Cold Infusion Technique for Ganache

[ChristysConfections]

Hey All!

 

I remember having a conversation with someone a few years ago and they said something to me about a technique they heard about that involves infusing cold cream with various flavors overnight. This cream could then be used to make chocolate ganache fillings. I think the idea was that the cold infusion method somehow imparted a better or cleaner flavor to the final product. 

 

Can anyone one tell me more about this technique? I am playing around with various herbs and citrus fruit these days for ganache flavors and I would like the taste to come through as strong and pure as possible. I am curious to know, even if the cream is infused while cold, wouldn't some of that effort be lost when heating the cream to mix with the chocolate in the ganache? 

 

I'd love to be enlightened! Thanks!

[Tri2Cook]

My experience has been that some things infuse nicely that way, some things not so much. I've never used the technique for ganache so I'm of no help in that area but I use it for other things involving cream that doesn't need to be heated before use. Ginger works really well for cold infusion. I actually do hot and cold for my ginger ice cream. I cold infuse the cream and hot infuse the milk which is used to make the base and cooled before I add the infused cream.

[teonzo]

Generally speaking, cold infusions give a different result than hot infusions: you extract more of some aromatics, less of others. Plus you don't cook the infused ingredient, meaning you get a more "natural" taste (this is evident for some herbs and flowers). As a general rule, a cold infusion gives a smoother, rounder, more delicate result. There are exceptions, some ingredients give a more bitter result (marigold or rhubarb root), others a harsher result (if you cold infuse tobacco you get way much nicotine). For delicate ingredients usually the best choice is cold infusion. In some cases it just depends on the result you are aiming for: if you cold infuse whole coffee beans then you will be surprised on the result, I wouldn't say it's better than the usual hot infusion (uhm well, I would say so to be honest since I'm not an espresso lover), it's just different.

 

 

About the "cooked" sensation, it's much more limited if you cold infuse something, strain the cold infusion, than boil it, since you are not cooking the ingredient, you are heating the infused aromatics. For ganaches you can't avoid this, you would face shelf life troubles.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[paulraphael]

It's something you just have to try. The two givens are that you'll get a different flavor profile than with a hot infusion, and a different flavor profile than with infusion into water (the fat in the cream is a much stronger solvent for a whole range of flavor chemicals).

 

Some of the differences have less to do with temperature than with the fact that cold infusion is usually done in a sealed container, so the aromatics don't get out. Hot infusions in a saucepan usually involve container open (or partially open) to the air, and temperature-induced evaporation. But this doesn't happen if you infuse sous-vide — sealed in a bag, those aromatics aren't going anywhere. The trick here is is to hot-infuse at a temperature that's not too hot, and then to chill the bag in an ice water bath before opening it (the latter step makes big difference if the cream will be used cold; less of a difference if you're going to cook it later in an open container). 

 

Sometimes hot infusion by sous-vide is too much ... you hold on to more aromatics than you want. The times i've put garlic in an s.v. bag I've regretted it. 

 

Edited: I wrote that fat is a stronger flavor for the aromatic chemicals, but I don't think this is right. Those are water-soluble. The fat-soluble ones are heavier molecules that we taste on the tongue.

Edited January 28, 2017 by paulraphael (log)

[ChristysConfections]

Thank-you for the insight, everyone! So far you have given me a lot to dwell on. I will have to play around with it and maybe do some side-by-side hot vs. cold infusions. It never occurred to me that the primary solvent would be different in a hot infusion (water) over a cold infusion (fat) -  at least, as long as I have understood correctly. I'm also super intrigued by the sous vide method. I can't believe I didn't think of trying that out sooner! It seems to me like I may still end up losing some of the more volatile compounds when I heat the cream, but that I will still ultimately have a different result with the cold method.

 

Many thanks for your input! Please feel free to add more thoughts if you have them!

 

ETA: The details of "cold fusion" are beyond me! Haha.

Edited January 28, 2017 by ChristysConfections (log)

[Jim D.]

Not to get off the track about infusing, but you mentioned your final goal is to make ganache for filling chocolates. From my experience (and as others have suggested above) the only way to know how much flavor you will get, regardless of method, is to try it. Orange peel, for instance, has a very strong flavor that shows up even in a dark chocolate ganache. Surprisingly it is stronger even than grapefruit, which comes out as more subtle than one might expect. A little cinnamon goes a long way. Lavender can get too strong very fast, but it fades somewhat in a ganache. Ginger is quite subtle (unless you leave it in the ganache). Earl Grey tea is strong in an infusion, but fades in a ganache to the point where I have discovered some people can't taste it (unless they know it's there). I thought lemon verbena sounded promising, but the finished ganache had very little of the flavor, even though I used a lot of leaves. 

 

And as someone else stated, there is no getting around heating the medium (usually cream), and that causes some flavor loss, even some change in the flavor. I would also add that you need to try the infused cream in an actual ganache and then in an actual shell. I have given up on some flavors because they mostly disappear in a finished bonbon. White chocolate in the ganache causes the least loss of flavor, but you might be surprised (if you haven't already tried this) at how it overwhelms many flavors that seemed strong at first. Substituting a small amount of cocoa butter for some of the chocolate helps somewhat. A more dramatic way of flavoring a ganache is to use fruit purée instead of cream as the liquid; I have had success with that method using black currant and blackberry. There is another thread that is helpful about flavored ganaches.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Jim D. (log)