What comes in your mind the moment you hear the word Ganache…
It is creamy, melt in mouth, sinfully delicious chocolicious frosting for cakes which is very popular for its versatile usage.
To prepare ganache there is not a big list of ingredients. It is prepared with just two ingredients!! Yes, to prepare the basic ganache, only cooking chocolate and heavy cream is required. Extra ingredients are required only if we are adding some flavor to it.
Ganache is prepared as per requirement in thick, medium or thin consistency by adjusting the ratio of milk cream and chocolate. Usually there are three different ratios for ganache which are very popular.
1) 1:1 ratio means to take equal quantity of chocolate and cream. This ganache has thin consistency. It doesn’t have very dark color as equal quantity of cream is mixed with chocolate. Though, while preparing it looks very thin, it settles down slowly. It can be used for soft fillings, creating dripping effects for the cake and glaze for cake and cheesecake. If preparing this ganache for glaze, then add little bit of butter while heating the cream. This addition of butter add a nice sheen.
2) 2:1 ratio has one portion of cream and double the quantity of chocolate. This ganache settles down nicely and becomes thick. That’s why it is used mostly for filling, frosting and decorating the cakes. It can be whipped also, but after whipping it becomes light in colour.
3) 2.5:1 ratio works for very stiff consistency of ganache as chocolate is 2.5 times more than the quantity of cream. This makes ganache very stiff ganache after setting down. It is ideal for Truffles.
Remember, each type of ganache sets down on room temperature, but consistency will be different for each because chocolate and cream are in different ratios.
In India usually we don’t get milk based heavy cream. And our whipping cream is also mostly non dairy cream. The most popular milk cream used here widely is Amul milk cream and the fat content in this cream is only 25%. That’s why for truffles we need to increase the ratio 2.5:1, to make it stiff.
Let’s see how do we prepare ganache….
Chop chocolate block and keep the shredded pieces in a bowl which is slightly bigger in size. Bigger size bowl will be helpful to mix ganache evenly.
Pour cream in a separate bowl and heat it on medium heat. The moment it starts bubbling from the sides of the pan and about to reach at the boiling stage, immediately pour it into chocolate bowl evenly everywhere so that it can cover the chocolate shreddings completely.
Don’t disturb this bowl for 5 minutes. Later, mix this with spatula nicely. With the heat of the cream, chocolate will melt but still if you feel that some chocolate chunks are remaining, you can keep the bowl in microwave or use double boiler method to reheat the mix for a short time. Again mix the mixture and all the remaining chocolate chunks would be melted.
Cover the bowl with cling wrap and keep it on room temperature till ganache completely cools down. Once ganache cools down, use it as per your requirement, or if you need it to be more firm then keep it in the fridge.
Tips to remember while preparing ganache :
- Check the expiry date for cream and chocolate.
- Chocolate should be on room temperature.
- Try to chop chocolate in equal size. It will help chocolate to melt evenly otherwise bigger chunks will take more time in melting and you have to pop in the bowl multiple times in microwave.
- Don’t heat the cream on high temperature. Keep the heat on sim or medium. Don’t let the cream boil too much. When you see it bubbling through the edges of the pan, pour immediately on chopped chocolate.
- After pouring cream on chocolate, don’t stir it for at least 5 minutes. Let the chocolate melt nicely with the heat of cream and after 5 minutes, start mixing it. If chocolate is not melted completely, keep the bowl in microwave for 10 or 15 seconds initially, mix it and again if it is required, heat it on short interval. The same process can be done on double boiler also.
- Ganache sets down on room temperature, but it takes long time. So after preparing, once ganache cools down, keep it in the fridge cling wrapped. Cooling time on room temperature or the time of ganache becoming firm in the fridge is not fixed. It might vary depending on the size and depth of your bowl and the quantity of ganache .
- After keeping in the fridge ganache becomes very stiff. Take it out from the fridge, let it come on room temperature and through double boiler method or through microwave you can loosen up stiff ganache.
- Remember, if using microwave to loosen up ganache, do it in short intervals.
- If preparing ganache for dripping or glazing, use it when it is thin.
- Wrap ganache in a cling film and keep it in an air tight container in the fridge for a week and in the freezer for three months.
I hope this post is helpful to you if you are preparing this luscious ganache for the first time!!
