This ganache, reminiscent of a chocolate bar, is for the many milk chocolate lovers. It makes a luscious, creamy filling for the Milk Chocolate Caramel Tart and is also excellent to use to frost a cake, but will require the larger amount of heavy cream for a spreadable consistency.
Mise en Place for this recipe:
• Into a food processor, break the chocolate into pieces.
• Into a 2 cup glass measure with a spout or into a small saucepan, weigh or measure the cream.
• Have a fine-mesh strainer suspended over a medium glass bowl.
—Rose Levy Beranbaum
MILK CHOCOLATE GANACHE is excerpted from Rose’s Baking Basics © 2018 by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Photography © 2018 by Matthew Septimus. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
- 454 grams or 1 pound milk chocolate 40% cacao, chopped (see Baking Pearls, below), preferably Valrhona
- 232 grams for filling or 1 cup [237 ml] for filling heavy cream
- 290 grams for frosting or 1-1/4 cups (296 ml) for frosting heavy cream
- 34 grams or 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons (25 ml) corn syrup
- Process the chocolate until very fine.
- Pour the corn syrup over the chocolate.
- In the glass measure, in the microwave, scald the cream: Heat it to the boiling point; small bubbles will form around the periphery. (Alternatively, scald it in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often.)
- With the motor running, pour the cream through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process for a few seconds until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. If the cream was not hot enough and the chocolate is not melted completely, scrape the ganache into a bowl and heat it as described in the Baking Pearls.
- Press the ganache through the strainer. If using for a filling, reheat it if necessary to a pourable consistency. If using as a frosting, let it sit for 1 hour.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for several hours, until the mixture reaches a soft frosting consistency (70º to 75ºF/21º to 24ºC).
- STORE AIRTIGHT: cool room temperature, 2 days; refrigerated, 2 weeks; frozen, 3 months.
Rose's Baking Pearls:
• Ganache has the best frosting consistency at around 80°F/27°C. To restore it to frosting consistency if frozen, it is best to thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and then allow it to sit at room temperature until spreadable. If necessary, soften it in a microwave with 3 second bursts, stirring gently to ensure that it does not overheat or incorporate any air, or in a double boiler set over hot, not simmering, water. (Alternatively, set a glass of hot water in a microwave or in an insulated food container with the ganache and allow the ganache to sit for about 30 minutes.)
• If using milk chocolate with lower than 40% cacao, the filling will be sweeter and less firm, so you will need to increase the cacao percentage by adding unsweetened chocolate. Calculate how much you need based on the difference in percentage: For each 1% below 40%, you will need 1 gram unsweetened chocolate per 100 grams milk chocolate. For example, if your milk chocolate is 35%, which is 5% lower than 40%, you will need 5 grams unsweetened chocolate for every 100 grams of milk chocolate, which equals 22.7 grams for 454 grams/1 pound.
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