I am looking to re-create a bakery-style fruit tartlette. I was wondering what the glaze on top of the fruit tarts you find in US bakeries is and how you can create it at home.
I have heard that it's just heated apple jelly, but I imagine that might change the flavor of the whole tart. It seems like it's largely a preservative since I don't see any glaze in home recipes, but I like texture it adds.
The glaze on most fruit tarts is just melted jelly. Given the small quantity involved, you probably wouldn't particularly notice the apple flavour. However, there's no reason you couldn't use another type of jelly if you preferred.
If you take a look at many fruit juice blends, you'll note that the base is usually apple, even when that's not the advertised fruit flavour, so it's obviously not an overpowering flavour when mixed with other fruits.
This Tips for Pies and Tarts page has a couple suggestions at the end for glazes for fruit pies and tarts.
I've seen a lot of tart recipes that call for melted apricot jam/jelly as the glaze. It's similarly elusive flavor-wise to apple jelly, and doesn't stand out as a flavor on its own.
My guess is that in a more industrial setting apple is more likely, though, as it's generally cheaper and more readily available in large quantities.
It's actually called 'mirror glaze' or 'miroir glaze' (I think that's French). It's quite hard to find and when you do it's usually sold in bulk (e.g. 6kg) as it's only really used by professional pastry chefs.
I am currently making lemon curd tarts and want to get that beautiful glossy finish so I plan on experimenting with something like this (note that it's an experiment!):
Ingredients - gold gelatine leaves - lemon juice - sugar - water
Bloom the gelatine leaves in some cold water.
In a saucepan, add quantities of lemon juice, sugar and water to your taste and bring to the boil or until sugar dissolves.
Once the above has cooled slightly, add the bloomed gelatine leaves and stir until dissolved. Set aside until mixture begins to thicken, then pour/spoon over filled tarts.
Note that with with gelatine leaves, the proportion is 2g gelatine leaves to every 100mL liquid.
I've seen this in the grocery store:
It seems like it would work for what you want. More details at http://www.oetker.us/en/product/baking-aids/glazes-and-sauces/clear-glaze suggest it's basically starch, and you could use cornstarch and sugar in water, or cornstarch in reduced fruit juice, for the same effect.
