# coconut ganache



## ben quincey (Jul 12, 2015)

just wondering what the best way to make a coconut flavoured ganache would be? I'm baking for lactose intolerant people and have made some pretty tasty chocolate cupcakes using a coconut buttermilk and coconut oil, I've found a few coconut ganache recipes online, some say that you NEED coconut cream, although this clearly isn't true as others use coconut milk, I know coconut cream is just sweetened condensed coconut milk, but would it yield a ganache that would hold it's shape better when piped? what kind of ratio would I use, if I DO use milk, will I need to sweeten my ganache? what about a white chocolate coconut ganache, how would that work?


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

No one says you can't use buttermilk or milk for ganache, its just that your shelf life will be very short, even under refrigeration.

If it were me, Id experiment with

100% white chocolate
25%coconut flavoured liqueor (Malibu or similiar)
25%powdered coconut
(This is the dehydrated finley powdered stuff you find in little 50 gr. envelopes)

I profess I am ignorent of all things lactose, and do not know if buttermilk is lactose free.

This should give you a starting point, hope it helps


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Hang on a second...

Can't use white chocolate, it contains milk powder and/or cream powder.

Maybe you can try unrefined coconut fat, pretty firm at room temp.  Lots of the specialty grocery stores and the health food places carry it. 

Mind you,  any sugar you want to use will have to be dissolved in some kind of liquid, although no one says you can't use honey or corn syrup either.


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## ben quincey (Jul 12, 2015)

white chocolate is fine as it's only a small amount of milk powder, it's whole dairy products most lactose intolerant people need to watch put for, like butter, milk,
cream, cheese, and unfortunately
buttermilk too. I must profess that i'm pretty ignorant too, i'm only a first year apprentice and everything I've been taught so far tells me using milk for ganache is WRONG WRONG WRONG, however I'm of the opinion that it's only wrong if you don't get the desired result.

i think perhaps i'll do some maths, figure out the fat:water ratio of a regular ganache, and then use fat and water content information to put together a recipe using coconut cream/cocnut milk, i'd rather not use malibu as my cupcakes already taste like coconut and i don't want it to be an overpowering taste, just enough to compliment the chocolate


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Actually, you'd better look at your chocolate labels.  White chocolate contains well over 40% milk/and/or cream powder, and remember, chocolate has "0" water content.

If you want to make a ganache, you need the fat content, this is what gives your ganache its body  Coconut cream in the cans is mostly water.  

I just suggested to you coconut fat as a substitute, please start getting familiar with it if you want to go the lactose free route.  I also suggested coconut powder, very flavourfull and 0 water content.  So please buy a package or two (usually $1.00/ envelope).  This is just dehydrated coconut, nothing artificial.

Happy experimenting....


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## ben quincey (Jul 12, 2015)

i've never seen powdered coconut in australia, would powdered coconut milk be the same thing? or coconut flour?


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## ben quincey (Jul 12, 2015)

also when you say coconut fat, are you talking oil or butter? it's my understanding the oil is pure fat, whereas butter contains the meat too, i should also note that with australian summer stretching across 8 months or so, the coconut oil I have is liquid at room temperature most of the year, would it still be suitable to use or do you think my ganache might not set?


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Umm...oil is fat, liquid at room temperature.  Fat is fat, solid at room temperature.  I don't know what brand or type of coconut fat you have, but most--if not all coconut fats--, refined and un-refined, are solid at room temp.

If you want to skip the whole coconut fat, you try pure cocoa butter for your ganache.  Keep in  mind however that

:

1) It's expensive, usually more than a good 70% couverture by weight,

and,

2) it has no flavor, tastes about as appealing as corn oil.

That being said, it sets up just as hard as chocolate...... 

I dunno about your powdered coconut.  You are a lot closer to Thailand and Malaysia than I am in Canada, but I can get it in just about any grocery store.  "Asian Home gourmet" is one brand, as is "San tan", and doubtless, many other brands.  Great stuff, it finds its way into a lot of my recipies for puddings, ganaches, mousses, and buttercreams.


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## ben quincey (Jul 12, 2015)

your room temperature is vastly different from my room temperature. for example right now my kitchen is sitting at 26.2 degrees C, whereas google tells me it's 10 degrees in vancouver right now, and on average it gets up to 22-25 over the summer, in contrast the hottest day here this past summer it got to 39 degrees. over here coconut oil is solid at the supermarket, and melts when you leave the shops, i store mine in the cupboard and for 2-4 months of the year, depending on how cold the winter is, it's solid, the rest of the time it resembles very runny glucose, I'm using unrefined organic virgin coconut oil. perhaps i should set my ganache in the fridge...

i appreciate the suggestion of cocoa butter, but I'd already considered it and ruled it out as I'm a poor apprentice.

re: powdered coconut, it sounds like the sort of thing you'd find in an asian grocery store, rather than the regular supermarket, I'll run across the road now and see if they've got any


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## flipflopgirl (Jun 27, 2012)

Ben Quincey said:


> I've found a few coconut ganache recipes online, some say that you NEED coconut cream, although this clearly isn't true as others use coconut milk, I know coconut cream is just sweetened condensed coconut milk, but would it yield a ganache that would hold it's shape better when piped? what kind of ratio would I use, if I DO use milk, will I need to sweeten my ganache? what about a white chocolate coconut ganache, how would that work?


Before going off and spending the extra money and making yourself crazy why not give those recipes a whirl ?

Maybe they pipe beautifully.

IMO if someone else has already done the work and gone to the expense of testing it would be silly to try and complicate things by trying to reinvent the wheel.

mimi


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## sylviam (Jan 4, 2012)

Ben Quincey said:


> i've never seen powdered coconut in australia, would powdered coconut milk be the same thing? or coconut flour?


Desiccated coconut - just like England


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## dueh (Mar 4, 2015)

My thought when I read the title was making a butter ganache, but sub coconut oil for the butter.


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## jujucabra (Apr 4, 2016)

I have had good results using canned coconut cream - it's *not* sweetened. I warm the coconut cream, pour over white chocolate callets, stir to emulsify, and add dessicated coconut shreds with a splash of coconut essence or coconut rum. When roomtemp, it is soft enough to pipe, yet can firm up enough to roll or cut for dipping. Hope that helps!


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