Today is all about ganache, friends. Making ganache, the different ratios of chocolate to dairy you can use to get the texture of ganache you want, and basic recipes.
Depending on how you make your ganache, it can be a candy filling, a frosting, a glaze, or a dessert sauce. Check out my chocolate cake with whipped ganache frosting to see whipped ganache in action.
For ease of browsing, you can find all my icing, frosting, and filling recipes in one place. Thanks for visiting. Now let’s get on with it.
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What Is Ganache?
In its simplest form, ganache is an emulsion of equal parts of chocolate and heavy cream.
Small amounts of corn syrup or butter are sometimes called for in some recipes.
By varying the proportion of chocolate to cream, or the temperature, you can vary the texture of the finished product.
Increase the cream to make a ganache that, when chilled, you can whip like cream.
Increase the chocolate and you get a truffle filling.
Pour it warm over a cake and you have a thin glaze, or pour it over ice cream, and voilà: a simple chocolate sauce.
Use it to sandwich cookies together. Or cakes. Or meringue discs. Possibilities are nearly limitless.
Ganache can be made with dark, milk or white chocolate, but make sure that you use high quality chocolate. With only two basic ingredients, inferior chocolate can’t be camouflaged.
The Best Way to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache
I have made plenty of batches of ganache in my time. I have added the chocolate to the cream and I’ve added the cream to the chocolate.
Best practice, to minimize the small potential of the chocolate seizing while you’re making ganache is to add the chocolate into the cream.
Here’s why:
Chocolate seizes when there is not enough liquid to keep the cocoa solids from clumping together rather than going into solution.
So, if you add the cream to the chocolate, there’s a slight chance that, as you add the cream to the chocolate, some might seize before you can finish adding all the cream. In order to keep that from happening, dumping the chocolate into the full amount of cream is a safer way to go.
- Heat cream to a high simmer.
- Pour cream into a bowl.
- Dump chopped chocolate into the bowl of hot cream all at once.
- Let sit for 1 minute to allow the chocolate to melt.
- Whisk slowly but thoroughly to emulsify the cream and chocolate into a shiny, deep brown, dark chocolate ganache.
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Why Not Leave the Cream in the Pan?
The main issue here is if you pour your chocolate into the hot pan, you run the risk of the chocolate burning when it hits the bottom of the pan. It’s much safer to pour the cream into a bowl first. No chance of burning your chocolate that way!
What Do I Do If My Ganache Breaks?
I wrote a post about how to save your ganache if it breaks. The great thing about this technique is that it doesn’t change the texture of the ganache.
How To Fix Broken Ganache without Changing Its Texture
Pro Tip
Jenni Says: When making ganache with a higher proportion of chocolate to cream and it’s cold in your kitchen, warm the chocolate in the microwave to bring it to about 75-80F. This ensures that the chocolate melts evenly in a smaller amount of cream.
Recipes with Ganache on the Site
The image at the top of my post is my cream puff cake, and it is topped with ganache.
Or try my cookie butter cheesecake that is topped with cookie butter ganache.
These chocolate honey buns have ganache piped on top. And they’re shaped like hearts, so they’re great for Valentine’s Day.
These raspberry shortbread cookies are sandwiched together with Nutella, but there’s no reason not to use ganache instead.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.
For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.
I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.
This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
Love This Recipe For/Explanation About Ganache? Please Rate and Review.
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Basic Chocolate Ganache
Video
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 part cream to 3 parts chocolate=glaze (ex: 8 oz cream to 24 oz chocolate)
- 1 part cream to 2 parts chocolate=truffle center (ex: 8 oz cream to 16 oz. chocolate)
- 1 part cream to 1 part chocolate=filling (ex: 8 oz cream to 8 oz. chocolate)
- 2 parts cream to 1 part chocolate=whipped ganache (ex: 8 oz cream to 4 oz chocolate)
- ***Proportions will be different for white and milk chocolates , and because they contain milk solids, they can be a bit temperamental and more susceptible to breaking.
Instructions
- Chop your chocolate fine and put it in a big stainless steel bowl.
- Heat cream (and corn syrup/butter if the recipe calls for it) just to a boil.
- Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate. ***NOTE: these are the classic instructions. If you are at all worried that your ganache may seize, mainly because you're making a ganache with a very high proportion of chocolate to cream, it is a safer bet to add the chocolate to the cream instead.
- Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes (this, in effect, tempers the two ingredients: the temperature of the chocolate rises while the cream’s temperature lowers. It’s easier to make them combine when the temperatures are similar).
- Then, stir the mixture with a whisk slowly to combine into a rich, shiny emulsion. Don’t whisk quickly; you don’t want to create air bubbles.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Nutrition
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And there you have it, friends. Everything you ever (probably) wanted to know about ganache. Enjoy!
Take care, y’all.
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I think the ratios at the beginning of the recipe are back to front. The more cream, the looser the ganache. The more chocolate, the thicker the ganache will be.
I guess the confusion comes in when thinking about the final texture. For glaze, I want it to set up pretty firmly after I pour it onto a cake. a 1:3, cream:chocolate ratio is thin enough to pour beautifully over a cake but then will set up into a firm coating on cake. I hope that makes sense. Thanks for your comment, Sanny. I did doublecheck to make sure I hadn’t made an erroe. Take care.
In your narrative, you tell us to add the chocolate to the cream. However, in the recipe instructions, it says to add the cream to the chocolate. So which way is best? Thanks!
Thank you for pointing out that inconsistency, Connie. I will make the correction. The classic instructions have always been to add the cream to the chocolate, but it’s a safer bet to add the chocolate to the cream. The reason why is there is a small opportunity for the chocolate to begin to seize when you pour hot cream on top, before you get a lot in there. Introducing chocolate to a lot of hot cream though, removes that slight chance. So while you can do it either way, if you are at all concerned about seizing, add the chocolate to the cream.
can heavy cream be substitued with something else?
My first question would be why the substitute? Is it dietary (like dairy free) or you just don’t want the calories. That might change how I answer the question. But, you could sub milk and butter (although at that point, you might as well use cream). You could also try w/full fat coconut milk or even a neutral oil. Or coconut oil/olive oil if you like the flavor of those to come through in your ganache. I don’t have any specific recipes or proportion recommendations, but I’m sure a search would bring you some good results. search “no cream ganache.” 🙂
see where i live its very very hard to heavy cream…and i did find it once loong back but it was very very expensive so i was looking for an alternative when its a very festive time then i am okay with the cost but when its not …. i find 25% fat cream here is it possible to use that in some way?
Yes, you can absolutely use that. You may have to add a touch of butter to enrich it, but I would go for it, uriko!
so semisweet cooking chocolate and 25% fat cream with a little bit of butter and im good?
You should be just fine. Are you using it as frosting or as filling or truffle centers? I just ask because you may have to manipulate the texture a bit by chilling it down some (and it should be stored in the fridge, regardless). Let it come to room temp before serving though:)
i intend to use it as a frosting….in what proportion should i use chocolate and cream and butter?
You’ll want a 1:1 ratio of choc to cream/butter. So maybe 4 oz choc:3.5 oz light cream and .5 oz butter. Scale up to make enough to cover your cake.