Ganache: Tips, Techniques & Troubleshooting

[keychris]

12 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

I have that book, it never occurred to me before, but I could just replace the cream of coconut with more heavy cream and see how that tastes. 

 

Depending how much of each we're talking, coconut cream and heavy cream have quite different fat levels (24ish vs 35ish%) which could have an impact on your ganache texture.

[Tri2Cook]

8 hours ago, keychris said:

 

Depending how much of each we're talking, coconut cream and heavy cream have quite different fat levels (24ish vs 35ish%) which could have an impact on your ganache texture.

There is that. I'm usually going in the opposite direction so I hadn't considered that. With the stuff available locally where I live, adding a packet of coconut cream powder to a can of coconut milk puts it almost exactly at the fat level of heavy cream so I do that sometimes if I want to introduce coconut flavor to an existing ganache recipe.

[Desiderio]

Do you strain the zests from the cream before adding it to the chocolate?

[GRiker]

I don't strain out the zest.  

[Louise nadine brill]

Anyone know how much chocolate is called for in this Wybauw recipe from the Gold book? Instructions indicate pouring hot liquid over the chocolate as expected, but ingredient list  makes no mention of it...how much? White? Milk? 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Louise nadine brill (log)

[Louise nadine brill]

@Tri2Cook i am late to the game here but... i use a standard white choc ganache (2:1 choc to cream ratio) as my base. I zest a couple of limes and steep in the cream as i warm it, then strain out when i pour on to the chocolate. I use an immersion blender to whisk, once emulsion is achieved i add 2 to 3 Tablespoons of lime juice a little at a time. Love the results. 

[Louise nadine brill]

On 3/5/2020 at 3:20 PM, Desiderio said:

Do you strain the zests from the cream before adding it to the chocolate?

I do strain out the zest. I just out a strainer over the bowl of chocolate and pour hot cream/zest through that

[GRiker]

If I take the batch size of 1650g minus the existing ingredients, I would try 955 g? 

I haven’t made it, but if I were to make it, I’d give that a try. 

I see to make cut pralines, he says to use 1100g, so the right direction anyway. 

 

[spennie]

I Wanted to ask how to go about piping Jelly or getting jelly into my bonbon moulds . Heated Jelly has a higher melting point to chocolate , 

[GRiker]

You’ll have to pipe the jelly at a lower temperature to keep the chocolate from melting. 83F has been recommended in the forum on molded chocolates on page 17. 
 

I think some of the difficulty I have had in unmolding is from piping the filling too hot. 
 

 

[Kerry Beal]

On 5/6/2020 at 3:19 PM, spennie said:

I Wanted to ask how to go about piping Jelly or getting jelly into my bonbon moulds . Heated Jelly has a higher melting point to chocolate , 

In the past we have put solid PDF into a food processor or blender with some alcohol - then piped that into the mold.

 

[gfron1]

I've gone the route of fluid gels for many of mines, which is very similar to what Kerry said except using agar as the setting agent. But ultimately it gets hit with a stick blender and piped.

[spennie]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:05 PM, gfron1 said:

I've gone the route of fluid gels for many of mines, which is very similar to what Kerry said except using agar as the setting agent. But ultimately it gets hit with a stick blender and piped.

Thank you x

[spennie]

On 5/8/2020 at 1:49 AM, Kerry Beal said:

In the past we have put solid PDF into a food processor or blender with some alcohol - then piped that into the mold.

 

Thank you x

[sharonnorthwoods]

On 3/7/2015 at 12:21 PM, gfron1 said:

Typical sequence: Bring cream/glucose to simmer, very short rest (:30), pour over chocolate, short rest (:60), mix - like said above, I use either my food processor or a stick blender. I never stir by hand. Try it again and see if you never truly got the emulsion.

30 minutes? seconds?

 

[gfron1]

On 10/22/2020 at 7:41 PM, sharonnorthwoods said:

30 minutes? seconds?

 

seconds. Sorry for the slow response.

[Rajala]

I made a ganache with 200 grams of white chocolate (37% cocoa butter, overall fat content at 44%), 100 grams of cream (36% fat), 20 gram of glucose (around DE 40), 18 grams of sorbitol and 15 grams of invert sugar (yeah, this came out sweet.) I've been using these ratios with milk and dark chocolates getting a great result in terms of texture - but this white chocolate ganache becomes so soft I can't cap the bonbons.

 

Any suggestions on how to balance it? I tried adding some extra cocoa butter, but the texture ended up a little grainy - maybe I didn't emulsify it enough though. Maybe just a bit of less cream is the way to go? But how much less?

