I use ganache more than any other recipe in my arsenal! So when I was asked to teach at a chocolate extravaganza I though sharing the three uses of Ganache would be perfect!
Lets start out with the basic Ganache recipe – chocolate and cream! Thats it! The normal ratio is 2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream, but you change it up a bit depending on what your making.
Ganache will taste exactly like whatever chocolate you use to make it, so the higher end, nicer chocolate is best. STAY AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE CHIPS, they have an extra ingredient to hold their shape in higher temps and do NOT make good cream.
I like to mix 3 different chocolate brands so the end result isn’t a clear “oh this is dove”. I also like to use 2/3rd more expensive chocolates and then 1/3 I feel I can go cheaper without ruining it.
And DARK chocolate makes better ganache than milk; semi-sweet, bittersweet and Dark all work best. Milk is just too soft in my opinion, not the right texture. You can DIP it in milk chocolate if you want to!
Measure out your cream and bring it JUST to a boil, a little bit of bubbles on the edge and your done. Watch it carefully and don’t burn it, you don’t want your chocolate to taste like burnt cream. Nasty.
Pour the heated cream over the chocolate. Shake your bowl to settle the chocolate so it’s all covered and let it sit for 5 mins.
When the 5 mins are up slowly stir the cream and chocolate until it’s all incorporated and smooth. IF for some reason you have a lot of chocolate chunks (as in your chocolate pieces were too big to soften enough in the heated cream) you can save it by placing the bowl over a pot of boiling water (double broiler style) and stir until it’s melted, you’ll just have a longer cooling time later.
WARNING: make sure everything you use, spoons, spatulas, the bowl, etc.. are DRY any water at ALL will make the chocolate SEIZE, and there is no fixing that.
Now what to do with the Ganache! Warm, you can pour it, cool you can whip it up and use it as frosting and cold you scoop it into truffles! Here you can see the warm, dark, ganache and below the cooled whipped ganache I use for frosting.
1. You can use the 2 part chocolate 1 part cream, but for a thicker frosting (that holds piping better) use 3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream.
2. let it cool enough before whipping, otherwise you’ll be whipping without thickening a long time.
3. the more you whip it the lighter the color will become, I think I over-whipped it a big above, it still worked great, just created a more dull look to the cake.
Let’s start with frosting. I use ganache almost exclusively under fondant. Once it sets it holds the shape and form of the cake so the heavy fondant doesn’t weight it down the way butter cream squishes out the bottom! I love it. This Easter cake I made is covered in whipped ganache and then all the pipping is done with the ganache as well. You can see this is darker than the other frosting, I didn’t whip it as much.
Now pouring, you can pour just a little on top, and get the dripping edge look, or pour it over the whole cake to get a glossy dark chocolate look. For the full cover I put the cake on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet underneath to catch the excess.
now as I started to pour this I realized it was a bit thick. To get the smooth pour I’d use 1 1/2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream, a bit runnier, it will be thinner but set well.
because this batch was thicker I couldn’t just rock it around or shake it a bit to get the full coverage, GAH! Bad example. I had to smooth the top with a cake spatula…
As well as the sides, boo… so it’s not quit the high glossy look I prefer. I should have thinned it down a bit before starting. Once you start manipulating it with the spatula it loses the effect I like.
And tuffles!!!! Once you finish your gananche just toss it in the fridge! once it’s hard you scoop out your truffles, and roll them into circles. I like it best when I use a mini scooper, but mine broke and I haven’t replaced it yet!
To get a different flavor change the chocolates you use, I think semi sweet and dark chocolate work the best, I’m not a fan of the milk chocolate for ganache. You can add oil based flavoring (not water- it will seize) or while your heating the cream you can add vanila beans or mint leaves or anything else you like to steep and bring out the flavor.
Or you can add chunks of toffee, nuts, or anything else to the ganache while its warm, and it will mix in so when you scoop out the truffles it’s already in there!
Refridgerate the truffles once you have the shape you want, and once cold again dip them in melted chocolate, I like to use wafers, but you can use anything you want, if it’s a bit thick thin it down with some shortening (a little at a time)
shake off the excess…
And place it on parchment. I can’t seem to do this part as pretty as others. Once it cools I break off the excess messy parts! If you want anything on top, crushed nuts/candy, sugar, salt, etc… make sure you sprinkle it on while it’s still wet. once it’s dry you can decorate with melted chocolate if you want.
