Pastry Ganache - Fillings and Glazes

[Malawry]

In celebration of our first wedding anniversary, today I made my partner and I a butter cake with a ganache frosting. It came out beautifully, easily the best and best-looking cake I've produced to date. I never knew ganache was so easy to work with...it looks so glossy and perfect.

Now I have all this leftover ganache. We're about to go out of town, so I doubt we'll manage to eat it all by the spoonful before we leave. (Besides which, there's all that leftover cake!) Does this stuff freeze well? How should I store it, and how do I thaw it and prepare it for use?

Also, interesting ideas for what to do with my leftovers would be welcome. (Frost another cake? Sandwich cookies? Make hot fudge sauce for ice cream? Make truffles? Finger paint?) Thanks.

[Rachel Perlow]

I can't believe no one else responded to this yet. I remember someone making truffles out of it on TV. Spoon a small sphere of the genache and roll in cocoa or powdered sugar or finely chopped nuts. Place in little paper holders to be fancy. I don't see why it couldn't be frozen, but wrap really well to avoid bad taste development, and defrost in the fridge while still wrapped.

[Jim Dixon]

I used to make a quick ganache in the microwave when I needed chocolate for ice cream.

I think freezer...my mom makes truffles and stores them in the freezer.

Jim

[chefette]

Ganache freezes quite well.  I normally place a lump of leftover ganache on a sheet of plastic, wrap it up, sometimes double wrap it, label it so you don't forget, and freeze.  If it is a particularly soft ganache you might want to freeze it in a plastic container (make sure it doesn't smell like anything else first).  When you want to use it later, just take it out of the freezer the night before and place on the counter to thaw.  Sometimes you need to hurry it up and place it over warm water or near another heat source, but this can have detrimental effects on the texture and appearance.  It is best to exercise foresight and patience.

All of your thoughts on re-use would work.  Steve would not approve of the truffle application unless you coated them with tempered chocolate.  In any case, it is certainly an option.

[Rachel Perlow]

Not all truffles are coated. I prefer the bitter contrast of a dusting of plain cocoa.

[Malawry]

Thanks for all the tips, ya'll. Rachel, I like the bitterness of unsweetened cocoa on a truffle too. Plus I'm fairly lazy, and uneducated about proper chocolate techniques, so I'd be more likely to coat my truffles with cocoa or powdered sugar than with properly tempered chocolate. Chefette, I'll be sure not to serve Steve such inappropriate ganache truffles whenever you guys make it up to our place.  

Jim, do you mean you used ganache in the ice cream itself, or do you mean you used it as a sauce for ice cream? If you incorporate ganache into ice cream base, what are the proportions? Edemuth's new ice cream maker just begs for experimentation.

[stellabella]

malawry--what a beautiful cake and what a beautiful gift for your true love

i was also thinking about cabrales's earlier thread about food-scented beauty prodcuts--maybe a ganache facial--just kidding...maybe...

[Malawry]

Thanks, Stella. Your anniversary dinner sounded just lovely too. (Our anniversary dinner consisted of vegetarian "sausage" subs with onions and peppers and mushrooms and provolone on fresh baguette, and red and yellow chard sauteed with garlic and pine nuts. I made a nicer brunch that morning, tho: pancakes, slow-scrambled eggs, strawberries with homemade sour cream and brown sugar. Sometimes casual food fits the bill, even on a special occasion.)

It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that the spa at Hershey Park offers some sort of ganache treatment. I think a warm ganache body wrap would make your skin look and smell great. Of course, I didn't make nearly enough ganache to wrap anybody up. Except for my cat, that is, and she's too dignified for that.

[Jim Dixon]

malawry...

I would make it as a topping...heat chocolate in mocrowave (it melts, but stays the same shape, so you have to be careful not to assume it's cool), stir in some cream, or in a pinch, milk or even a little vanilla ice cream, since it was out and just waiting anyway.

I never actually measured anything, but for a quarter cup of chocolate chips, probably a tablespoon or so of cream.

I like the idea of adding it to the ice cream as it's freezing, so maybe you could get swirls of dark ganache in the vanilla ice cream.

Jim

[Lesley C]

You can freeze ganache, but keep in mind that when you defrost it you want to avoid over whipping. It could separate.

