Friday, December 14, 2012

Pipeable White Chocolate Ganache

What foods say Christmas to you?
At Christmas, I personally can't go without cherries, white chocolate and brandy custard. Gingerbread, pavlova and mince pies also come runners up. What's your favourite Christmas food?
I had a lovely lady ask me the other day how to make white chocolate ganache. She specified that it was for piping, however she was unable to get the ganache thick enough and firm enough to pipe at all. So here we have it, a recipe that's good for ganache anyway you want it--be it for dipping, drizzling, spreading or piping. It's very versatile and I think it's practically foolproof. You can use it for dipping as soon as it's cooled, or for spreading after sitting a little longer. If you want to pipe it, you whip it after refrigeration. Its a win win recipe.
I used compound Nestle's Melts cooking chocolate but you can use any type of cooking chocolate. The better quality, the better the result. Also, a little rule of thumb--always twice as much chocolate as cream!

Here we've paired the pipe-able White Chocolate Ganache with Dutch Spaculaas and fresh Cherries...perfect for Christmas!






THICK WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup white chocolate chips (I used Nestle compound white melts)

Place the cream in a small saucepan. Place over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbles begin to form around the edges. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate chips, and arrange them so that the cream covers them. Place a lid on the saucepan and sit for two minutes. Remove the lid and using a hand whisk, beat until the cream and the chocolate are incorporated and smooth. Sit on the benchtop until cool enough to refrigerate. Refrigerate for an hour. Beat the ganache mixture with electric beaters, for 1-2 minutes, until thick and creamy. Pipe onto your cake or dessert as desired.

Makes approximately 1 1/4 cups of ganache

Sorry about the grainy photos--my kitchen is poorly lit!


NOTES: If you desire pourable or dip-able ganache, simply use before refrigeration. The ganache thickens the longer you let it sit, in or out of the refrigerator.

62 comments:

  1. I can't imagine Christmas without gingerbread. Unfortunately gingerbread wouldn't go that well with this gorgeous ganache :)

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    1. me neither Madeja! I think white chocolate goes with just about anything...well, I'd be game to try it with gingerbread! hmmm....gingerbread cases filled with white chocolate ganache! hehe it all comes down to personal tastes though, of course:)

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  2. Which kind of cream did you use? Thickened or whipping cream?
    Thanks :)

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    1. its just regular thickened cream. thanks for your question!

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  3. Will this ganache withstand in the heat? I'm making cupcakes for an outside desert table and it will get quiet hot.

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    1. hi there, thanks for your question. While the ganache is quite firm, being chocolate and cream, they will get a bit melty if they get hot (I'm sure they wont be dripping or anything unless theyre in the sun). maybe you could put half the cupcakes out and the other half in the refrigerator and rotate them over time if need be?

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  4. how should I store the cake after I have frosted it? Can I refrigerate it for a few days?

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    1. hi Nivedhanams Sowmya, thanks for your question. The cake should be fine stored in the refrigerator for several days:)

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  5. Could I add a flavored extract to this such as cherry strawberry almond etc

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  6. Hi, how long can I keep the ganache out at room temp.?

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    1. i'm not exactly sure, it would depend on the temp of the day. maybe as long as you would leave cream out of the refrigerator?

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  7. Hi, how long can I keep the ganache out at room temp.?

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    1. i'm not exactly sure, it would depend on the temp of the day. maybe as long as you would leave cream out of the refrigerator?

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  8. When you say thickened cream do you mean heavy whipping cream?

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  9. Hi..I'm making a 3 tier wedding cake which the bride would like covered with white choc ganache and then white choc Cocoform ribbons covering the ganache..is the whipped ganache going to be stiff enough to hold the cocoform in place?

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    1. I would say so:) but to be sure, I suggest making a trial batch first:)good luck!

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  10. What a useful post thanks for sharing. Ive made it before to use for truffles but never as frosting. is it going to become hard if i refigerate the cupcakes?

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    1. i think it will become firmer but certainly not hard. good luck:) and thanks for stopping by!

