- Hey bakers, John Kanell from Preppy Kitchen here.
And today we're making a chocolate ganache.
It all went in the bowl.
(laughing)
This silky, amazing combination of just two ingredients
chocolate and almost any liquid you could want
can make a perfect accompaniment for chocolate eclairs,
any kind of cake, donuts, truffles, the works.
This is gonna be really fun.
Let's get started.
So, to make this ganache I'm gonna use a one to one ratio
of chocolate to cream,
but you don't have to do that.
If you want to make a drip cake, for example,
you would use, like three parts chocolate and one part cream
of whatever liquid your choosing.
We'll talk about the liquid situation in a minute.
But for now, let's get some chocolate.
I'm gonna use a combination of semi-sweet and bittersweet.
You could use milk chocolate.
Anything you like, whatever floats your boat.
I often like to use all bittersweet chocolate
because the ganache is like a nice, not so sweet
but very creamy finish to one of my desserts.
Being generous with our cup.
If you chop the chocolate finely,
the ganache comes together really quick.
You don't have to worry about any lumps
hanging out here or there.
You can make your ganache in a double boiler,
just have a pot of simmering water
with a glass bowl over it.
The glass should not be touching the water.
Dump your chocolate and your cream
and stir, stir, stir until it's almost all melted.
Finish melting off heat
because the residual heat and the chocolate
will carry it through.
The one concern you might have is having chocolate burn
and that happens when you just heat it up too high.
So if you're microwaving use 50% power
and if you're using stove heat,
then go ahead and use a double boiler.
(choppping with speed)
I've done enough chopping.
Let's transfer this over.
Okay. Roughly one cup of chopped chocolate,
now we're gonna add in one cup of scalded cream.
That just means the cream is just under boiling.
So we're gonna pour it over our chocolate,
begins melting instantly, so just give it a minute.
Walk away.
Do a dish or two.
Look at my Instagram.
Whatever you want.
So it's been almost a minute.
I couldn't really wait.
I'm very impatient.
Let's give it a whisk and see what happens.
This is the fun part because it looks like garbage.
Just whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk.
And now we have a beautiful, very silky liquid
that we can use to soak cake layers in.
You can dip donuts in this.
Eclairs, just have it by the spoonful, the works.
If you want it to be thicker, just use less liquid.
Start off with 1/4,
and then you can add more as you go along.
Let's try a version with coffee though,
because a lot of people think that you can use only
like a cream to melt chocolate
and anything else will make it seize, but this is not true,
especially for a ganache.
Once again just a little rough chop.
(chopping with speed)
I love using a chocolate ganache on my cakes.
You can click up here for my oreo cake.
Oh my gosh, it is beyond indulgent
and one of my most popular recipes.
Gotta check it out.
Transfer this to a bowl.
Now a few tablespoons of hot coffee.
I want to start off with two.
Let it sit there for a few seconds.
Just allow the heat from that coffee
to permeate through the chocolate and give it an out.
Okay. Let's take a look.
Whisk, whisk.
So here you can see that my chocolate is not fully melted.
The coffee cooled down pretty quickly
because we weren't using that much.
So we're gonna zap this in the microwave
at 50% power for
maybe 10, 15 seconds.
Yeah there's a microwave down there.
It's a drawer microwave.
K. Check that out.
There we go. That's all we needed.
Just fifteen seconds.
I want to give these a little taste test
and share the difference between the cream and the coffee.
Mmmmmmmm
Chocolate.
(tasting chocolate)
Mmmmm
This chocolate coffee ganache is perfect for my mocha cake.
It's actually what I use to make the ganache in that recipe.
You can click up here for that.
That is a chocolate coffee lover's dream.
It's so indulgent
and this ganache features prominently in it.
So the coffee definitely comes through
and you do taste it, but it's a really nice combination.
So if you love coffee and you love chocolate,
try adding some coffee to your ganache.
And you're not limited.
You can add a splash of vanilla,
a sprinkling of salt,
whatever you want.
Your ganache can take on so many different flavors.
Just whisk them in,
(whisking quickly)
and...
(tasting chocolate)
you have a nice aromatic, little extra something
that'll enhance your dessert.
The consistency of that ganache is great for dipping.
So like for my chocolate eclairs, dip it right in there.
You can go a little bit thicker if you want,
or let it cool down more
and you'll get a thicker coat of chocolate from your dip.
You can make a ganache with any liquid, even brandy.
I made brandy chocolate truffles,
and all they are is a very thick ganache
and you're thinning it out with cream
and an alcohol that you love.
They're delicious and just really, really easy.
You can click up here for those brandy truffles.
They are worth making every day of the week. (chuckles)
If you make your ganache and it's too runny,
you wanted to do some kind of a drip,
or you needed a thicker glaze,
but it's soupy even after it cools down,
like if this is not right for you,
don't worry.
Go ahead and just add in more chocolate.
So it's this one to one ratio,
add in an extra of chocolate,
give it a few seconds in the microwave at low power,
and now I have a much thicker glaze.
This is gonna be perfect for a drip
and maybe even a bit more suitable for an eclair
or any kind of pastry you want to dip in chocolate.
Silky and amazing, do you see that?
I love it.
You can out this ganache on anything.
I just whipped up this banana cream pie today,
and you know,
why not?
A little bit of chocolate on top
how 'bout them bananas? (chuckles)
(eating pie)
Good.
All right, that was fun.
So easy.
I hope you get to make some various ganaches
especially try the one with brandy.
That is good.
And if like you thin it down enough it's basically soup,
which counts as a meal.
(chuckles)
(bites strawberry)
(chuckles)
Messy. Mmmmm
If you like this recipe, try my chocolate eclairs.
They are one of my all time favorites,
and that ganache dip is everything.
Thanks so much for watching.
If you like my videos hit that like button and subscribe,
and I'll see you soon.