time. Hope this helps!
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY, WENT ON LINE FOR A FRUIT GLAZE FOR FRUIT PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZA AND I’M GOING INTO THE KITCHEN TO MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW, IT’S GOING TO BE GREAT. I’M GOING TO USE ORCHARD’S 100 % FRUITJUICE.
THANK YOU, I WILL WATCH FOR OTHER RECIPIES.
I don’t know what you mean by fruit juice….. I can’t find where you talked about it….. there are many fruit juices. Thank you.
This recipe uses the fruit juice of your choice such as apple or berry, and not water. Down in the tips, it talks about the glaze picking up the flavor and color of the juice and to choose the juice based on what you are using it for. If I were using it on a berry pie, I may select raspberry; or if I were doing a mixed fruit on a fruit pizza, I may choose apple juice for lighter color. I usually do use apple juice for 95% of when I use the glaze. Hopefully this helps to clarify it!
Hi Janet, May I check if that’s just the store buy fruit juice we are talking about?
Yes it is!
Just made & its awesome
Thank you, I’m glad you liked it!
I am deathly allergic to corn syrup. Is there an alternative? Thank you
I’m sorry to hear that! Although I haven’t tried these personally in this recipe, you could use Agave Syrup, Honey, or Maple Syrup. The maple and honey may affect the flavor a bit, but one of those may be worth a try. Thanks!
can i use canned fruit preserved water inside such as peach? how long will it last?
That should work to use the liquid from a canned fruit like peaches! As far as storage, I usually look at about 3-5 days at most because of the natural enzymes in fruit juice.
In a pinch I subbed 7-Up for the fruit juice, and added Grand Marnier. Thanks for the recipe, it was *magic* in a fresh peach pie!
What a great idea! I’m glad you enjoyed it and that it worked out!
I am wanting to make a glaze like on the King’s Hawaiian Paradise Cake. I will link to it below. I want to make the three colors that appear on top of the cake. Do you think your fruit glaze recipe will work for this? Thanks.
Link to cake: https://www.khbakery.com/bakery#menu=bakery&item=paradise-cake
It’s possible, although this looks like a thicker “Gel” in the link you sent. If you tried the thickest version of this recipe, you would need to use a “clearer” juice and add food coloring. Hope it turns out!
Does this stay as a syrup consistency or does it harden up like a candy over the berries ?
It stays syrupy until it breaks down which is typical for products with fruit juices in them given the enzymes. Thanks
Hi, can’t wait to try this because I have not had luck with the heated apricot preserves method. Is the corn syrup you are suggesting clear or brownish colour? We have both in Canada. Thanks!
It’s clear