This is a mixture of chocolate and cream to which many other flavors can be added and is used as a filling or for toppings in pastries.
The ganache is one of the simplest and most well-known chocolate preparations in the world of chocolate and pastry.
And it is nothing more than a mixture of chocolate and cream to which other flavors can be infused to accompany the preparation of desserts.
It is widely used as a filling for the preparation of truffles, chocolate cakes, and also to cover cakes.
The dessert called pot de créme, which is made by melting chocolate in about double the amount of cream (by weight), is basically a ganache served as is.
Types of chocolate ganache
There are really only two types of ganache, one soft and one firm.
The first is made with roughly equal weights of cream and chocolate.
While the second, which turns out to be more suitable for maintaining a shape and its chocolate flavor is stronger, it is made with two parts of chocolate for every one of cream.
How to make the ganache?
To make ganache, the cream is first scalded and the chocolate melted into it.
Many pastry chefs let the ganache sit at room temperature overnight before working with them.
The progressive cooling helps the cocoa butter crystallize, so when you shape it or eat it, it softens and melts more slowly.
Whereas ganache refrigerated once after making it hardens without forming many crystals, and becomes mushy and greasy when heated.
- This text was made with information from the book Cooking and Food, Encyclopedia of the Science and Culture of Food, by Harold MacGEE
