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Made from only two ingredients with seemingly endless uses, this Chocolate Ganache recipe is as easy as they come! So so good, friends! Perfect to top Cheesecake or Chocolate Cake with!
Chocolate Ganache | A Decadent Treat
Chocolate Ganache is the ultimate decadent treat! It makes a great cake topper, a great glaze or an easy dip for strawberries. While Ganache sounds like a fancy french concoction, it couldn’t be simpler to make. Calling for just two ingredients and 5 minutes of total time, you can make this in a cinch. I made this cake to cover my frosted chocolate cake for Eddie’s birthday last month, but there are so many different uses for Ganache! Keep reading, friends. You are sure to fall in love with this dreamy chocolate recipe.
Main Ingredients Needed
The beautiful thing about this recipe is it literally only requires two main ingredients.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate – you can use any type of chocolate for ganache (white, milk, bittersweet, dark) just make sure its good quality.
- Heavy Cream – this helps melt the chocolate and thin it out so that it’s pourable.
Best Chocolate to Use for Ganache
For the best ganache, be sure to use the highest quality chocolate you can find! I used a few Ghiradelli baking chocolate bars and would recommend them. Scharffen Berger also is great chocolate, but regular Baker’s Chocolate Baking Chocolate is great too. I’d suggest chopping those up into smaller pieces so they melt easily and quickly.
Can I use Chocolate Chips for Ganache?
While technically yes, you can use chocolate chips for ganache, I wouldn’t recommend it just because chocolate chips have less cocoa butter and added stabilizers to help them keep their shape. When you melt them into a ganache, they might give you a slightly grainy finish. Generally, the cheaper the chocolate, the more likely you are to have problems when using this kind of chocolate for ganache.
Baking chocolate is the exact opposite: it has a higher cocoa butter percentage and no stabilizers because it is meant to melt quickly since they are used for baking purposes, like ganache. 🙂
How to Make Ganache
For full details on how to make chocolate ganache see the recipe card down below 🙂
Step 1: Chop Up Chocolate
Break the chocolate into small pieces. The smaller you break or cut the chocolate, the quicker it will melt. Since the Ghiradelli is relatively thin, I didn’t opt to chop it, just broke it into smaller pieces, but in retrospect, it would have been much quicker if I took the 2 minutes to chop it up smaller.
Step 2: Heat Cream
Microwave cream until very hot, about 1 minute. Pour cream over the chocolate and let stand to completely melt, 3-5 minutes.
Step 3: Mix Chocolate and Cream Together
Stir chocolate and cream together to create a completely smooth ganache. Use as desired.
Having Trouble?
You’ll know if your chocolate seized if it is gritty, solid, and won’t melt. Basically this happens when water gets into the chocolate. If this happens you just have to start over, sorry! Be extra careful not to get water into it.
If your chocolate isn’t melting you either didn’t chop your chocolate small enough or the cream isn’t warm enough. Be patient, it’ll melt eventually over a double boiler.
There are a couple of things that can contribute to graininess. Low quality chocolate is the number one culprit (aka chocolate chips). Use a rubber spatula or a spoon to stir the chocolate and use a metal or glass bowl (not plastic) over the double boiler.
How to Use Ganache!
- Dip for strawberries and other fruit
- Filling for layer cakes
- Cooled ganache can be used as frosting for a cake
- Cooled ganache can also be whipped into a frosting (aka Whipped Chocolate Ganache)!
The printable recipe card is down below, enjoy 🙂
Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
- 8 oz good quality semi sweet chocolate such as ghiradelli
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Break chocolate into small pieces. The smaller you break or cut the chocolate, the quicker it will melt.
- Microwave cream until very hot, about 1 minute. Pour cream over chocolate and let stand 5 minutes to completely melt.
- Stir chocolate and cream together to create a completely smooth ganache. Use as desired.
Hello! Does the Choc. Ganache keep in refrigerator? If so, for about how long? Thanks so much!!
It stays for about a week until you start seeing fungus
Can this be made ahead of time?
How much would you recommend if using as a center filling for a 9″ 2 layer cake?
What chocolate frosting would you use th frost cake with this as a filling?
Hi Lauren! Love your recipes, thank you!! Is Heavy Cream the same as Heavy Whipping Cream?
If not, which brand do you like?
Thank you!
They’re exactly the same things. Any brand is fine.