Hello and welcome to Cupcake Addiction's Chocolate Ganache Tutorial.
For those of you that are cake decorators or have been keeping up with a lot of cake
decorating shows that are on TV at the moment, you may know what chocolate ganache is.
For those of you that don't, stay tuned.
You need to know this.
Chocolate ganache is basically a combination of chocolate and cream.
When melted down, it forms this beautiful decadent dark chocolate river.
And when it comes back to room temperature, it's a beautiful pipeable frosting that you
can use on cupcakes or cakes.
I also use it in all of my wedding cakes.
I use it to layer in the middle and to form a beautiful shell before I cover them with
fondant so chocolate ganache is definitely one of those things that you want to know.
Some people say it's really hard to get right but I have here today a tried and tested foolproof
recipe that's sure to get you cooking with ganache
Tools and equipment that we will be using today:
I have just a standard household whisk.
If you don't have a whisk, you can use a spoon but it's going to take you a little bit longer
in stirring so I would definitely try to find a whisk.
I've got a spoon.
I've got some dark chocolate Melts.
You can use any sort of dark chocolate you like.
The better quality, the better your ganache will turn out so I wouldn't suggest going
with a really cheap dark chocolate.
You can go (Inaudible 01:20).
You can go really high quality if you like.
For the purpose of today's exercise, I've just gone with a Nestle.
I've got some thickened cream, pasteurized thickened cream, so for here us in Australia
this is what we refer to with us.
It's basically the cream that you would whip.
When you whip it, it becomes firm.
You might dip strawberries in it.
You might use it in between a Victoria sponge or use it to layer a cake.
So I have 600 grams or 21 ounces of the dark chocolate.
And I have 300ml or 10 ounces of the cream.
Those are our measurements for today.
I've got a set of kitchen scales.
And I've got just a standard-sized bowl.
Now this ganache is completely mark [way] so there's no chance you're going to leave
it on a stove and there's no chance that you're going to overcook it if you do it the way
that I tell you.
I'm going to turn these scales on.
I'm going to get measuring.
We're just going to pop that chocolate into the bowl.
Try not to eat before you get it in there.
That's our 600 grams or our 21 ounces, still plenty leftover for snacks.
Now for our cream, see that cream?
Nice and pourable, it can sometimes be a little bit thicker than that so don't worry too much
if it is.
Now I'm going to take our chocolate and cream mixture and I'm going to place it in a standard
thousand watt microwave for a minute at time for full 1 minute intervals.
I'll bring it back at the end of each minute so you can see how it looks and we'll give
it a stir in between.
Alright, so at the end of our first minute in the microwave, it's not looking terribly
much different.
Some of your melts will be starting to soften a little bit.
We're going to give that a good stir.
You can see how the melts don't look like that melting but when you stir it, they do
actually start to break down.
So you want to give that a good stir, about 30 seconds before you put it back in for its
next go.
Okay, so this is the end of 2 minutes, you can still see we've still got quite a few
chunks of chocolate in there.
So you've had it in for 1 minute, done our 30-second stir, and it's just come out of
the microwave oven after a second minute.
I'm going to stir it again for another 20 or 30 seconds and we're just slowly breaking
down that chocolate.
You can see there as I'm stirring, it's even starting to thicken up.
A lot of people do their ganache on a stove top.
I prefer to do it at a microwave because I have more control.
I tend to walk away from the stove top and I tend to burn my ganache.
Alright, so we've just come back from our 3rd minute.
You can see that's a lot thinner now to stir.
But we do still have lots of little grains and little bits in there.
So you want to give that another 30 seconds stir.
With chocolate, it's the agitation of chocolate that actually breaks it down and melts it.
You really want to make sure that you get it moving.
Now, your microwave might be a little bit different.
So while you're cooking this, do make sure that you're looking for the consistencies
that I'm showing you.
If you have the tutorial running on a laptop beside you or something so you can (Inaudible
04:46) it or go back to it.
Some microwaves are going to do a little bit faster and some microwaves might just take
a little bit longer.
So you can see here, it's starting to look like this beautiful, thick, gooey, still slightly
grainy chocolate deliciousness.
That's going back into the microwave now for our fourth minute.
Okay, so we're back for our fourth and final minute in the microwave and this is where
the whisk comes in.
You can see there, definitely still some little grains in there so now I'm just going to whisk
it until I'm absolutely confident that I can't see any grains.
Now, by now, the bowl should be feeling quite hard to touch.
It is quite hard to burn ganache if you do it by this method so so long as you're just
giving it a short [burst] in the microwave, you should be fine.
You should not have any trouble.
Now as you stir this, you will feel it starts to thicken and you'll notice the grains just
disappear and it starts to go a little bit glossy.
For those of you wanting to know how to make a white chocolate version of this ganache,
you can do it but the measurements are slightly different.
If you want to do this out of white chocolate, you're looking at 225 ml. or 8 oz. of the
cream and you're looking at 700 grams or 24 oz. of the chocolate.
Other than that, method is exactly the same.
Alright, so I've been hard at work with my whisk for about 3 or 4 minutes now.
And the way that we can tell that ganache is done, it's actually gotten quite thick
and it's going quite glossy.
If you look at it there, it does still look like there's some grains in it.
These are just little air bubbles because I've been stirring it for so long.
A good way to check is to put some on a spoon and just dripple it off.
Watch it as it falls back into the ganache, back into the main bowl, and you will notice
there are no grains.
And if you absolutely have to, taste it, you'll be able to taste grains straight away.
Be warned, if you do taste it, you may do end up eating the whole bowl because it is
absolutely delicious.
Now with ganache, I generally make it the day before I need to use it because I like
to let it sit at room temperature for about 12 to 24 hours before I use it.
If you are wanting to use it the same day, you can refrigerate it.
If you refrigerate it, you do run the risk that you may over-harden it.
You can always bring it back down just by microwaving it in really short 15-second burst
tapering it back down to a pipeable consistency.
But the refrigerator is a second option if you are in a hurry.
Now with my ganache, I always cover it with [clean fill] before I put it in the refrigerator
or before I leave it to stir.
Now with my [clean fill], I always take it all the way down.
Let's get a better view in there.
I always take my [clean fill] all the way down.
While the ganache is still quite warm, just pat it on to the top.
You'll lose a tiny bit of the top layer.
If you don't put the [clean fill] all the way down, you do end up with a crust on top
of the ganache.
And when that crust hardens and you're going to mix it, it gives you all those little grains
that we worked so hard to get out.
So I'm going to leave that now.
I'm going to leave it overnight and it's going to be perfectly ready to use in the morning.