Also, in my chocolate making books, a truffle should be coated in chocolate. In fact, I coat them in two, thin layers of chocolate before rolling them in cocoa. I put the rolled balls of ganache in the fridge to chill, then roll them (about four at a time, between chocolate-covered hands) in untempered chocolate. I then roll the once-coated truffles in chocolate again then directly onto a baking sheet covered in sifted cocoa. Drop them in the center of the tray, let them sit a couple of seconds, and roll them to the edge end with the back of a fork. Let them pile up on each side before transferring to a plate or box and voila! professional-style truffles.

[Malawry]

Lesley, thanks, that actually sounds accessible. I might try it closer to the holidays, for giftmaking.

Jim, now I'm thinking of making a vanilla ice cream with a ganache ribbon and a mint "pesto" sauce. Mmmmmm!

[nyfirepatrolchef X]

:confused:

wasnt it Marcel Desaunier (sp) that knocked them out on TVFN the one time?

[laurenmilan]

I've seen custom-decorated cake with a marblelike layer of white chocolate ganache (blue and pink swirls of colored feathered in the ganache (while still wet, I assume.) How do you apply the food color without it pooling? Should it be mixed with something else?

Thanks in advance...

[chefette]

Wellllllll, there are several ways... How it was done where you saw it might depend on the type of place it was.

Probably not what you saw, but: You can use transfer sheets with ganache so it could have been a transfer sheet, but probably not in this instance.

Just as you might marble chocolate or cake batter, you could color portions of your ganache and then swirl together on the cake if it was a pourable ganache

But...are you SURE it was white chocolate ganache? That would look fairly creamy yellow and blue and pink don't come out looking so good - they look pretty unappetizing. You may have been seeing the pretty fake chocolate glaze that comes in pellets of every color imaginable. One might melt this and sirl it around.

[Wendy DeBord]

In addition to Chefettes post, if you want to learn how to get this effect in ganche ...."Chocolat" by Alice Medrich (Hope I spelled her name correctly) covers this in her book.

[mamster]

You spelled her name right...but the book is Cocolat.

[laurenmilan]

But...are you SURE it was white chocolate ganache?  That would look fairly creamy yellow and blue and pink don't come out looking so good - they look pretty unappetizing.  You may have been seeing the pretty fake chocolate glaze that comes in pellets of every color imaginable.  One might melt this and sirl it around.

Thanks! Well no, I'm not sure if it was white chocolate ganache or another pourable icing. So I am open to any option using any smooth pourable icing (the effect was a blue & white swirled icing - here's a picture of what I'm talking about (please pardon the low resolution, I zoomed in as best I could.)

It was shown on an episode of Star Trek, and in the "Star Trek Cookbook" (talk about your lowbrow culinary reading!) the author noted that that cake was actually bought at an upscale Los Angeles bakery. So I thought, if I asked other baking pros, they might help "clue me in" as to the technique.

Edited November 14, 2003 by laurenmilan (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

Well I'm curious what our experts will say....

I think it's kind of hard to tell by your photo.

Did you taste this? If so: was it very sweet, could you taste white chocolate, could you taste almond (marzipan)? What was the texture like? These answers would help alot.

From the photo it looks to be fairly dense in thickness...if you look at how it draps over the edge-rounding instead of straight down. Ganche doesn't round out like that. You have white mirrors but I don't think it's that either.

I'm going with poured fondant as my best guess. It would be the easiest way for a bakery to produce that look. They either did a heavy coating (which will help in marbling) or poured it over a marzipan or rolled fondant layer.

Are you familar with poured fondant and how to use it?

[nightscotsman]

If the marbling effect was from pouring partially mixed colored ganache or fondant on the cake then the streaks would be radiating out from the center down the sides rather than all in one direction like the photo shows.

Any chance it could be a white poured ganache that was airbrushed with color? Seems like you'd have more control over the final look that way. Either that or rolled fondant marbelized before applying or airbrushed afterward.

[Wendy DeBord]

That's white- not yellow, white ganche is yellow. If it is ganche then it is the purple color and they've gone back over the top with a titanium oxide drizzle. But if you've use white ganche as a glaze you know it's VERY difficult to get that look. I've tried with-out much real success unless the cake underneath is just perfect and mu ganche is too. With white chocolate ganche it's hard to find the right consistancy for pouring it. You'll also get "different" colors when mixed into it because your starting with yellow not white...and red and blue which make purple, become greyish with yellow-your base ganche color. (granted there are people much better then I that I'm sure can....I find it more difficult then it seems...and not something I'd want to do often)

Neil when you have something fluid you can intoduce other colors and get that exact bleeding into look with-out mixing it into the base. Unless they are incompatible. That's not airbrushed or rolled fondant....rolled fondant doesn't shine.

