Water Ganache

[Kerry Beal]

I'm in London right now (for the Academy of Chocolate Awards on Tuesday night), and yesterday, I met with Damien Allsop who is famous here for his water ganaches.

I have to say, they are absolutely wonderful. 

The texture is perfect. The ganache is fairly stiff but very smooth and creamy. His flavors are perfectly balanced. This was especially noticeable when compared to chocolates that I purchased on Friday from another well known chocolatier / chocolate house. Their flavors tended to be either too strong or too mild with perhaps 20% being spot on. Damien's by contrast were all perfectly balanced and really highlighted the chocolate being used.  We traded chocolate and as I write this, I'm truly enjoying another piece. ;-)

The flavors in his sampler box are:

* Raspberry

* Olive Oil

* Peanut Crunch

* Salty Licorice

* Pear Aniseed

* Basil Leaf

Damien is a really nice guy to boot. It is going to be really exciting to see what he is able to come up with as his business grows. (Right now, he has no storefront and wholesales his chocolates to a number of hotels and restaurants.)

I've made water ganache truffles at home and have really been pleased with the results. However, seeing what can be achieved when someone has spent lots of time with it and truly knows what they are doing has been a real eye opener.  I'm definitely going to have to spend more time experimenting with water ganches. (When I can find time that is.)

Later today, I'll be meeting with William Curley who won the Academy of Chocolate's award for the best truffles. He has won numerous years in a row.  I haven't tried his chocolates yet and after hearing such wonderful things for all these years, I'm really excited to do so.

-Art

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What sort of shelf life is he suggesting Art?

[Lior]

Thanks for that interesting article and foolow up by Art! I am also interested in shelf life and WIlliam Curley's truffles!

[John DePaula]

According to Damien Allsop's web site, Damien Allsop Product Information he can get between 1 and 6 months, depending on the product.

[Art]

Thanks for that interesting article and foolow up by Art! I am also interested in shelf life and WIlliam Curley's truffles!

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We had an absolutely wonderful time at William Curley's shop today. We just came back. (It is way late now -- like 1:00am.)

Today, we went to William Curley's shop. William was such an incredible host. He invited us (us being my wife, myself, Martin Christy -- of the Academy of Chocolate -- and one of our top retailers Matt Caputo)

William prepared a series of desserts for us to try. They were all absolutely incredible. William has quite a resume when it comes to various restaurants he has worked at. (I'll let people look that up if interested.). But more importantly, the flavor of all his desserts and truffles were incredible. William uses Amedei exclusively. This causes his truffles to be a bit more expensive but all in all, his flavor is so much more improved, he has developed quite a following (to the detriment of two other nearby chocolate shops.)

Needless to say, we were treated to a complete chocolate tasting course. All of his truffles were very well balanced and were beautiful in flavor. Regarding shelf life -- getting back to the question that I'm responding to here -- his shelf life is 3 weeks. He figures one week for himself and two weeks for the customer.

I gave him some chocolate for him to try and he gave us some chocolate to take back with us. We will treasure the chocolate not only because of the craftsmanship but also because we felt that by the end, we had a new friend. Personally, I admire William's dedication to using only the very best ingredients and working each and every day to step up his game. (We had a medium length conversation about this.)

The end of the day consisted of walking along the Thames and watching the sun set against old stone bridges.

As to how the water ganaches of Damien Allsop stacked up against Willaim's cream ganaches, they are both very different. I am not convinced that either technique is inherently better but more simply each is a unique tool that can be used by the right craftsman to achieve a particular end.

-Art

[Lior]

Thank you so much! I ATE your words!! I hope one day I will be able to taste all these amazing sounding chocolates!!!

[Lior]

I was bored this saturday afternoon so I decided to experiment with a water ganache.

I used manjari chocolate, water infused with spiced black tea, and olive oil,sugar and honey.

weight and percentage

Chocolate 100g - 46.7%

water 70g - 32.7%

oil 30g - 14%

1 teaspoon sugar about 7g - 3.3%

1 teaspon honey about 7 g - 3.3%

according to my calculations ( ) :

total sugar content = 20%

total water content = 33.35%

total fat content = 32.68%

According to that excel, I should raise sugar and lower water. However, my fat content is quite above the minimum and has no milkfat.

The ganache tasted nice while still warm, although I am not sure if the spices and tea carried through enough. I am waiting for it to cool.

I used an emulsifying blender.

Any thoughts? Anyone else want to try with me? What should I try next? Try with milk chocolate?

Edited July 4, 2009 by Lior (log)

[Tri2Cook]

It took me a minute to remember these posts come from all over the world. I saw "I was bored this saturday afternoon" and almost panicked. I made sure to get up extra early today to get some things done so I can couch potato for a bit and catch the opening time trial for the Tour de France. Then I saw your post and was trying to figure out how I missed an entire day.

I might play with some water ganaches with you, I have some ideas I want to work on. They may not fit into what confectioners do (because for what I do shelf life is generally not an issue) but it will be the same basic principal as far as technique and balance.

[Lior]

And here my Saturday is more finished than yours!! If I could only wrinkle the time and jump over to Canada I would get a looong Saturday! Great to have a water ganache friend join in on the fun!!

[Kerry Beal]

I was playing with water ganaches this week too. I used a Greweling recipe - one that used a spirit and dark chocolate. I replaced the cream with 65% water and 35% sunflower oil. I made a batch with cream also. I used some sherry as the booze.

The water ganache was a little more popular than the cream - they said it was very smooth, with a more intense chocolate flavour and that the cream version was 'creamy'.

I need to figure out which 'waters' I want to experiment with next.

