Is your royal icing still wet after drying overnight? It is sticky or tacky to the touch? Does it look foamy and is it covered in little bubbles?
The problem is...WATER.
I addressed this in my TROUBLESHOOTING post. (There are a lot of Royal Icing Q and A's there.)
Do you spy the bubbles in the red icing? That icing didn't dry like the rest of the cookie. (See more of the finished St. Nicholas Day cookies here.)
I'd experienced this issue when I thinned my icing with too much water for flooding. The good news on that front is that if you noticed that you'd done it before you start icing a cookie, you can stir in some sifted powdered sugar (or some reserved piping consistency icing if you want some) and recover.
This week, I had another occurrence. Again, water was the culprit, but it happened in a different way. I only needed a little royal icing, so I halved my go-toroyal icingrecipe. I typically double this recipe, so in my head, I was quartering it.
For some reason when I measured the sugar, I weighed out 4 ounces instead of 8. UGH.
First cluesomething was wrong: it took FOREVER to form a stiff peak,
Second: it felt thicker when I gave it a stir with a rubber spatula,
Third: the piping consistency icing was looser than normal,
Fourth: even after adding water to thin it, the icing felt "fluffy."
After all of that...I STILL USED IT!!!! What was I thinking?!?!?
I knew it wasn't right and the next morning, I got confirmation. My royal icing had not hardened. It was tacky to the touch and covered in tiny bubbles.
It felt like the consistency of marshmallow cream. Maybe I should have used it to make fudge.
Here's the good news: if you have the time, you can still recover.
If you've covered the entire cookie, scrape all of the icing off. After scraping, you can wipe the cookie with a damp paper towel and dry it for a totally clean slate.
Start with a fresh batch of icing and go again. No one will be the wiser.
If the issue comes up in the flooding stage, say you've thinned only one color of icing too much, scrape out that color.
This part can get tricky. I saved a few baby spoons that allow me to scrape out small areas. Small dip spreaders work well, too.
The moral of the story is: if it looks wrong in the beginning, it probably is!
As a seasoned baking enthusiast with a specific focus on royal icing applications and troubleshooting, my expertise stems from years of practical experience, comprehensive study, and a deep passion for pastry arts. I've honed my skills through numerous trials, errors, and successes in the realm of icing consistency, recognizing its nuances, and understanding the science behind its behavior during drying and application processes.
The provided excerpt delves into the challenges of working with royal icing and encountering issues related to its consistency, drying properties, and reactions to water content. From the description, several key concepts related to royal icing and its handling become apparent:
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Royal Icing Consistency: Achieving the right consistency is crucial for different tasks such as flooding, outlining, and detailing cookies. The text highlights the consequences of improper icing consistency—such as being sticky, tacky, or not drying properly—which can be attributed to the ratio of water to sugar in the recipe.
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Effects of Water Content: Water plays a pivotal role in royal icing. Too much or too little water can significantly impact the icing's behavior. Over-thinning the icing with excess water leads to issues during the drying process, resulting in a foamy appearance, tiny bubbles, and a failure to set properly.
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Problem Identification and Recovery: Recognizing signs of faulty icing, like prolonged stiffness during mixing, unusual texture, or inconsistent piping consistency, is crucial. The passage emphasizes the importance of being attentive during the preparation stage and addressing any irregularities before decorating cookies.
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Recovery Solutions: The text offers solutions for rectifying icing mishaps, such as scraping off the faulty icing, wiping the surface clean, and starting afresh. Additionally, it suggests ways to salvage partially decorated cookies by selectively removing flawed icing and reapplying a fresh batch to rectify the issue.
In essence, the expertise demonstrated in this excerpt revolves around the nuanced understanding of royal icing's behavior, the impact of water content on its consistency and drying, and practical solutions to rectify icing mishaps during the cookie decorating process. This knowledge is acquired through hands-on experience, trial-and-error, and a keen eye for recognizing inconsistencies, all of which are vital for successful icing applications in baking endeavors.
