Should I warm the glaze ahead of time?

You certainly can, but just know that this will thin out the glaze a bit.

How can I thin out my ham glaze?

Just add a bit of water, one tablespoon at a time until you've reached your desired consistency.

It can be if you use dairy-free butter.

Yes! When you're short on oven space, this is the perfect solve and we've got the whole recipe right here .

The BEST Spiral Ham Recipe – A classic and tried and true recipe for perfectly cooked ham to serve at Easter or your next gathering.

Scale

Spiral Ham:

3 Ingredient Ham Glaze:

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Prep: Allow ham to sit out and come to room temp. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Make Glaze: Add Glaze ingredients to a small bowl; whisk to combine. Set aside.*
Prep Pan + Initial Glaze: Pour 3-4 cups of water in the bottom of a roasting pan. Place roasting rack inside. Unwrap your ham and place it cut side down on the roasting rack. Brush all over approx. 1/2 the glaze (reserve the remaining glaze for later). Place in oven, middle rack, and let cook 20 minutes then cover with foil and return to oven.
Cook Time: Bake approximately 18-22 minutes per pound (include the 20 minutes from Step 5 in this total cook time) or until it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F.
Glaze: When there is approximately 10-20 minutes of cook time left, remove from oven and brush with Glaze all over (feel free to layer it on pretty thick) – ensuring you get it in every nook and cranny. Turn oven up to 400 degrees. Return to oven, uncovered, and let finish cooking. The glaze should get tacky and caramelized and turn a bit brown.
Rest: Remove from oven and let rest 10-15 minutes.
(optional) You can use a kitchen torch to caramelize the glaze after cooking if you want a crispier/browner skin – that is what I did in the photos shown).
Serve: Carve, serve and enjoy!

*you can place the glaze in a small saucepan and put on low heat on the stove – this will thin it out. I didn’t do this during testing and I liked the way the glaze was thicker so it went on nice and thick on the ham. But, if you are used to heating up your glaze first – please don’t let me stop you!
Water to thin: if you feel the glaze is a little too thick you can add water (a tablespoon at a time) to it and whisk to combine.
Dairy-Free: feel free to use a plant-based butter in the glaze.
Double it: you can easily double the ham glaze recipe, if needed.