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  11. Going to give this a go today.... EXCITED

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  12. This sounds absolutely devine. Cannot wait to try this on a red velvet cake!

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    1. what a perfect combination! how did it taste?

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  13. Hi! Is this ganache shiny or matte? Thanks

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  14. Hi made this and added chocolate colouring to it when it was warm, refrigerated it but when I whipped it, it curdled :( think this is due to colouring or maybe it wasn't cold enough before I whipped it?

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    1. Hi Jodie, I'm very sorry to hear this did not work out for you. I have never had it curdle--but then again I have not tried to colour it before. Can I ask if you used powder colouring, gel or liquid?

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    2. I think an oil based powder food colouring would work best for colouring chocolate...

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    3. Adding coloring to chocolate after it has melted will curdle it...you would have to add it to the cream before mixing chocolate I would guess. Happens when I do cake balls sometimes

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  15. When I tried to make this the finished result was that it looked like whipped cream, is it my mistake somewhere along the line or is it supposed to do that?

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    1. It's just I have a uptake competition next week and want to know if it's worth using!

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    2. it should look like the top picture with the cherry when piped:) in my experience it is a more yellow shade than cream, and certainly doesnt have the same texture or weight. It would be so yummy on cupcakes! good luck! let me know how you go:) x

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  16. I wanted to use this to pour over a bundt cake. I tried it today and it turned out terrible. I don't know what I did wrong. It's very yellow and the color is not consistent throughout. I left it out of the fridge since I wanted to pour it. It's been on the counter for quite awhile and it's still very thin. I'm not sure what happened with it. I wondered if it was the type of white chocolate chips I used which were Nestle. Or maybe it was the type of cream - I used heavy cream. I've made regular chocolate ganache before and had no problems.

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    1. Hi Sandy-sorry to hear that it didnt work out for you. As far as I can remember I also used thickened cream from the bottle. I also used nestle chocolate melts. I have no idea why the colour wouldnt have been consistent either. sorry I cant be of more help, this has worked for me every time. can I ask, did you follow the directions to the letter? I only ask this because often when something doesnt work for one of my friends they havnt been careful with measuring... another thought, but not sure if nestle range has "real" white chocolate as opposed to compound or cooking white chocolate, but often real chocolate is not stable and doesnt behave in the same way as compound or cooking chocolate does, unless tempered. just a thought.

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  17. UPDATE Well, even though the ganache was rather thin, I used it anyway. Since I made a green and white cake for St. Patrick's Day I tinted the ganache green. My family loved it. The cake is almost gone! So it might have looked a little funny but it tasted good and I guess that's what counts. Next time I'm going to try with a higher quality white chocolate and hopefully that will help.

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    1. once ahain, i'm sorry to hear this was not a winner for you sandy. I do recommend trying another variety of chocolate, perhaps compound chocolate?

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  18. Hi..Thank you for such a wonderful recipe. Im eagerly to try it out but the problem is Heavy whipping cream is quite expensive in my area. From some search on internet, I found out that evaporated milk can be best substitute for heavy cream. Can I use evaporated milk instead of heavy cream in this recipe? :(

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    1. I cannot recommend evap milk...sorry, Ireally dont think it would work for this recipe. However, i have not tried this, so its a possibility.

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  19. Hi my ganache separated as soon as I whipped please tell me what I m doing wrong? :(

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  20. Hi!
    I made this tonight but I'm.not yet to whip it. From experience of making other ganaches you still need to place them in the fridge to thicken some. Its still pourable once refrigerated for an hour or even two
    Just thought I'd let you guys know!

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  21. 1/2 cup of cream is 120ml?
    How abt the 1 cup of chocolate in grams?
    Thanks.

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  22. Hey I love white chocolate and I find a lot of white chocolate ganache recipes, but I keep coming back to this one! It is so universal and delicious! Especially in truffles :)

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  23. Some desserts are truly worth the time and effort, this is one of them!

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  24. I wonder if this would be good enough for piping flowers and if they would hold their shape?

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Give me some sugar, Sugar...