Balancing your Ganache Recipes 2.0

[Lior]

I totally agree about taste changes. I wonder though if a well balanced recipe will allow for slower taste changes as what is going on in the bonbon may also affect taste changes. And I am even smaller than you, Edward, which creates a different problem. I can't make so many kinds every week. I have to have some types frozen. I also have nut based, which I love personally are are much easier to deal with in terms of no cream!

Edited June 4, 2009 by Lior (log)

[lebowits]

You might want to take a look at "Fine Chocolates Great Experience 3: Extending Shelf Life" by Jean-Pierre Wybauw. The whole topic of this volume is how to extend the shelf life of different ganaches.

[Jim D.]

A substantial number of eGullet members have asked for the Excel ganache spreadsheet developed by schneich (actually by an employee of his) and referred to at the beginning of this thread.  I posted that I had the spreadsheet and would send it to anyone who PM'd me, and I have sent it to many.  Now that I have a website, it seems sensible to post it there.  Here is the link:  http://www.jamesdutton.net/ganache.html

[Mjx]

Thanks, Jim!

 

General note: To keep this topic relevant and useful, please stick to the discussion of ganache recipes. If you have technical questions related to the link as such/downloads/etc., please do this via the PM system, instead.

[Bentley]

I hope it's ok to dredge up this old thread, but I have noticed that none of the recipes I see in the several books I have - Greweling, Shotts, Notter, etc - fit within Morato's formulas.  Even the recipes from Chef Morato himself that are on the Cacao Barry site do not conform to his formulas.  I am curious if people have found his calculations to be useful at all?  

Edited June 29, 2016 by Bentley (log)

[sarah72]

I've tried using the formula from Morato's book, it's pretty difficult to hit his targets some times. It does give good shelf life, in that I've had bonbons filled with a ganache which fits the formula sat on the side for over 3 months with no mold or significant shrinkage, and they have maintained a really good texture. The biggest problem I find with his formula is that for me it generally produces a thick, mayonnaise like ganache which wont settle flat when piped. I've not figured out how to fix this yet and often end up having to scrape peaks off before capping, and my bases end up being thicker at the edges. Because of that I only use the formula when I need ganaches to last a long time, as you can still make a great tasting ganache, but I do feel like it trades off some quality for shelf life.

[Clementus]

Hi,

I know its an old topic, but does anyone still have that excel file? Would like to see and try it out!

[Jim D.]

It is available from my website:  https://www.santiagochocolates.com/ganache.html

[Altay.Oro]

Maybe a simple question ... if we have a saturated water - sugar solution ratio (I mean 1 unit water and approximately 2 units sugar at 20 C and the water here not absorbed by the nonfat cocoa solids) in a ganache recipe, would adding more sugar in any form decrease the water activity (aw) reading?

Edited March 7, 2021 by Altay.Oro (log)

[Altay.Oro]

There are a lot of mathematical models trying to approximately predict the water activity levels ... one of them is Grover's model, very simple and in my calculations it gives really good approximations. I cursorily tried it with the recipes from the J. P. Wybauw's "Great Ganache Experiences" book which do not include fruit purees. For some recipes, it really gives good predictions ... but for some not so good. I think that the differences mainly come from the constant used in the model for glicose syrup ... and for some recipes, I also think that there may be some measurement errors for aW values given in the book.

 

The constant for sorbitol is given as 1.3 in some other sources ... in my opinion, this constant should as well be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Altay.Oro (log)

[Rajala]

Interesting. Yet I don't understand anything. I should've read more math courses? 😂

 

I'm happy to have a AW meter, so I know that I can be pretty sure about the AW in a ganache when I tell someone that it is 0,814

[Altay.Oro]

No math indeed, maybe the summation sign here is confusing a little.

 

Example calculations ...

The recipe,

200 gr dark chocolate

100 gr cream (% 35)

50 gr butter (% 82)

20 gr invert sugar

20 gr glucose syrup

5 gr powdered sorbitol

 

First thing is to calculate the total water content of the recipe. In doing so, I take into account the water coming from the sugar syrups as well.

 

100 gr % 35 cream has approximately 60 gr water

50 gr % 82 butter has 8,5 gr water

20 gr invert sugar has 4 gr water

20 gr glucose syrup has 4 gr water

Total water in grams: 76,5 grams

 

Then calculate the E values for different type of sugars ...

 

Lets assume %45 sucrose in dark chocolate, then we have 90 grams sucrose ... then E.sucrose = 1 * 90 / 76,5 = 1,1765

E.invert = 1,3 * 20 / 76,5 = 0,3399

E.glucose = 0,8 * 20 / 76,5 = 0,2092

E.sorbitol = 1,3 * 5 / 76,5 = 0,0850

Total E value = 1,1765 + 0,3399 + 0,2092 + 0,0850 = 1,8106

 

aW = 1,04 - (0,1 * 1,8106) + (0,0045 * 1,8106 * 1,8106) = 0,8737

[Rajala]

I can try that recipe and run it in the meter for science.

 

However, based on the experience I've had so far, I would say that this ganache is closer to 0,85 than 0,87. But I'm not saying that I'm correct. We'll see! It will be interesting to see. I'm doing some vegan ganache testing at the moment, but can try this when I'm done.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Rajala
Adding some more text! (log)

[Altay.Oro]

Would be great ... waiting the real aW measurement ))

Then I need to recalculate it more precisely ... taking into account the lactose and the water absorbed by the nonfat cocoa solids.

 

[Rajala]

I can't get 35% cream here I think. 36% is what I'm usually using.

[Altay.Oro]

It is not important ... we will just need the nutritional values label of your cream ... and for the dark chocolate you're using.

[Altay.Oro]

I want to formulate a ganache recipe with Callebaut Ruby, but can not solve the table below which I got from the Callebaut site ...

 

My rough estimation for the milk fats is % 8 ... then the cocoa fat would be %28 ... and the non fatty cocoa solids would not be % 20?

What does "2.5 % FAT FREE COCOA" on the lable mean?

Edited June 10, 2021 by Altay.Oro (log)

[Rajala]

I'm not sure, but with that said, I find the min cocoa % strange. The data I have say that Ruby contains 29,5% cocoa butter and 4,5% cocoa mass. 

[Altay.Oro]

7 hours ago, Rajala said:

I'm not sure, but with that said, I find the min cocoa % strange. The data I have say that Ruby contains 29,5% cocoa butter and 4,5% cocoa mass. 

 

I think so ... by the way I got my bag today and it is the same label on the bag.

[Altay.Oro]

On 7/6/2021 at 12:37 AM, Jim D. said:

 

@Rajala has been kind enough to send me the link to the cinnamon bun bonbon recipe on his website.

 

 

I roughly know the functions that various type of sugars do on the end result of the ganache structure, sweetness, stiffness etc ... but still could not get the exact decision process used for calculating the rigorous amounts of different sugar types to add to the recipes when fine tuning.

 

@Rajala if possible, can you share with us your complete decision process under your choice of sugars and amounts of them used in this ganache formulation?

Edited July 25, 2021 by Altay.Oro (log)