 

I made a test with the same chocolate and just cream. No sugars added and it's still a little soft in room temperature, but not as soft. Maybe I've just forgotten that white chocolate ganaches are really soft? 😂

[teonzo]

You should switch from 100 g cream to 75 g. If a ratio works for dark chocolate then you can bet it won't work for white.

To rescue the bonbons you can't cap, try spraying chocolate (the one you use for the shells) until you have a barrier thick enough to avoid troubles.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Rajala]

1 hour ago, teonzo said:

You should switch from 100 g cream to 75 g. If a ratio works for dark chocolate then you can bet it won't work for white.

To rescue the bonbons you can't cap, try spraying chocolate (the one you use for the shells) until you have a barrier thick enough to avoid troubles.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

I'll try with 75 grams. Thanks. I guess it was too long ago I made a white ganache, because I can't remember it being this soft.

[Jim D.]

26 minutes ago, Rajala said:

 

I'll try with 75 grams. Thanks. I guess it was too long ago I made a white ganache, because I can't remember it being this soft.

 

They definitely are not always soft, but don't usually set up as firmly as a dark- or milk-based ganache.  I think balancing the ganache is the key.  For that I use a formula calculating amount of cocoa butter, fat, water, etc.  When I have my Christmas chocolates more under control, I'll run your recipe through it and see what it says.  It is based on Melissa Coppel's and Ramon Morato's formulas, but is annoying to the degree that it requires you know amounts of the categories in each product you use, and, as we know, labels often don't provide all that info.

[Rajala]

3 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

They definitely are not always soft, but don't usually set up as firmly as a dark- or milk-based ganache.  I think balancing the ganache is the key.  For that I use a formula calculating amount of cocoa butter, fat, water, etc.  When I have my Christmas chocolates more under control, I'll run your recipe through it and see what it says.  It is based on Melissa Coppel's and Ramon Morato's formulas, but is annoying to the degree that it requires you know amounts of the categories in each product you use, and, as we know, labels often don't provide all that info.

 

Yeah, I've been working and reading about Morató's formula quite a bit. But I'm more and more thinking that the bonbons should last maximum a month or so (I do don't sell these things), but I do measure AW of any ganache I make to make sure that it's not at 0,9 or so.

[Jim D.]

A tip that might be of use to others:  For a soft, sticky ganache or other filling that needs to be flattened out after being piped or even moved around in the shell a bit, you can dip a paintbrush (stiff bristles work best) in melted cocoa butter and uses it to move the filling as you wish.  The brush does the moving, the cocoa butter keeps it from sticking.  I discovered this when I was following Greweling's suggestion of creating a cocoa butter layer between two fillings that might experience moisture migration in the shell.  So I was brushing on a layer of cocoa butter over a pâte de fruit and found that a substance that resisted everything else (gloved finger, plastic wrap, etc.) would flatten out with this trick.  Today I used it on the stickiest thing I have ever piped into a mold, dulce de leche, and again, it worked.  It helps with those annoying times when you notice that a few cavities need just a bit more filling, but the usual leveling techniques (tapping on the counter) are too late to work.

[Muscadelle]

6 hours ago, Rajala said:

I made a ganache with 200 grams of white chocolate (37% cocoa butter, overall fat content at 44%), 100 grams of cream (36% fat), 20 gram of glucose (around DE 40), 18 grams of sorbitol and 15 grams of invert sugar (yeah, this came out sweet.) I've been using these ratios with milk and dark chocolates getting a great result in terms of texture - but this white chocolate ganache becomes so soft I can't cap the bonbons.

 

Any suggestions on how to balance it? I tried adding some extra cocoa butter, but the texture ended up a little grainy - maybe I didn't emulsify it enough though. Maybe just a bit of less cream is the way to go? But how much less?

 

I made a test with the same chocolate and just cream. No sugars added and it's still a little soft in room temperature, but not as soft. Maybe I've just forgotten that white chocolate ganaches are really soft? 😂

 

My advice would be to use less sorbitol (half of it) and make sure your ganache is tempered

[Rajala]

2 minutes ago, Muscadelle said:

 

My advice would be to use less sorbitol (half of it) and make sure your ganache is tempered

 

I'll try that together with less cream. When I made some calculations, it seems like it's a little bit too much sorbitol.

 

I'll report back later.

[Rajala]

So I was reading about invert sugar in ganaches. I also read that heating invert sugar above 70° will stop it from helping lowering the AW of the product. What happens above 70°? Does some sugar stuff melt?