I ran it through the recipe tester and it came out lacking in sugar. But so did the cream version. I figure the replacement of cream with water and sunflower oil makes it equivalent to cream.

Edited July 4, 2009 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Lior]

It sounds a bit similar to mine. I used a bit more water and a bit less oil. And adding alcohol has some water as well, but also alcohol, which also has sugar...

Which Greweling recipe? Of course, if you want to tell!

Now water can also be replaced with juice-or not?

[Desiderio]

Funny I have been thinking about water ganaches as well and saw the post! I will play with you too, I am really intrigued in trying it with Art chocolate, since I would love to preserve the wonderful flavor and depth.

[pastrygirl]

Last weekend I was feeling restless but too lazy to go to the store, so I made peppermint caramel bonbons using water and butter instead of cream.

I have the numbers at home, I think it ended up being around 100g milk chocolate, 90 g sugar (caramelized), 90 g water, 30 g salted butter and 4 drops peppermint oil. The texture was soft and gooey like I wanted. These were for a friend who doesn't drink, otherwise I would have used peppermint liqueur for some of the liquid and less oil.

Other than trying to make totally non-dairy chocolates, is there reason to use oil instead of butter? I do see how water instead of cream can lead to intenser flavor, but butter is so good.. OTOH, olive oil could be interesting.

[Lior]

sounds very intriguing! With perpermint liqueur and possibly olive oil!! You could have a very interesting caramel there!! How funny that we are all on the same wave!

[pastrygirl]

sounds very intriguing! With perpermint liqueur and possibly olive oil!! You could have a very interesting caramel there!! How funny that we are all on the same wave!

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I wasn't thinking both in the same piece, but you never know!

[Kerry Beal]

It sounds a bit similar to mine. I used a bit more water and a bit less oil. And adding alcohol has some water as well, but also alcohol, which also has sugar...

Which Greweling recipe? Of course, if you want to tell!

Now water can also be replaced with juice-or not?

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It was the Liqueur Ganache on page 100. I used Emu Oloroso Cream Sherry for the booze.

I assume water could be replaced with juice and that is what I think I'd like to play around with next. Imagine an orange truffle with no cream to cut the orange taste.

[Lior]

Exactly- the cream does cut flavour and so does chocolate though! An orange truffle sounds very nice. This Sunday morning I tasted my spiced tea olive oil water ganache before having anything to eat or drink. I was able to taste the spiced tea and olive oil much better. It is the consistency of a chocolate pudding, so it is for moulding. For cutting-no way.

Pastrygirl! I thought you meant both together! Here I was thinking olive oil flavored with peppermint, instead of the usual Rosemary or chilies or herbs stuck in the bottle of olive oil!! Putting mint leaves into the oil...

Edited July 5, 2009 by Lior (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Made a batch of the cold brewed coffee using a cafe filtre pot. Essentially it gave me a nice concentrate of coffee that was very smooth and not acidic.

Used that to replace 65% of the cream in the same recipe as before (Greweling's liqueur ganache), with 35% of the cream replaced with sunflower oil.

Made a very smooth, wonderful filling. The coffee flavour comes through clearly, but not sharp or acidic in any way.

[lapin d'or]

My first attempt at a water based ganache was a coffee flavour for which I used Trablit coffee extract and some brandy but for the oil I used walnut oil which gave it quite a distinct taste that complemented the coffee.

I would try this again with an oil that had a less toasted flavour as the slightly burnt nut flavour was the one that was left on your palette, where I wanted to have the coffee/chocolate flavour dominate.

Lapin

[Lior]

It sounds so delicious! I thought about using a hazelnut oil-steal some right off my bucket of praline...

Kerry, was the coffee like a regular cup that you could drink or was it concentrated? Is a cafe filtre pot a regular filter drip type?

[Kerry Beal]

It sounds so delicious! I thought about using a hazelnut oil-steal some right off my bucket of praline...

Kerry, was the coffee like a regular cup that you could drink or was it concentrated? Is  a cafe filtre pot a regular filter drip type?

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It was concentrated. There is a thread about cold brewing coffee - you take lots of coffee and a bit of cold water and let it sit overnight then filter out the coffee. You can use it as a concentrate to make warm or iced coffee that is nice and smooth.

I just used a french press (cafe filtre) to mix it in and strain it.

[Lior]

oh great, Ihave a french press! I will go and read that thread-just the season for cold coffee! I think I will try a whiskey and coffee ganache.

[Lior]

any new experiments here? I am interested again and want to play with more ideas. My previous recipe has been kept in the fridge for months (I put the left over in a small container that got hidden behind the pickles) and never grew mold. It just lost its tea taste and wasn't amazing, but was okay. I think it has been there for 6 months!!

[Lior]

update

I am making truffles. I decided to use white chocolate (unusual for me).I made a ganache with mandarin/clementine juice and safflower oil. Slightly reduced the juice. I got this very elastic ganache emulsion done by hand - the kind that when your "pour" it out of the bowl it leaves the bowl completely clean. It doesn't taste too orangey so I added a few drops of mandarin oil. Still not orangey enough but maybe I got saturated with orange taste. It is crystallizing now so we will see. I blanched clementine peel and am now drying it out in the oven and will grind it and mix with powdered sugar to roll the truffles in.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Lior (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Made up my Campari and Grapefruit as a water ganache with white chocolate - turned out wonderfully - forgot to add the recipe to my computer however - so next attempt I'll have to document properly.

[Lior]

It does sound good. I almost used a red grapefruit that I have in my fruitbowl! Maybe I will do this 2morrow or next week probably. I assume you used oil...

I tasted mine a while ago and liked it and it did taste more orangey. I did get a bit of an oily hand when I rolled two. Maybe too much oil.

Did you roll yours or cut them?