Holy butter ganache, batman!

[Jenjcook]

I just made my first butter ganache tonight, a variant of Grewelings spiked egg nog, and WOW! It makes me want to abandon cream ganaches forever! The texture is so creamy satin perfect! I'd love to find more recipes, the list in Grewelings book is mostly flavorings I'm not a fan of other than the eggnog and raspberry. I might have to start adapting some new ones.

[ElainaA]

I can also recommend both Grewlings's orange butter ganache and his strawberry balsamic butter ganache. And I agree that the raspberry is wonderful.

[Gary Traffanstedt]

How does the shelf life compare between the two ganache types? I've been wanting to try a butter ganache. If I'm not mistaken his gingerbread ganache is a butter ganache and it's on my list of things to attempt when I can find a free moment.

[Jenjcook]

Greweling says 3 weeks for a cream ganache and 6 to 8 for a butter.

[janeer]

Never heard of this and don't have Grewling. Are you saying butter replaces the cream? All? Is it melted or softened? Temp?

[Jenjcook]

Never heard of this and don't have Grewling. Are you saying butter replaces the cream? All? Is it melted or softened? Temp?

Pretty much the basic formula is 1:2 softened butter to chocolate (2.5 for white or milk) with some glucose (corn syrup) and whatever flavoring you are using. The key difference is it is a water in fat emulsion, instead of a fat in water emulsion like a cream ganache. And i think that is whats giving it the wonderful texture. It's a bit trickier to make which is why I had shied away from the in the past, but totally worth the extra effort if this batch is any indication. The big key is in order to get it to set properly you MUST temper the chocolate and add it to the room temp butter. Here I the recipe I used adapted from Peter Grewelings Chocolates and Confections. I swapped out the dark rum for actual eggnog, because I don't care much for the taste of alcohol, and I wanted a really "eggnoggy" taste.

170g butter (77F)

40g Glucose syrup

1tsp ground nutmeg

1vanilla bean split and scraped

500g white chocolate, melted tempered and at 86F

40g eggnog (or rum) at about 86F so not to shock the chocolate, I warmed it ahead of time and steeped with about five whole cloves to adda little extra kick then strained

I also thru in 1/4 tsp lorann eggnog flavor oil... I know that's blasphemy to purists, but I love the flavor of eggnog

I wasn't piping right away so I mixed the butter, glucose, nutmeg, and vanilla with a hand whisk. then added the tempered chocolate. Mixed til smooth and streamed in the eggnog. Set up beautifully and so silky to taste.

[Kerry Beal]

The Madras - a coconut curry butter ganache in Greweling is outstanding too.

[Jim D.]

I too just made Greweling's eggnog ganache for the first time and like it a lot. There was a previous thread on eggnog ganache and attempts to get not just the nutmeggy flavor but the eggy flavor of eggnog as well. Kerry spoke of using Bird's custard (which does not actually contain any eggs), and someone else spoke of using a custard powder (which I assume would have dried eggs). I don't know whether Jenjcook's eggnog (the liquid stuff she used instead of rum) contains any eggs or not, but, as Kerry pointed out in that previous thread, shelf life would be an issue if there are eggs involved. I might eat it myself, but would not serve it to others. I just looked up dried eggs online, and since dangerous substances are killed in the drying process, they are allegedly safe. Their taste may be a different issue; I don't know.

About butter ganaches in general, they do have an incredible texture; with all that butter, how could they not? I do find there is sometimes an issue with flavoring. Greweling prefers jams (as in the Raspberry Bites), and so the finished product can be quite sweet. I would prefer using raspberry purée, but then proportions of liquid to butter can become an issue. I know all this because of much experimentation (without success) to achieve a pear-flavored butter ganache.

Jim

[Jim D.]

If anyone is interested in more discussion of the issue of eggs in ganache, there was another thread in which it was discussed.

[janeer]

Never heard of this and don't have Grewling. Are you saying butter replaces the cream? All? Is it melted or softened? Temp?

Pretty much the basic formula is 1:2 softened butter to chocolate (2.5 for white or milk) with some glucose (corn syrup) and whatever flavoring you are using. The key difference is it is a water in fat emulsion, instead of a fat in water emulsion like a cream ganache. And i think that is whats giving it the wonderful texture. It's a bit trickier to make which is why I had shied away from the in the past, but totally worth the extra effort if this batch is any indication. The big key is in order to get it to set properly you MUST temper the chocolate and add it to the room temp butter. Here I the recipe I used adapted from Peter Grewelings Chocolates and Confections. I swapped out the dark rum for actual eggnog, because I don't care much for the taste of alcohol, and I wanted a really "eggnoggy" taste.

170g butter (77F)

40g Glucose syrup

1tsp ground nutmeg

1vanilla bean split and scraped

500g white chocolate, melted tempered and at 86F

40g eggnog (or rum) at about 86F so not to shock the chocolate, I warmed it ahead of time and steeped with about five whole cloves to adda little extra kick then strained

I also thru in 1/4 tsp lorann eggnog flavor oil... I know that's blasphemy to purists, but I love the flavor of eggnog

I wasn't piping right away so I mixed the butter, glucose, nutmeg, and vanilla with a hand whisk. then added the tempered chocolate. Mixed til smooth and streamed in the eggnog. Set up beautifully and so silky to taste.

Thank you! Sounds lovely and I will try it

[minas6907]

The big key is in order to get it to set properly you MUST temper the chocolate and add it to the room temp butter.

This was something I was wondering about recently. I know that Greweling does say that the chocolate needs to be in temper when adding it to the butter, but why couldnt you add untempered chocolate to the butter, then table it to temper? The only reason I bring this up is thats exactly what is done when you make meltaways. The untempered chocolate is mixed with a huge amount of coconut fat, then the entire mass is tabled to temper the chocolate so it sets up properly. Even when your making gianduja, you still table the mixture to temper it, so why would it be any different when making a butter ganache? Greweling does say that tableing is totally optional, mainly just to cool down the mixture to a proper piping consistency, but is it possible to temper it as you would with a meltaway or gianduja? Anyone every done this?

[Kerry Beal]

I find tabling ganache messy and a PITA - so I tend to do meltaways in a bowl over cold water - or by mixing ganache around in the hotel pan I've cooled it in. Hence I have not tried to temper the butter ganache. Would you be thinking that you add warm untempered chocolate and have the butter melt?

[minas6907]

I find tabling ganache messy and a PITA - so I tend to do meltaways in a bowl over cold water - or by mixing ganache around in the hotel pan I've cooled it in.  Hence I have not tried to temper the butter ganache.  Would you be thinking that you add warm untempered chocolate and have the butter melt?

Not necessarily, I had in mind just adding untempered chocolate to room temp butter, then tableing that mixture, I was just wondering if you could get the same result doing it that way, since it seems to work for the other items.

[Jenjcook]

I think tabling would work. Never tried it because I'd rather temper than table. I agree it is a PITA!

[Kerry Beal]

I think that an experiment is in order! Minas - let us know what you discover.

[teonzo]

I tried the tabling method (as described by minas6907) a couple of years ago and it worked fine.

Teo