Any national cuisine can boast of some stunningly delicious dish. But France is not even one, but a whole arsenal of dishes. The confectionery products of this country have long been recognized throughout the world as the most refined and delicate. Among them there is a real paradise for the sweet tooth - chocolate ganache. This delicacy has long won the hearts of confectioners with its simplicity, taste and versatility. Use chocolate ganache to cover the cake, decorate cupcakes, make sweets, decorate pastries, as a cream. Yes, you can just smear this yummy on bread! In a word, this is a real find for every housewife.

Classic recipe Chocolate Ganache

The French are pedants in everything related to the preparation of confectionery. Add 11 drops of syrup instead of 10 and that's it - the world turned upside down. So ganache in this respect, undoubtedly, beats other sweets with its variability. No, it is possible that somewhere in the homeland of dessert they use strict proportions, but in our realities we can safely experiment.

This delicate cream is a thick mixture of heavy cream with dark chocolate. Traditionally, for the preparation of ganache is taken equally of both ingredients, but the result obtained is 100% dependent on their quality. With bad products, even a magic will not help to prepare a good cream. Because:

  • first - take only very fat cream (more than 33%) and, preferably, bazaar;
  • second - buy quality expensive chocolate.

If cream is even more or less clear, then what about the second ingredient? What quality criteria should I focus on?

  1. The surest way is to take tiles made in Belgium or Switzerland.In these countries, they are observing the purity of the product and it will be of the best quality.
  2. When buying chocolate from other manufacturers, read the composition. It should contain cocoa products (at least 40%) and cocoa butter (from 20%), but not their substitutes.
  3. Empirically, good chocolate is very easy to determine. It will begin to “float” simply in the hand, since cocoa butter flows already at a temperature of 31 ºС, and when the tiles break, a dull crack is heard, crumbs do not spill. You have to chew a bad product, and breaking off a piece, you will not hear anything - palm oil or another base of such "chocolate" can not crackle.

So, you have in your hands a hundred-gram bar of first-class dark or bitter chocolate and the same amount of cream.

It's time to start cooking ganache. Everything is simple:

  1. Print the tile and smash it into pieces. It’s not worth it to be especially sophisticated and crumble to dust, you remember that chocolate will melt anyway. Pour the pieces into one bowl.
  2. Pour cream into another container and put on fire. Stir them and, as soon as the first bubbles appear on the sides, remove from the stove. No need to bring them to a boil.
  3. Pour chocolate over with hot liquid. Sometimes there is a recommendation to throw it in a bowl of cream, but it’s better not to. Otherwise, it may burn from contact with a too hot bottom of the bowl.
  4. Stir the almost finished ganache with a whisk (but do not whisk) or a spatula until the chocolate is completely dispersed in hot cream. The resulting mass should become smooth, uniform, without lumps and bundles. If something went wrong, then the fault is most likely a poor-quality chocolate.
  5. If you plan to glaze the cake, you can do it right away as soon as the mixture cools down a bit.
  6. If you need to hold a sweet cream, then cover it with cling film and put in the refrigerator. In such conditions, the cream can be stored for two to three days. Its freezing is also allowed.
  7. Cold ganache should not be heated on the stove, it will reach the desired consistency by standing at room temperature. If the apartment is cool, dip the dishes with cream in warm water.

The finished cream is self-sufficient and does not require additions, but confectioners often experiment with various additives to give more interesting tastes.

As a great addition to ganache, you can use rum or liquors, syrups, essences (mint, vanilla, etc.), fruit purees.

Recipe Chocolate ganache with cream and chocolate

Whatever they say, but not everyone likes black and even dark chocolate. Dark chocolate ganache will be the most brilliant, smooth and beautiful, but the least sweet and with tangible bitterness. If you do not like dark chocolate, then you are unlikely to like a cream based on it. But it can be made from milk or even white chocolate. In this mixture, butter is also usually added to improve palatability and obtain a smooth, even texture. Keep in mind that the oil must be of excellent quality.

In sweet chocolate, the content of cocoa products is lower than in bitter and dark, because its amount is increased by about one and a half times. To keep the fat level, add oil. Over time, experimentally, you can adjust the number of ingredients, taking into account the quality of the selected products, and for a start, focus on the following composition:

  • 500 grams of milk chocolate (you can take white);
  • 350 grams of cream;
  • 50 grams of butter, the most fatty oil.

The cooking process itself is no different from the classic. After the chocolate disperses in the cream, let the ganache cool slightly, and at this time remove the butter, cut into slices and leave to “bask”. Then dip the oil in a warm cream and stir well.

