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Every home baker should learn how to make a good ganache, especially if baking for people with a sweet tooth. Here we’ll show you how to elevate your baking with a perfect white chocolate ganache.
Ganache is a smooth combination of chocolate and dairy that makes a fantastic filling or topping for macarons, cookies, and cakes, among other things. Make it nice and thick and you can even shape the cooled mixture into truffles and eat it by itself.
A classic ganache is usually made with dark chocolate. That isn’t just because it’s delicious, but because dark chocolate is made with cocoa solids, which make it fairly easy to work with.
White chocolate, on the other hand, is made not with cocoa solids, but cocoa butter. That makes it a lot more temperamental and unforgiving. So make sure you follow the recipe below to a tee. Even something seemingly trivial, like slightly overheating the white chocolate while melting it, can completely ruin your ganache.
Ganache is generally easier to make with chocolate chips, rather than a bar. This is because they melt more easily. But it does present a bit of a problem. Chocolate chips are often made from low-quality chocolate.
For that reason, it’s worth being vigilant if your supermarket only stocks one or two kinds. A handy tip is to compare the price of the chocolate chips available to a chocolate bar of the same weight that you happen to know is good quality. Most supermarkets nowadays will stock good quality chocolate in some form, even if it’s not in the baking section.
How to make perfect white chocolate ganache
As mentioned above, make sure to follow this recipe carefully. White chocolate ganache is a lot less forgiving that dark chocolate ganache.
Ingredients
- 200 g good quality white chocolate chips (approx. 1 ¼ cups)
- 160 ml heavy cream (approx. ⅔ cup)
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
Step-by-step method
STEP ONE
Place your white chocolate chips in a medium sized mixing bowl.
STEP TWO
In a pan over a medium heat, bring your cream to boil. Remove from the heat as soon as it starts bubbling.
STEP THREE
Pour the hot cream over the white chocolate chips in the mixing bowl. Give it a quick stir to ensure the chocolate chips are evenly covered.
STEP FOUR
Melt your butter. If the pan from the cream is still hot, you should be able to just leave the butter in it for a minute or so, stirring occasionally.
STEP FIVE
Whisk the chocolate and cream mixture until smooth.
STEP SIX
Pour the melted butter into the chocolate and cream mixture and whisk again.
STEP SEVEN
Place the mixture in the refrigerator and allow to chill for 4 to 5 hours.
STEP EIGHT
Remove the mixing bowl from the refrigerator and whip the mixture until fluffy. This shouldn’t take more than a minute with an electric whisk. Make sure you don’t do it for too long or you risk the mixture separating.
BONUS TIP
If you do separate the ganache, it is possible to recombine it, but only if you have the time. Just heat the mixture for a few seconds in the microwave, then stir it gently, and keep doing that until you end up with a smooth mixture that resembles how it was at the end of step six. Then repeat steps seven and eight.
Our recipes with white chocolate ganache
OK, so now you’ve learnt how to make white chocolate ganache, what’s the next step? How do you use it?
Here are a couple of our favourite recipes with ganache, whether you want to use the white chocolate ganache above, or expand your ganache repertoire with the different types of ganache detailed in the recipe.
First up, why not try this meringue with ganache recipe? It's a luxurious delight that perhaps isn’t quite as simple as it seems, but is well worth challenging yourself for. This recipe from Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia in Milan uses a lemon and passion fruit ganache, but white chocolate ganache also works well if you fancy something less tart.
Macarons may have had their food fad day in the sun, but at no point did they ever stop being delicious. Try these macarons with chocolate raspberry ganache, courtesy of Miette bakery in San Francisco. While the chocolate raspberry ganache is absolutely delicious, the white chocolate ganache you learnt how to make above is too, and there’s no reason not to substitute one for the other. Or if you’re aiming to impress and have the time to spare, why not make a selection of macarons using both types of ganache?