So that’s ganache! I usually make a triple batch every week, or more. Any extra I have after frosting a cake I refridgerate. To use it again I either bring it to room temp and whip it up a bit again, or I melt it over a double broiler to get it warm or I scoop it out and turn into truffles!
Ganache
Ingredients
- 8 oz heavy whipping cream
- 16 oz chocolate semi sweet and bitter sweet work best
Instructions
- Mix about three different chocolate brands for a unique flavor. (2/3's nice chocolate, 1/3 general) Stay away from chocolate chips, they will not melt properly, and milk chocolate, which is too soft.
- Measure out your cream and bring it JUST to a boil. Burnt cream tastes NASTY!
- Pour the heated cream over the chocolate. Shake your bowl to settle the chocolate so it's all covered and let it sit for 5 mins.
- When the 5 mins are up slowly stir the cream and chocolate until it's all incorporated and smooth.
- If it is not smooth, reheat ganache in a double-boiler. (Bowl of ganache over a boiling bot of water)
ganche drip
- for the drip it's a 1 to 1 ratio - so 8 oz chocolate to 8 oz cream
ganache frosting
- for the frosting it's a 2 to 1 ratio - so 16 oz chocolate to 8 oz cream - let it cool then frost or once it cools whip it in a mixer for a rich whipped frosting
truffle
- truffles are a 3 to 1 ratio - so 24 oz chocolate to 8 oz cream - after it's mixed smooth chill until firm and scoop.
Angela
Ashlee, thanks for the great tutorial! Just made it and it turned out great! Using it for filling in my son chocolate marbled Avenger themed birthday cake!
Ashlee
yay! I love to hear that, I love ganache, and glad you enjoyed it too!
Fibri
wow, I feel so lucky to find out your incredible website unconsciously. I am very happy. I love every single you shared here. I am a girl with hobby just as you. Would you mind if I call you teacher? Hahaha. Thanks a lot for many learning I could get. Hope you and your family always happy. Hope I can meet you someday 🙂
Warm greet, Fibri
Ashlee
thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoy the site and I love being a teacher! enjoy!
jennifer
Love, love, love thw tutorial! I have been trying for a thicker ganache for piping and never quite gor it until you explained the amount of chocolate makes it thicker, thank goodness for people who share their skills and knowledge! I had a problem with my chocolate not melting entirely tho and was too rushed for a double boiler solution so I just popped the whole thing in a microwave for 30 seconds and it worked like a charm. Thank you again for a great tutorial!
Ashlee
you are so so SO welcome! just make sure you let it cool down before frosting (after melting the chunks out)
Carol Ann
Hi, your ganache sounds wonderful. What type of cream should I use? There’s light cream, heavy cream, and whipping cream. Looking forward to trying this! Thank you for sharing.
Ashlee
I use heavy or whipping cream always, they both work great.
Tiffany
I love this recipe , but I’m not too much into dark chocolate will this work for white chocolate ?
Ashlee
you can make white chocolate ganache, you need to use 3 or 4 parts chocolate to cream vs the 2-3 parts, and you need to use very high quality white chocolate, not like candy melts
Tia Tru
I am tempting to make this gnache for the first time, and im planning on using it to make the Gruff cake like you posted on Youtube. How much gnach did you use for that cake??
Ashlee
GAH, no idea, I keep ganache around forevery so I always mix old batches and new batches and I always make extra since it keeps so well. It was probably around 16 oz cream 32 oz chocolate?
Christine Christian
Can you freeze ganache? I want to make a Buche de Noel for Christmas and want to make the cake, filling and roll into a log and freeze ahead of time. Wondering if the cream in the chocolate will freeze well?
Ashlee
you can freeze ganache, but you don’t want to freeze fondant (if your covering it).
Kylie Gray
Hi Ashlee. Thank you so much for your information. One question though, i want to cover a whole cake with ganache, so how long do you have to wait until you can pour onto your cake? Does it have to have cooled down?