[FistFullaRoux]

It really looks like it could be airbrushed. A rolled fondant or "white chocolate" ganache airbrushed with the colors in whatever pattern they wanted. If the airbrushed color is simply colored cocoa butter it would shine. And you could use the airbrush to make whatever you wanted actually white.

That is a very cool cake, by the way. I may have to give that a try... That would be perfect for pretty much anything except a kid's birthday party, unless it was a very hip kid. You could work in team colors, and do mini cakes for tailgating.

Edited November 17, 2003 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[laurenmilan]

It really looks like it could be airbrushed. A rolled fondant or "white chocolate" ganache airbrushed with the colors in whatever pattern they wanted. If the airbrushed color is simply colored cocoa butter it would shine. And you could use the airbrush to make whatever you wanted actually white.

That is a very cool cake, by the way. I may have to give that a try... That would be perfect for pretty much anything except a kid's birthday party, unless it was a very hip kid. You could work in team colors, and do mini cakes for tailgating.

LOL, yes I never saw the cake in-person, much less tasted it or found out the bakery that made it in LA (the photo is from an episode of Star Trek, and I'm making the cake for an upcoming holiday party.) So I'm very willing to bet that top-level candymaking technique was used here, and it does look like it was done using that sugar airbrushing technique that Jacques Torres uses.

Since I don't have access to that technology, it looks like I will have to resort to alternate means to create that effect

Thank you very much, everyone for your suggestions, I know I'll be using a few of them in reproducing this cake!

[simdelish]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but my first immediate thought when reading your original query was rolled fondant. Then after seeing the pic, I can tell you I have made cakes exactly like that, that were rolled fondant WITH a shine, to replicate glossy feathered marble. I just marblized the fondant in the usual way with the colors, but then when rolling it out, and after placing on the cake and smoothing, I just kept everything well coated with shortening. It made a level, very slick, shiny looking cake, with no imperfections. The more I worked it, the shinier it got. That may well be all that was done, nothing very elaborate as airbrushing or painting.

Real fondant, as opposed to white chocolate fondant is pretty white --by the way--to take color well.

*Note: you wouldn't be able to airbrushin addition to the marblizing either before or after, because of the grease.

[laurenmilan]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but my first immediate thought when reading your original query was rolled fondant. Then after seeing the pic, I can tell you I have made cakes exactly like that, that were rolled fondant WITH a shine, to replicate glossy feathered marble. I just marblized the fondant in the usual way with the colors, but then when rolling it out, and after placing on the cake and smoothing, I just kept everything well coated with shortening. It made a level, very slick, shiny looking cake, with no imperfections. The more I worked it, the shinier it got. That may well be all that was done, nothing very elaborate as airbrushing or painting.

What do you mean by "marblized the fondant in the usual way?"

Also, I found out that Wiltons does a Color spray that gives a mist of color to icing, that might be worth a shot too...

Edited November 18, 2003 by laurenmilan (log)

[simdelish]

Marblizing fondant is a technique of adding color. As you aren't familiar with this, I assume then that you have never worked with fondant. If that's so, you won't want to attempt something like this on your first experience. You have to have a good knowledge/experience in handling fondant to begin with, before attempting something like trying to create specifac marble patterns/colors.

Basically, you color small pieces of fondant, make ropes of them, add and twist them to ropes of the white, sometimes streaking the entire thing with more "straight" color right from your toothpick. Then you carefully knead everthing together, so as not to mix in the color, but only enough to create the feathered marble look. It takes practice manipulating the dough,folding it just so, to know exactly what twists and turns will produce what kind of look. It's actually easy, not hard, but as I said, just takes practice and knowing when to stop, so as not to overblend the colors. I have made cakes that look like marble,as well as more complicated patterns (that are difficult!) like the Italian marbled paper you probably have seen in stationary stores and inside fine books.

Hope this helps, but if I am as clear as mud... sorry!

The Wilton spray is, I believe, a cheap alternative to airbrushing created for quick coloring (blue skies, etc.). I don't know how exact or controlled you can be with it -- I have not used it. But I can't imagine it's anything more than a spray, not fine detailed lines, kind of like using a spray can of paint.

Good luck, and if I can be more help, don't hesitate to pm me.