Ganache Trouble

what kind of chocolate are you using?

 

Ganache will always split if you stir it when it's in "the zone"........

You can stir like a madman when it's hot--over 50 Celcius and nothing will happen

And you can beat  cold ganache in a mixer until it's fluffy without it splitting

But you can't stir ganache or agitate it when it's between 25 C- to around 50 C

If your ganache is too fat-rich it will split irregardless, so you need a balanced formula 

 

like, fake chocolate? gross. that could be why you are having issues. sorry if that sounds rude, but if you arent using something that has real cocoa butter and cacao, it wont taste good.

 

Just wanted to add,

Not a good idea to roll the cream, a scald works best.

 

Sorry,

Getting the cream to a rolling boil.

 

I've found that "simple" ganache gives you less headaches if you make it out of a good semi sweet chocolate - 55% or so.

Also the additives that are put into cheap chocolate to make it smooth don't really like to let other ingredients  join  the party.  It's best to stick with a high quality chocolate that has the least amount of ingredients -  cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, milk and vanilla.

 

No milk in high quality chocolate.  None. Never was, never will be.

One of N. America's biggest urban myths, prolly started by some notorious advertiser.....

Milk chocolate on the other hand, has.  Usually about 35% cocoa mass, 30% milk powder, and the rest sugar.

 

I didn't realize we were splitting hairs but ...

perhaps you should read the entire post before pontificating...

One of the failed ganache batches mentioned in the OP was about milk chocolate so yes it would have milk as one of the ingredients (as milk powder is milk) but imitation or  "compound" chocolate usually contains soy and some sort of vegetable oil.  Both the belgian and swiss milk chocolate we use at work are couveture and one contains milk the other milk powder, also we use a very nice French 60% bittersweet that also contains milk solids.  The point being that milk mixes with milk and soy and oil do not.

So unless you are a complete and total food snob who doesn't ever let anything as plebian as couveture milk chocolate pass your lips... you too eat milk in your high quality chocolates.

 

Maybe...

Then agaion, I'd be happy to PM you my web address and you can see that I use very good quality milk chocolate in a lot of my confections.  Milk chocolate, I find goes, very well with tea ganaches and most nut based confections.

 As an apprentice, I was brainwashed with Switzerland's "Lebensmittelverordnung" or state regulations pertaining to many food products. Chocolate, in all EU countries is defined  as "made with cocoa seeds, cocoa paste(a.k.a. cocoa mass, a.k.a cocoa liquor) cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla".  No dairy products are allowed

Milk chocolate has the above ingredients with the addition of milk.

As France is a member of the EU, I wonder why it sells a "bittersweet" couverture that is not labled as "Milk Chocoalte" if the ingredient list clearly states milk as an ingredient.  Then again, France never used terms like "bittersweet".

One of the cheaper Callebaut chocolates--D8-11, is made in the States and does not follow EU labeling laws, same 5 kg packaging though.....

Also in the EU, "compound" and "Chocolate" are never used together.  If the dreck has  vegetable fats other than cocoa butter in it,  it cannot have the word "Chocolate" anywhere on the label used to describe it. 

Until now, I've never considered myself a chocolate snob, maybe I am.  Life is too short for lousy chocolate.  In my 30 odd years I've never used the compound dreck, either for confections or pastry work, so I really don't know how it behaves with othe ingredients. 

 

So let me get this straight, "hersheys special dark" would or would not be acceptable?

 

Don't know.... 

Don't even know of any stores here that carry Hersheys.  That other "fine" producer, Merckens, is not available here either.

I would like, however, to have a peek at the ingredient list of that stuff.....

 

http://www.hersheys.com/pure-produc...-mildly-sweet-chocolate-bar/standard-bar.aspx

 

Thanks for the link.  Like you, Pete, I'm still around 10 days away from ending my annual marathon--not much time for fooling around on the web.

So according to Hershey's website, the " special dark" drug-store bar contains 50% cocoa and "milk ingredients".   No vanilla in there either, ot even "vanillin" (artificial vanilla that is natural identical and derived from wood chips), but does have "artificial flavour"  It also makes quite a thing about "dutched cocoa", which confuses me.

Dutched cocoa is nothing new, Van Houten invented that process in the late 1700's by treating inferior beans with alkalai.  Hershey's website claims it "removes bitterness", which it does, but a good coca bean is never bitter in the first place.  Unripe beans and poorly fermented beans,as well as poorly stored beans are bitter.  But who buys inferior beans?

 

Maybe this could also help.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/strong-255806-chocolate-until.html