Ganache

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rrrg, May 15, 10:50pm
Hi - am making Ganache 1st time and cant afford to muck it up - for 18th birthday cake. Any food tips. How much will I need to cover top of cake and sides. Does it need to rest and be thick before to put it onto cake.thanks
rrrg, May 16, 12:15am
And Its for tom so if I ice tonight with Ganache do I refrigerate or leave on bench covered
valentino, May 16, 6:57pm
My favourite Ganach is the following:
200 mil cream
2 tablespoons butter
230 grams approx dark chocolate chopped small, I get a 250 gram Whitaker's dark Choc no more than 60% cocao and slam the block onto the benchtop a few times whilst still fully in sealed pakage until one can feel that it is broken into the smaller pieces.

Put cream and butter into saucepan and heat until just below boiling point.
Remove from heat add chocolate and stir until melted and all is smooth in texture.
Leave for a few minutes until it starts to thicken.
Place the cake on a large serving dish by inverting cake from rack.
Slowly pour over the Choc Ganache evenly all over the cake, allowing excess to drip or run down all sides.
Allow to set completely cooled, can be refrigerated.

Hint, best to have all excess choc welled inside the middle of cake rather than spilling over the outside edge of cake, dish edge and onto the work place surface.

Another hint; before inverting cake, spread a coating of ganache over top of cake, cut a piece of baking paper plus an extra cm overhang, allow the choc to set a little then flip or invert the cake onto a dish then continue with ganaches onto cake for a fully enclosed cake inside a total ganache covering. Once cake ganache is fully set – remove the paper somehow before slicing otherwise paper could make taking a slice out trickier.

Sometimes I like a little bit of cognac ora bit of cherry liquer added to the ganache, say for a tablespoon then use slightly less cream and a pinch less of butter.
valentino, May 16, 6:58pm
Can be refrigerated but take out of fridge a couple of hours prior to serving.
coast_palms, May 16, 7:06pm
Valrhona choc is a good one to use .
Quite pricey though. I've madeexcellent quality ganache using a bar or two of Lindt Mint Extreme & cream.
sarahb5, May 16, 7:07pm
I've even used Homebrand cooking chocolate to make ganache and it still tastes good - not as good as it would with better quality chocolate but good enough
purplegoanna, May 16, 7:08pm
mmmmmmmmmmmmm ganache nom nom nom
vinee, May 17, 2:06pm
I used whittakers dark orange some times, nom nom - you cant pipe it though!
gecko100, May 17, 3:09pm
I made ganache on the weekend to go with a chocolate cake.Made it with cream, choc chips (all I had in the house at the time) and a dash of vanilla essence.Ratio 2 - 1 of choc to cream.Bring cream to the boil and whisk in choc chips (or whatever you have) and a splash of vanilla essence if you wish.Devine hot or cold!
bexta021, May 18, 10:14pm
so Shop-a-holic is it best to use it as like a filling.Can you put it on top of a cake and then put fondant on top of that!
vinee, May 19, 2:20am
I use it for my chocolate pie.
A crumb base (like for cheesecake) and fill with ganache.
You can eat quite a lot of it, too, suprisingly!
rusty-bones, Aug 1, 1:12am
Whats this? Some kind of icing I take it, just seen in mentioned in a thread. How is it made?
lx4000, Aug 1, 1:21am
dark choco and cream!!mmMmm
rattiefan, Aug 1, 1:24am
its yummmmm

sometimes ganache has butter in it but more often than not it is just melted choc with cream mixed thru..
rusty-bones, Aug 1, 1:30am
Yum so you melt any choc and add how much ceam? Is the cream whipped? What's the teture like hard or soft? So would you put it on a slice and maybe a cake.
Sorry all the questions, why have'nt I heard about this.
aly5, Aug 1, 2:20am
You know when you get that extra rich chocolate cake and there is this thick layer of chocolate icing over it?It's kind of gooey but not runny, sometimes there is a "chewiness" to it rather than a stickiness? Or when you get a chocolate truffle that's just pure soft chocolate when you bite into it? That's just a couple of uses of ganache. I use equal amounts of cream to chopped chocolate that has been heated together till it melts. I've used it for icing those special cakes, or as a filling for chocolate tarts.
snipz, Aug 1, 2:44am
150gms dark chocolate
1/2 cup cream
25gms butter
chop chocolate finely,put in a bowl.Boil cream& pour over chocolate.Stir until melted, add the SOFT butter.Mix until smooth. Best chocolate icing ever.
rattiefan, Aug 1, 4:32am
agree 150%
motgirl, Aug 1, 5:46am
For dark chocolate ganache use a 2-1 ratio of chocolate to cream.
For white or dairy milk chocolate the ratio is 3-1

Finely chop chocolate or use food processor, heat the cream until just on boiling point and pour over chocolate.Let it stand a minute ot two then whisk until smooth.

I leave this covered overnight at room temperature to set up before using as my base coat under fondant.The correct consistency for this use is like peanut butter so may require a quick blast in microwave to get it right.The ganache can also be whipped to make a delicious icing that can be piped on cupcakes.
coreblimey, Aug 1, 6:14am
After you make it leave it to cool to room temp and then whip it for around 10mins and it gets to that piping kind of consistency.AWESOME!
shop-a-holic, Aug 1, 7:08am
GANACHE is not "icing". So don't even think that a googy molten delicious chocolate will give you a grainy, sugary topping like icing.
Don't compare apples with oranges, or the german/austrian/danish icings to the French.
Ganache is also used as the centres of famed "chocolate truffles".

NOT ANY CHOCOLATE will give you the best result.

Because you are adding cream, butter etc to chocolate, by doing so, weaken the structure, so the highest Cacao rating in chocolate will give you a fab finish and result.

If you depend on chocolate which is either Milk, White, or plain cooking chocolate will disappoint. Those molecules have already been stretched to their limits, and once worked with, can never be put back together, resulting in collapsed, or separated, split outcomes.
craftylady1, Aug 1, 2:25pm
I love watching those cupcake programmes on Food TV and they often use ganache....what type of choc is the best, and where can u buy it??
motgirl, Aug 1, 8:52pm
The best chocolate for ganache is Callebaut Dark with a cacao rating of around 50 - 55 percent.The higher you go the more bitter the ganache will be and also has a higher risk of splitting (seperating)

Having said that I have successfully used Cadbury Dream white chocolate from the supermarket regularly and have never had a problem. I have also used dark eating chocolate from the supermarket, our brands may be different in Oz but look for a dark e Belgian type with around the 50% cacoa solids

Never use compound (cooking )chocolate though from the baking section.

I use pure cream for my gananche but know others use thickend cream in the bottlesand have good results.It depends on what the ganache is for- for paying customers on my cakes I only use the very best ingredients.
rusty-bones, Aug 2, 1:12am
Whats this! Some kind of icing I take it, just seen in mentioned in a thread. How is it made!
lx4000, Aug 2, 1:21am
dark choco and cream!mmMmm