I've seen bread recipes like the one that you described.

When bread is baked in an oven with steam- the starch in the crust is able to gelatinize before it all dries out and becomes crispy. This is what makes the crust crisp, shiny, and delicious- characteristic of "artisan" breads.

Most people don't have steam enhanced ovens (or the ability to hack their oven to add steam: How can I create steam in a normal oven to promote bread oven spring?)

The recipe you linked has water added for steam but then takes out extra insurance (they cheat) by adding the cornstarch glaze to mimic the effect. By adding extra, pure, starch on the surface of the loaf more gelatinization occurs. Additionally, cornstarch gelatinizes at a lower temperature that wheat starch. Conceivably, you should be able to use any starch and see similar results but, in the US at least, cornstarch is by far the most common.

It shouldn't be necessary if you are able to produce enough steam in your oven.

It looks like you are trying to make sugar fondant. I often make a batch to use as seed crystals in my holiday fudge preparation.

Sugar Fondant

Sugar fondant is a crystalline sugar confection where the crystals are microscopic and suspended in a saturated solution of sugar. Its texture is very short, and the mouth-feel is creamy.

Creating sugar fondant is relatively easy. In brief, boil a syrup to softball stage and cool it undisturbed until around 50C followed by rapid agitation until the fondant is too difficult to work.

Now for some specifics.

Multiphase Solutions

One of the interesting features of boiling syrups is the temperature is intrinsically linked to the composition of the syrup. Unlike how boiling water transitions to steam at a constant temperature of 100C, syrups boil at a range of 110C to well over 200C. As water evaporates from the boiling syrup, the composition changes to contain a higher concentration of sugar and the boiling temperature rises.

Be warned. You are boiling a super-saturated solution. Any crystallized sugar introduced to the solution will not dissolve and it will seed crystallization during the cooling stages.

• Avoid stirring once the sugar has fully dissolved prior to boiling. Use a brush moistened with hot water to wipe away any crystallized sugar on the side of the pot during cooking.
• If you are adding any glucose to the syrup, add it after the syrup has come to boil to ensure that the other sugars have fully dissolved.

Candy Stages

The desired properties of a candy are principally derived from the candy stage to which you cook your syrup. The sugars remain mostly unchanged chemically (though disaccharides may break down into glucose and fructose) regardless of the candy stage or temperature.

When making sugar fondant, you are aiming for the softball stage which is 110C to 120C. You can take a dollop of hot syrup and drop it into cold water to check the stage in absence of a good thermometer or if altitude / humidity are affecting your candy. So long as you do not scorch the sugar, you can add water and lower the temperature to restore the syrup to the desired candy stage.

Crystallization

The most important part of a sugar fondant is the formation of microscopic crystals. The syrup must cool to 50C before agitation to create the desired crystal size and distribution.

One difficulty that I have found is that I cannot let the syrup cool within the bowl of my stand mixer - the syrup cools unevenly which typically induces crystal growth. This is especially difficult for fondant, as it must be worked for a significant amount of time to crystallize.

Depending on your desired purpose for the fondant, you may let the syrup cool to a lower temperature or agitate less to keep the texture longer or more pliable. If you agitate at a higher temperature, the syrup will form crystals that grow tremendously during agitation and make the fondant grainy or crunchy.

But Why Is It Crunchy?

Chances are, you have undissolved sugar in the syrup.

• Be sure all of the sugar dissolves before you add any glucose to your syrup.
• Don't stir once it begins to boil.

Your syrup might be at a higher candy stage. If you somehow managed to reach soft crack or hard crack, this might prevent the syrup from forming any crystals and resulting in an amorphous sugar glass.