# My ganache was too rich...



## lisamarie (Nov 24, 2007)

I made ganache for the first time last night, and it was richer than I expected. I've had bakery-bought desserts containing ganache before, and it was sweeter. Can you add sugar to it? And if so, at which point of the process would you add the sugar? 

Thanks


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Was your chocolate extra dark? Pick a favorite chocolate. A lighter one with more sugar this time.


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## lisamarie (Nov 24, 2007)

It was semi-sweet Ghiradelli. I really want to try this Callebaut everyone talks about. Next time.  Thanks!


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## blueicus (Mar 16, 2005)

Hmm.... if it's a semi-sweet I'm not sure how it can be construed as too rich. What is your ratio of cream to chocolate? Are you adding butter to the end? The amount of cream will affect both the consistency of the cooled ganache, colour, and flavour.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Lisamarie,

A classic ganache uses equal weights of couverture or semi-sweet chocolate and cream for a light filling, 2 weights chocolate to 1 cream for truffle, or 3 chocolate to 1 cream for glaze. Sometimes, as Blueicus implied, a little butter is added to the cream. Vanilla, liqueur or booze are typical additions -- to make it taste good.

The "foolproof" (but not the classic) method of making ganache is to chop the chocolate into small pieces, bring the cream to the boil, add the butter, stir to melt it, then remove the cream and butter from the heat. Beat the chocolate into the cream, preferably with a French whisk (heavy wire, elongated pear shape -- made to incorporate ingredients rather than air) with fast strokes, relying on residual heat to melt the chocolate. Blueicus mentioned adding butter "to the end," but I'm not familiar with that, I learned to put it in the cream before the chocolate.

In the classic method, the chocolate is melted before adding the cream to it. Done right -- better gloss and texture. Done wrong -- lumpy disaster. 

Assuming your technique was similar to one of those described, what ratio of chocolate to cream did you use? And, what do you mean by "rich?"

Ghirardelli is excellent chocolate with a distinctive taste. It's barely possible that your sensation that the ganache was extra rich came from Ghirardelli's unique quality, but not likely since it's in so many other product lines -- e.g., Starbucks (ugh!) uses it quite a bit -- so you're almost certainly familiar with it. Starbucks aside, it's hard to do better than Ghirardelli, only different (and more expensive). 

BDL


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## shreyam (Feb 15, 2008)

Thanks for the tips...


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