Chocolate ganache is a vital, all-purpose element to any baker’s repertoire. Despite a short ingredient list of just cream and chocolate, the perfect chocolate ganache requires certain parameters. In an interview with Tasting Table, Duff Goldman, celebrity chef and founder of Charm City Cakes (which also makes custom cakes available to order on Goldbelly), explains that a delicious chocolate ganache hinges on its ratio.
According to Goldman, the idea ratio of cream to chocolate depends on what you’re looking for. He says, “If you’re using a dark chocolate, I find that if you do one to one by weight, that gives you a chocolate or that gives you a ganache that, at room temperature, you can form into a ball, slightly warm it up, and you can pipe it.” Chocolate ganache can last at room temperature for a few days and hardens when cooled. Heating it up will make it more malleable for piping onto cakes or cupcakes, for example.
However, a one-to-one ratio isn’t necessarily one-size fits all. “If you want a looser ganache … you want to increase your amount of cream a little bit,” Goldman explains. “You don’t need to go three to one. … A 50/50 heavy cream to dark chocolate is going to give you a pretty kind of all-purpose ganache.” You can use this ratio as a starting point to thicken or thin as you see fit; more chocolate equates to a firmer ganache, while more cream puts you into sauce territory.
Does the same ratio apply to milk chocolate and white chocolate?
Duff Goldman’s golden ratios apply to dark chocolate, but when using milk chocolate or white chocolate, the rules change yet again. Dark chocolate, like this 70% cacao dark chocolate from Guittard, has a negligible amount of milk in it. According to Goldman, “Milk chocolate obviously has milk in it, and so it takes a lot less cream to make a formable milk chocolate ganache and even less cream to make a formable white chocolate ganache.”
Again, there’s no set ratio for milk or white chocolate, but both of these types of chocolate have more milk and higher fat contents than dark chocolate. Goldman recommends a much larger proportion of chocolate to cream. “I’m always surprised whenever I try to make white chocolate ganache, how little cream it takes to get to where I need it to be,” he says. Goldman thinks a good rule of thumb for white chocolate ganache is a five-to-one ratio of white chocolate to cream. That places milk chocolate at around a two-to-one ratio.
Goldman suggests a white chocolate ganache as a truffle center for a bonbon. We use his golden ratio for dark chocolate in our recipe for muscovado chocolate ganache — it would make a richer upgrade to chocolate frosting. You could also use it in this recipe for dreamy, decadent chocolate mousse cake.
