Sealing Isomalt & Using Edible Glaze

When you create pieces out of isomalt, you want them to stay as shiny and smooth and beautiful for as long as possible. I'm Sidney Galpern, and today I'm gonna show you my secret to preserving all of your isomalt pieces. Isomalt is hygroscopic, and what that means is it absorbs moisture out of the air. So if you are in a more humid climate, you definitely want to consider moisture and humidity when creating your edible designs. Now, isomalt is going to hold up a lot better than traditional boiled sugar, but still because it is hygroscopic, it can sometimes get a little bit sticky or cloudy, especially if you are in a higher humidity area. So you wanna make sure that you protect all of your beautiful isomalt creations before they go out the door. There's a few different ways that you can do this. And so I'm gonna show you the different ways that you can preserve your isomalt. Now, if you are in a dryer climate and you generally don't have to worry about humidity as much, you still do wanna think about where you are delivering your cake or your sugar piece to, because if you are going to be delivering this cake into a hotel, odds are there is gonna be some moisture in the air from the air conditioner, or if you're at an outdoor venue and there's a chance of rain, you always, always wanna make sure that you protect your sugar pieces as much as possible. And that's where sealing the isomalt comes in. When I create an isomalt piece, I always seal it with a clear edible glaze spray. So a clear edible glaze is going to be your best bet to making sure that you are sealing any moisture and humidity from the air away from your piece. So this is the glaze spray that I use and it's just gonna give us a nice fine coat on the surface of all of our finished isomalt pieces. And by creating that barrier between the isomalt and any moisture in the air, it's going to help it stay shiny. It won't get sticky or cloudy for much longer rather than if you did not spray your pieces. So the glaze is really gonna be your best bet whenever you are creating something. So every single one of the isomalt pieces that I make, I always make sure to spray it with the glaze. Now, there are a couple of alternatives that you can use with preserving your isomalt. You can use a cooking oil or like a vegetable oil rubbed onto the surface of your pieces, but those are not gonna last as long. So that's generally not my go-to because it's gonna wear off within a couple hours. So that's only gonna be good if you are just trying to shine it up directly before serving the edible presentation that you have, whether it be a cake or cupcakes or whatever you are creating. So you can use that, but it's gonna be more of a last-minute thing. Another thing you can do is you can just seal your pieces in an airtight container. So if you are trying to avoid having to spray any of your pieces, now, the glaze doesn't have any taste after it's, you know, dried and all set up. But if you are trying to avoid spraying it, you can just seal your pieces in an airtight container like a Ziploc or a Tupperware container immediately after. This has to be as soon as the isomalt piece cools, otherwise the moisture will get into it before you seal it. So as soon as the piece is cool to the touch and you can unmold it, you can put it in a sealed container and that will help to reduce any moisture around the isomalt piece. Now, keep in mind, if you are sealing let's say cookies with isomalt decorations on them, if you seal that in an airtight container, just remember that there could be moisture in the other mediums like the icing or the cookie itself. So that could affect the isomalt. If you're gonna be doing something like that, you definitely wanna make sure that you spray the glaze. When spraying your pieces with the edible glaze, you do wanna make sure that you move any and all tools away from your work surface. So I'm gonna move my silicone mat here off to the side and I'm going to lay down some paper. In this case, I'm gonna use a couple paper towels. You can use some plastic, whatever you have on hand that's disposable. You just wanna make sure that you cover a large area because this is a spray and you don't wanna overspray this. This is all edible, but for some reason it does not like to come off of tools and surfaces very easily. So I do like to make sure that everywhere is protected. So I'm just laying out some paper towels here and I'm going to grab a piece to spray. So I just have this really pretty, shiny isomalt flower. So you can see I just poured it in a pale pink isomalt. It came out of the mold. It's all nice and cool. And now I'm going to spray it. So I'm just gonna set it down here and give it a nice light coat of spray across the surface. You don't wanna do too thick. So I'm just gonna give it a very quick spray and you don't want a too thick of a layer because it is still a liquid. And while it's gonna dry very quickly 'cause this is alcohol-based, you don't want any excess liquid sitting on the surface. So that's why I don't like to use a bottled confectioners' glaze that you actually paint on like you can use for gum paste flowers and leaves because that's too thick of a layer and it can leave brush strokes and it can also affect the texture of the isomalt with too much moisture. So just a nice light coat like a spray is going to be the best for isomalt. Now, like I said, this is alcohol-based, so we are just going to let this dry all the way down. It only takes a couple minutes. And I always do this step at the end. So after all my pieces are put together, after it's painted, this is kind of the final step just to lock everything in, lock any moisture out. So we will just let this dry. But you can see it's already pretty much drying and it's definitely giving, you know, the exact same look. It has not affected the texture or anything like that adding the glaze. Since it is shiny, it's a edible, you know, shiny lacker, it is going to look exactly the same as the surface of the isomalt. And so that is just going to protect it and keep it nice and shiny and smooth. I've switched back to my Silpat mat now so you can see the difference. So I have this piece here. This is the one that I just glazed. You can see it's nice and shiny. It will stay just like that even here where it is very humid in Florida. This piece will stay shiny for weeks, if not for months. I've had pieces stay nice for a very, very long time as long as I spray them right away with that clear glaze, compared to, this is another piece that I have. I made this shaker lollipop about two months ago. And so you can see that over time from not glazing it, it has just gotten a little bit frosty and a little bit cloudy. It's definitely not as clear as the other piece here. And that's just because I didn't glaze it. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing if you're going for like a sea glass look or something like that, it definitely works, but it will get cloudy if you don't spray it. So that's gonna be the advantage of using that clear edible glaze spray. This is definitely one of the most common questions that I get about working with isomalt, how to keep it from getting sticky or cloudy and keep your pieces nice and shiny. So I hope this video gave you some tips and tricks to move forward with creating your isomalt pieces the absolute best they can be.