Whole milk chocolate ganache

It would seem, well, what's the difference in what to melt chocolate - in cream or milk? But if fat cream is removed from the recipe, then the resulting product can no longer be called a ganache. This can be considered one of the types of glaze, but also, no doubt, very tasty.

 

To compensate for the lack of fat, a lot of oil must be added to the cream. In general, it is better not to try to bring such a pseudoganash to thickening and leave it more liquid. In this form, it is excellent to use it, for example, as a sauce for pancakes or pancakes, ice cream, soufflé or fruit.

  • 200 grams of dark or dark chocolate;
  • the same amount of butter;
  • half the amount of milk.

If you decide to make a cream of sweet chocolate, increase its amount.

The principle of preparation remains the same, only the chocolate pieces are melted in milk, and not in cream. The oil should stand at room temperature or it can even be melted. We add warm butter in a spoon into the chocolate-milk mixture and stir until a homogeneous consistency. If desired, while the milk is hot, add powdered sugar to it to taste.

Cocoa Powder Recipe

If you plan to make ganache for making truffle sweets, then you can perform it on the basis of cocoa powder. The finished product will not be so creamy, but in some cases it becomes more appropriate. It can also be used for a layer in cakes.

To prepare, take:

  • 2 tablespoons of powder;
  • as much powdered sugar;
  • as much rum or liquor;
  • 60 grams of cream;
  • 25-100 grams of soft butter.

The amount of oil can vary significantly depending on the consistency of the finished ganache.

We prepare the cream according to the already established scheme: add cocoa and sugar to the hot cream, brew so that there are no lumps, warm butter and already at the very end alcohol if desired.

Condensed milk recipe

A good option for making sweet cream with dark chocolate with the addition of condensed milk. Given that this is also the “wrong” ganache, you will have to deal with proportions already along the way.

Tentatively take the products in such quantities:

  • 250 grams of chocolate;
  • 200 grams of good oil;
  • 100-150 ml of condensed milk.

In separate bowls we heat butter and chocolate in the bath. Butter can be whipped and then added to condensed milk. The finished sweet mass is introduced in parts into the already melted chocolate and mix. It is better not to cool such a cream, but use it as intended right away, until it begins to harden.

Recipe Chocolate Ganache with Honey

You can use chocolate ganache for mastic to remove bumps, or you can fill them with finished baked goods, not for beauty, but just for taste. If you cover a simple cake, without frills and complex combinations of products, then you can diversify its taste with honey-chocolate cream. In this case, for its preparation, of course, you should not take milk or white chocolate - it will turn out too sweet. But for black just right.

Take the components for 150 grams of chocolate in approximately the following proportions:

  • 100 grams of fat cream;
  • 50 grams of honey and butter.

Heat the cream, drown the chocolate - everything, as usual. We heat the honey only slightly, but do not boil it and add it to the classic ganache. When all the ingredients are mixed into a homogeneous mass, add softened oil.

With milk powder

You can cook ganache with milk powder or cream. In the first case, you will definitely have to add butter. In the second, maybe this ingredient is not needed. For cooking on dried milk, for 150 grams of dark chocolate, take 100 grams of milk and the same amount of butter.

Dilute the powder with water or whole milk and ... then do everything according to an already understandable scheme. In such a cream, you can also add sugar or syrups, if desired.

Chocolate ganache with orange zest

It is better to cook such a product on cream and with dark chocolate according to the classic recipe. The taste will be very spicy and interesting. But if you want to get the cream better, then add powdered sugar into it at the stage of heating the cream.

The cooking process is traditional, but when the chocolate disperses in cream, add the orange zest to the warm mass.If you have orange syrup, then you can safely include it in the composition, but only at the rate of no more than 10% of the total mass. In this case, add some butter to the ganache.

Chocolate Ganache for Cupcakes

Now more and more often, small elegant cupcakes are preferred to cakes. They are beautiful and more convenient to eat at parties. These small cakes can also be decorated with our cream, but how to make chocolate ganache so that it is airy? For the execution of beautiful cream hats, roses, peaks, it is made in exactly the same way as in the classic recipe. But there is a little secret.

 

Write it down! Ready ganache, covered with a film, send in the refrigerator for several hours until it thickens. Then remove, remove the film, let it warm at room temperature and quickly beat with a mixer. Do not overdo it, just a couple of minutes. The finished mass will be airy, light and will be perfectly squeezed out of any nozzle. The cream will lighten a couple of tones, it will become velvet and lush.

Preparing ganache at home, as you see, is not difficult at all. There are fewer problems with good dark chocolate, so start your pastry chef practice with it. Alas, this cream has one significant drawback. If you start to try it just with a spoon, then it is impossible to stop! Remember this and be on the lookout so that your cake in the end does not remain “naked”.

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