Ganaché or chocolate cream. Cooked truffle

How to prepare a ganaché or chocolate cream.  Also known as canaché or cooked truffle, it is the quintessential chocolate base in all dessert recipes in French pastries. It is an emulsion of cream and chocolate, sometimes also with butter to obtain a firmer, creamier cream and give it shine. The  liquid cream (or crème fraîche) is hot mixed in equal parts with chocolate pieces. This cream can be more or less dark, soft or consistent, depending on the proportion of cocoa that the chocolate used in its elaboration has. You can add different flavors or perfumes that provide a subtle and differentiating note, being able to flavor with spices, orange, vanilla, coffee, mocha, rum, or various liqueurs. It is used in the manufacture of coatings for chocolates, truffles, cakes, cookies and tea pastries, or simply as a filling.

Its origin is highly disputed. The ganache is believed to have arisen around the year 1850, some say that it comes from Switzerland and others that it was invented by the Siravdin pastry shop in Paris.  The most curious story tells of a pastry apprentice who made a mistake and mistakenly poured hot cream into a chocolate, so his teacher would have called him “ganaché”  (fool, incompetent in French). Far from being useless, the cream was successfully used and retained the name of the insult.

Below I explain  how it is prepared and small tips to get you yummy. I have opted for the classic method because it is very simple and gives very good results, it is the one I usually use and when it comes to working it does not give complications. So today you can learn how to make a shiny, creamy and very rich chocolate cream, perfect to cover or fill a cake  and make decorations with the pastry bag.

Preparation of the ganaché or chocolate cream

We prepare the chocolate ganaché with your favorite chocolate, I use one with 70% cocoa.

1. The easiest way is to mix the same amount of chocolate as liquid whipping cream (milk cream or crème fraîche). For example 250 g of dessert chocolate with 250 ml of whipping cream. But to achieve a better result we must look at the percentage of cocoa that the chocolate has, since the amount that we will need will depend on it.
2. We break the chocolate or chocolate coating into very small pieces with a good knife or a mincer, and place it in a bowl or large bowl. We boil the cream in a saucepan over low heat and pour it in two batches on top of the chocolate, moving with the rods little by little until obtaining a homogeneous mixture. The consistency of chocolate cream depends on the relationship between the cream and the coating. The more chocolate you have, the greater its consistency.
3. Finally add the pieces of butter at room temperature or in ointment, continuing to beat. Once we have the cream ready, we can already use it for your favorite preparations: fill a cake, cover it, decorate some muffins (with the pastry bag), a base of a chocolate mousse … imagination to power.
4. We can vary the chocolate cream using different measures of the ingredients. It is not the same to use the ganaché for a topping of a cake, which must be very consistent, as for a mousse. The measures (on a basis of 200 ml of liquid cream) to make the ganaché depending on the chocolate to be used are:
   • Dark chocolate 70% cocoa, we will need 200 g.
   • Dark chocolate 60% cocoa, we will need 250 g.
   • Milk chocolate with 40% cocoa, we will need 400 g.
   • White chocolate 35% cocoa, we will need 550 g.

And voilà! Here you have it, I hope you like it.

Tips and recommendations

• To use it as a filling we let it cool down to room temperature. This way you will get enough consistency to be able to spread it with a spatula.
• To use it as a topping for a cake or cake, we have to pour the hot cream directly in the center and slide it over the edges. In this way you will get a smooth and shiny finish. Place the dessert to be covered on a grid and put vegetable paper underneath so that it collects the excess chocolate that will drain.
• To save the ganaché, we cover it with plastic wrap or put it in an airtight tupper, and keep it in the fridge for approximately 2 weeks. If you freeze it, it lasts up to 6 months. To defrost it, we leave it in the fridge the day before and manipulate it again, heating it as in the next point.
• If the chocolate cream stays hard you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds on low power, stirring every 15 seconds or heat in a water bath for one or two minutes.
• The most important thing for you to get out of ten points is the quality of the ingredients .