Ganache in French actually means silly/stupid or chump. In baking, ganache is a chocolatey cream made from chocolate and heavy cream. Ganache was first documented in 1869 in France. And let’s be honest, most great things related to desserts or confectionery came from France, and chocolate ganache is no exception.
Ganache gets its name from a comedy movie called "Les Ganaches" (the Chumps). It’s never explained why the creator named the cream Ganache but oh well! I think the name was chosen because it’s so easy to make that literally anyone can do it! 🙂 Simply heat the heavy cream in a saucepan, pour on the chocolate and mix until you have a smooth unified cream.
Today there are 3 main types of chocolate – dark, milk and white. There is a 4th type of chocolate, pink chocolate or ruby chocolate, that was only introduced in 2017. Don't worry, it’s still new so if you haven’t heard of it, no big deal. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but I will for sure when I get my hands on it I tried it and it has a fruity sweet and sour taste. There is a variation of white chocolate that I also mentioned in my chocolate tart recipe, which is caramelized white chocolate that is called Dulcey chocolate. Because the Dulcey chocolate is made from white chocolate, it's considered white chocolate when making Ganache.
The 3 types of chocolate all produce a delicious Ganache but because each type has a different consistency of cocoa solids, sugar, cocoa butter and sometimes milk, each type needs a different amount of heavy cream to mix in for making the perfect Ganache.
Ganache was first used for chocolate truffles. Basically, chocolate truffles are set in ganache batter that is then rolled in a coating like cocoa powder or shredded coconut flakes. You can use Ganache in many ways, such as glazing a cake, filling for cakes, tarts or cupcakes, dipping sauce and as I mentioned already, for truffles.
In order for the Ganache to fit a vegan dish that doesn’t use heavy cream or any dairy products, you can use coconut oil or coconut cream to replace the heavy cream. This way, the ganache is vegan and also parve, plus it can fit non-dairy desserts.
Here are the ratio formulas for each type of chocolate to make Ganache:
Dark Chocolate:
1:1 ratio, equal amounts of dark chocolate and heavy cream.
250 grams (1⅝ cups | 8.8 oz.) chocolate and 250 ml (1 cup) of heavy cream.
Milk Chocolate:
1:1.5 ratio, for each amount of heavy cream, an amount of 1.5 milk chocolate
250 grams (1⅝ cups | 8.8 oz. ) milk chocolate and 167 ml (⅔ cup heavy cream).
White Chocolate:
1:2 ratio, for each amount of heavy cream, double the amount of white chocolate
250 grams (1⅝ cups | 8.8 oz. ) white chocolate and 125 ml (½ cup) heavy cream.
