The Single Ingredient You Need To Thicken A Runny Glaze

Whether you're making donuts from scratch or baking up a batch of pastries, you may be looking to use a glaze to add some sweetness and decorative flair to your dessert. A glaze is essentially a type of icing (which is not interchangeable with frosting) and can be either fairly runny or relatively thick, depending on the recipe. If you notice that your glaze happens to be too thin and translucent, you can add one simple ingredient to give it more bulk: powdered sugar.

No matter what you're making, the ideal glaze is going to be thick and sturdy enough to coat your pastry and harden in place, but also runny enough that it's easy to drizzle or dip with. One of the three main ingredients in a donut glaze, powdered sugar, thickens the consistency while adding a bit more sweetness (which is always welcome in baked goods). 

While you may notice thickening agents like cornstarch or flour are often used to bulk up runny gravies and sauces, both of these need to be heated up in order to work, something that powdered sugar doesn't require. When using it to thicken up your glaze, just know that a little goes a long way. Instead of dumping in an entire quarter cup, for example, just whisk in about a tablespoon at a time until you reach the perfect consistency. 

The dessert you're making is going to be an indicator of how thick or runny you want your glaze to be. For example, you may not want to dip your freshly made apple cider donuts into a super thick glaze as it can overpower the flavors of the donut. In this case, a slightly thinner glaze that leaves a translucent coating on the donut would work best. For a baked cheese danish, on the other hand, you may want your glaze to be a bit thicker as you'll likely be drizzling pretty lines across the pastry. If a glaze is too thin, it runs the risk of not hardening properly, resulting in a pastry where you lose the look of those decorative lines.

While adding powdered sugar to your glaze will help thicken it up, adding more liquid to it will help thin it out. To do so, just add a splash of milk at a time, whisking it thoroughly to help loosen up and thin out the glaze. If you run out of milk, adding a bit of water can also do the trick.