The Unexpected Way Bakeries Keep Pastries Fresh For Longer

While ogling the pastry case at your local bakery or coffee shop, you might've wondered how they don't get stale after sitting out all day. You might chalk up baked goods from grocery giants like Aldi and Walmart staying fresh to vacuum-sealed packaging and climate control, local bakeries are less industrialized. While it's always best to grab pastries early in the morning when they're fresh out of the oven at an artisanal bakery, you can still count on a moist, never-stale baked good because of one unexpected method: neutral glaze.

A neutral glaze is essentially simple syrup spiked with a thickening agent like gelatin or agar-agar powder. Bakers brush neutral glazes onto everything from pastries to tarts, to slices of cake to keep them fresh. The glaze acts as a sort of protective layer that keeps air and fluctuating temperature from infiltrating the crumb, thereby locking in the moisture and maintaining a fresh flavor and texture all day. In addition to preventing pastries from becoming stale as they sit in display cases, a neutral glaze also delivers a glossy sheen that makes for a professional and eye-popping presentation. As its name suggests, a neutral glaze doesn't affect the taste of any baked good, its thin coating supplying only a mild sweetness that won't upstage the principal flavors of the dessert in question. That said, a sweet neutral glaze can also upgrade dessert items like donuts or fritters with just the right amount of sugar.

You can follow your favorite bakery's lead by brushing a homemade neutral glaze over your own baked goods to keep them fresh and wow friends and family. This would be a great idea especially if you plan on baking desserts in advance. To make a neutral glaze at home, you'll start by blooming clear gelatin in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes while you begin to make your simple syrup. Over medium heat, simply dissolve sugar in water or use a 50/50 mixture of sugar and corn syrup for maximum thickness. Bring the simple syrup to a boil to thicken, add the gelatin, stir, and remove the syrup from the heat. Lastly, strain the syrup through a mesh sieve into a fresh bowl before quickly covering the syrup with plastic wrap. Let the syrup cool completely before using it on pastries. You can store the glaze in the fridge for several days if you want to make it in advance. If it becomes too gelatinous in the fridge, you can microwave the glaze in short 15 second increments to thin it out.

While it is a neutral glaze, you can always add flavor to it by first flavoring the simple syrup. A lemony glaze would bring a shiny sheen and a bright zing to this mini cinnamon blueberry galette. A dash of almond extract is another transparent flavor agent that'll take your sweet and spicy cherry tarts to shimmering and delicious new heights.