This is a basic dark chocolate ganache recipe that is a go-to recipe for me. I like the consistency and mouth feel with these specific proportions. Whenever I am starting new recipes, I often use this as a base ganache recipe and then tweak it based on the final flavouring I want. I use it in tarts, cakes, truffles, the list goes on…

Ingredients:

• 160g dark chocolate
• 160g heavy cream
• 20g glucose
• 20g butter (room temperature)
• 5g flavouring

Tools Required:

• small pot (2L)
• stainless steel bowls
• whisk/ spatula
• immersion blender

Instructions:

1. In a small pot, heat heavy cream, glucose. (If you are using tea blends, herbs and spices, you would add it to infuse at this stage)
2. Bring cream/ glucose mixture to a boil.
3. Pour cream into the bowl with chocolate.
4. Wait about 30 seconds, and then begin to stir and emulsify.
5. At roughly 37°C, stir in butter and flavouring such as extracts and essential oils.

Variations:

• You can substitute half dark chocolate for milk chocolate if you’d like, but any more than that and it would be too soft at room temperature
• You can flavour this ganache by either infusing flavours in the cream (tea, herbs and spices), or by stirring in a extract or essential oils at the end

FAQs, Tips, Troubleshooting:

• On better shelf life, mouth feel and texture??? – Although I don’t think you can taste the difference if the chocolate is crystallized or not within the ganache, but amusing that the science is right, having the chocolate crystallized in our ganache would be a little firmer, with a better mouth field and a better shelf life. How is this achieved? Well, the chocolate would be crystallized and everything else should be emulsified into the ganache at around 34°C
• On shelf life – A water activity meter was used on this recipe a long time ago, which yielded a aW of value of 0.83, which means that this recipe can be stored around 15°C for roughly 30 days. Note: hygiene, temperature, proper storage and other factors plays an important role in shelf life and the shelf life of the product can easily be altered due to changes in factors mentioned.