Ashlee
for poured ganache the cake needs to be pre-frosted. Then let it cool enough that it won’t melt the frosting already on the cake or be too thin, warm enough to flow but thicken enough to stay on the cake
Kaitlyn Thayer
About how long do you need to cool it before whipping? If you don’t need to do the double boiler? 🙂 Should you stick it in the fridge or keep it on the counter? <3
Ashlee
ummm that depends on the amt of ganache – it’s a hard one to answer. I usually make my ganache a few hours before I need it, up to the night before. leave it on the counter and let it cool to room temp. if you refrigerate it it will stay warm in the center and get too hard on the outer edges.
Shelly
I have been so intimidated by ganache for so long that I never attempted to try. This gave me a sense of I can do it! Thank you so much! I can’t wait to see what you do next!
I do have one question, when you pick your chocolate, do you like 60%, or 100% cocoa better? Do you mix different percentages? I found the 100% a tad bitter. What do you think?
Ashlee
any chocolate you’d want to eat cause the cream isn’t going to make it any sweeter. Personally no I don’t stick with high percentages – dark, not milk chocolate but not crazy bitter.
Cindy
What kind of chocolate? Brand?
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Hello, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog site in Ie, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up!
Other then that, fantastic blog!
Ashlee
thanks for letting me know – I can’t seem to recreate the problem – but I’ll remember to keep checking all browsers
Lily
Thank you, this is super helpful! Am I able to use pouring ganache over the top of whipped ganache? I want to make a chocolate cake with a filling and coat of the lighter whipped ganache but then cover it with a glossier surface like the pouring ganache. Two different textures but without over complicating the flavour. Any tips to make it work?
Ashlee
totally! you do need to let it cool just a bit or it will actually melt the whipped ganache – but in the pictures you totally see me pouring the liquid over the frosting
Maureen
Hello Ashlee – how do you measure the 8oz of cream in a liquid measurement?
Ashlee Marie
kitchen scale
Charis
Would you mind sharing which chocolate you used in your photos above? Some of it looks like chocolate chips but I know you said to stay away from those. Thank you!
Tannya H
I’m not sure what chocolate Ashlee uses, but I use guittard chocolate. They don’t have soy and a lot of other garbage in their chocolate that other companies do add. I make an amazing milk chocolate ganache for truffles with it that tastes just like the lindt chocolate filling.
Ashlee Marie
chocolate bars or wafers, never chips – I like trader joes, peters, callebaut, guittard, merckens, peter’s or ghirardelli chocolate wafers or bars
NICOle
Cream? Like heavy whipping cream or..? I would like to make this for a cake tomorrow. Thanks for sharing!!
Ashlee Marie
yes heavy whipping cream
Danielel
Hi – if I want to store the ganache to put on some buttercream currently crumbed coated on a cake and cooling in the refrigerator – should I store overnight on the bench or in the fridge? Should I whip now or tomorrow before covering the cake? Thanks
Ashlee Marie
let it cool the whip before frosting the cake
Michelle
What method do you use for whiping the ganache; whisk, stand mixer or hand mixer?
Ashlee Marie
I pretty much always use my bosch, it’s the strongest and quickest. but you can use a hand mixer. I wouldn’t bother with a whisk
Cake E
HI,
The cake I’m making will be too large to fit in the fridge…is it possible to poor white chocolate ganache over an UNchilled cake? If yes…then how? Thx!
Ashlee
are you looking to pour over the whole cake or just create drips? for just drips use a 1 to 1 ration and let it cool to almost room temp then use a piping bag or something like this http://amzn.to/2xYYt3e to get the drips. For full coverage I wouldn’t use white chocolate as it becomes kinda cloudy transparent when turned into a ganache. I’d consider doing a mirror cake in that case, which is different than a ganache glaze.
CJ
Wow! I can’t wait to try this. I’m making a monkey cake for my daughter and cake pops for my other daughters birthdays so do you think I can just dip the pops in (they are baked and in the freezer so dip them frozen?) and then whip it for my monkey?
So exciting
Ashlee Marie
dipping ganache and whipped ganache are different ratios – so you can heat up some extra cream and “water down” the thick ganache to make a runnier ganache for dipping