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I followed a recipe I found in a (last year's) magazine, for chocolate ganache. 300ml water and 125g caster sugar brought to the boil and poured over 250g chopped dark chocolate. The recipe said whisk until smooth. I whisked for AGES and it just never thickened!! Eventually I left it in the fridge for a couple of hours and eventually it was thick enough to spread and allow to drip down the sides of my roulade - still softer than I expected. What did I do wrong??? Thank you.

Lynda Spencer
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  • What chocolate product did you use? This ratio should give you a fairly thick product if made with pure chocolate, my guess is that you maybe used chocolate glaze or a similar product. – rumtscho Dec 13 '13 at 17:06

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That may produce some sort of chocolate sauce or confection, but ganache is by definition made from cream and chocolate.

Basic ganache is equal parts chocolate and cream by weight. Given that ganache is typically made with whipping cream (30% milkfat), the water being added is about 70% of the weight of the chocolate.

Your product contains more water than chocolate, not less.

So there are likely two problems:

  1. Simply too much liquid
  2. It would be much more difficult to form the water-fat emulsion with the sugar syrup than with cream. You may not have beat it fast enough for long enough (an electric mixer would certainly have a better chance).

I suspect the too much liquid issue predominates.

Next time, make the ganache from the traditional 1:1 ratio of cream and chocolate. You can find many good sets of instructions such as these from Alton Brown at the Food Network.

SAJ14SAJ
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  • Temperature is also a factor when whipping a cream-based ganache - there's little point in whipping a hot ganache. It may be the same case for syrup-based ganache. – ElendilTheTall Dec 13 '13 at 17:07
  • @ElendilTheTall nowhere does she say that she tried whipping it at all. It was too fluid after just stirring to smoothness. – rumtscho Dec 13 '13 at 17:08
  • True--I linked Alton Brown's recipe because it covers both the emulsion stage, and optional whipping. – SAJ14SAJ Dec 13 '13 at 17:08
  • @rumtscho whisking = whipping – ElendilTheTall Dec 13 '13 at 17:08
  • @SAJ14SAJ I have made water based ganache, as well as cream ganaches in ratios with much more liquid than she had. None of these should cause a problem. – rumtscho Dec 13 '13 at 17:09
  • Well, I continue to insist without cream, it isn't ganache. But I don't see anything else obvious. – SAJ14SAJ Dec 13 '13 at 17:10
  • @ElendilTheTall no, it is not the same. "Whisk until smooth" may involve using a whisk, but it supposes that you want a smooth liquid, not a foam. It is just stirring. – rumtscho Dec 13 '13 at 17:11
  • "I whisked for ages and it never thickened" suggests to me that the recipe tells you to whisk in order to thicken. – ElendilTheTall Dec 13 '13 at 17:12
  • I have to admit, I interpreted it as whipped as well on first reading--because a sugar syrup should emulsify with chocolate quite easily. And I have made whipped ganaches with a 2:1 ratio of cream to chocolate, although that is still a lower ratio of water to fat. – SAJ14SAJ Dec 13 '13 at 17:15
  • I think the "sauce" bit is spot on. Glucose syrup is frequently added to cream ganache to keep it more pliable and glossy when it sets, and since this 'ganache' is all syrup, it would be more like a chocolate glaze than a traditional ganache. – SourDoh Dec 14 '13 at 10:02