Greweling's Butter Ganache Proportions

[Jim D.]

In his introduction to butter ganache in Chocolates and Confections (1st ed.), Peter Greweling says clearly that there must be 2.5 times as much white or milk chocolate as liquefiers in the formula. Yet in all his recipes that use white or milk chocolate, the amount of chocolate is nowhere near 2.5 times the amount of liquefiers (flavorings + butter). In the strawberry balsamic, e.g., the liquefiers add up to 340 g, so the amount of chocolate should be 850 g, yet he calls for 360 g of chocolate. And these recipes I am speaking of are for slabbed ganache, not piped. so they are not meant to be especially soft. I had a problem when I tried to make one of the ganaches (it never really hardened), and given his 2.5 rule, I am no longer surprised. Am I missing something, or is there some problem with the recipes? Any insights would be appreciated.

[Chocolot]

I think he is referring to cream ganaches, not butter. Also, that is a general rule, not always. His Dark and Stormy has less liquefier. White chocolate in a ganache can be tricky to work with. If you get the chocolate out of temper, it won't set up for a long time and when it does, it will be grainy. It is the lovely challenges that keep us all interested.

[Jim D.]

I think he is referring to cream ganaches, not butter. Also, that is a general rule, not always. His Dark and Stormy has less liquefier. White chocolate in a ganache can be tricky to work with. If you get the chocolate out of temper, it won't set up for a long time and when it does, it will be grainy. It is the lovely challenges that keep us all interested.

It must be true that he doesn't mean this as a general rule, BUT the rule I mentioned occurs on page 151 under the heading "butter ganache ratios," where he says, "A basic milk or white chocolate butter ganache must contain approximately 2.5 parts chocolate to 1 part liquefier in order to create a similar texture to the 2:1 dark chocolate butter ganache." That is fairly definitive. Even if we accept that he says "approximately," a discrepancy of 850 g vs. 360 g is quite a discrepancy.

I am bringing all this up because I am in the process of trying to devise a fruit ganache that has strong flavor and had more or less settled on butter ganache as the best way of accomplishing the goal. I would like to use as little chocolate as possible so as not to hide the fruit flavor, but I don't feel that I understand Greweling's proportions enough to trust the recipes in his book, which seem to deviate so much from his basic directions..

[Chocolot]

I was lucky enough to take a short course from Greweling last summer. One of the many things I learned was that you can totally trust his formulas. We made many of his confections over the course, and they work. You have to keep in mind the differences in chocolate, cream, butter etc. Take his formulas and tweak them and make them your own. Come to the workshop in Niagara and we can all play and learn together.