CHOCOLATE Tips, Recipe and Guide

If chocolate in and of itself weren’t good enough, someone had to go and add cream to the mix, creating the first chocolate ganache. This wonderful mix is the base for so many treats they’re impossible to list.
Credit perhaps goes to the Swiss, who in perfecting the art of chocolate making, were the first to add powdered milk to the chocolate mix. True ganache, however, involves the use of cream, giving the chocolate made from the process a truly heavenly taste.

Ganache in its best form is used as the base for truffles, cakes, mousse and more. While it might seem making the chocolate formula for ganache would be a well-kept secret that’s hard to replicate, that’s simply not so.

Making ganache at home isn’t terribly tough if patience is applied and the maker is set for a possible failure or two at the start.

Ganache itself is simply a mixture of equal parts of cream and chocolate. It’s heated and mixed together and then used with other ingredients to form the basis for a whole slew of delightful confections.

While some of the best makers of chocolate might use a more complex method, there are two worthy of trying in home kitchens.

The first involves taking the chocolate for the mixture and melting it. Then bring it to room temperature and beat cream into it until the mix is creamy and smooth.

The second and perhaps the most foolproof method for making ganache at home is to bring the cream to a boil first, remove it from heat and then beat the chocolate into the cream. This avoids burning the chocolate in the mix, which is a very easy thing to do, unfortunately. While cream will burn, too, it’s easier to watch and, thus, this method is a preferred one for home chefs who want to create their own ganache.

Using this base, chocolate chefs at home can create their own mousse by adding more cream or they can create a sifter product for candies by adding a bit more chocolate. Experimentation is key, try adding some of your favorite fruits, jams or nuts to the ganache for truffles or layer it in between cake sections for a desserts that’s to die for.

Remember, though, the expert ganache makers from world famous chocolate houses have spent years perfecting their craft. What’s made at home is not likely to taste the same as a ganache imported from a famous maker in France, Switzerland or elsewhere.


By George Murray


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