The subject of ganache

My little boy, or the cake police as he is lovingly known in our house always tells me that it isn’t the way a cake looks that is important but how it tastes – I must remember to stop him watching sooo many episodes of MasterChef! Although it did get me thinking about the many flavours available to make a seemingly normal cake taste completely different with the inclusion of a flavoured ganache

Firstly to the business of a great basic ganache. Now there are a huge number of recipes available and tutorials on how to make it to the perfect consistency.

My go to, works every time, favourite is Paul Bradford’s recipe for chocolate ganache.

But now back to the subject of flavour and here are my top 5 current favourites and one curved ball for good measure!

5. Orange – there is nothing better than the slight tang of citrus in amongst the richness of a chocolate cake and achieving this is much easier than you would think, how you ask? With the addition of a tablespoon of micro planed (very fine) orange zest added at the very end of the ganache creating process whilst it is still warm. It is fabulous

4. White chocolate and raspberry – having made a HUGE mess of an original raspberry ganache experiment a long time ago I have been to scared to try it again until I realised, having read many, many recipes that white chocolate ganache is the best partner for raspberry not very dark chocolate ganache ! Boosted by this knowledge, although still never quite forgiving my husband for his attitude towards the first attempt! I am now a lover of this version especially when paired with a gorgeous white chocolate mud cake or even a beautifully simple Madeira cake

For this I use:

• 450g raspberries
• 400g white chocolate

• Puree the fruit through a sieve, so that you remove all the seeds and pulp and are left with a smooth puree
• Put the puree in a small saucepan and slowly heat until it is warm but not boiling
• Melt the white chocolate in the microwave keeping a careful eye on it so that it doesn’t burn
• Once is has all melted pour in the puree a third at a time. stirring well before adding another 1/3
• Once all the puree is mixed in and the ganache has combined cover with cling film and place the fridge to set

3. Peanut Butter. One of the things that watching MasterChef Australia with the cake police did bring into my life, other that Curtis Stone! Was Adriano Zumbo’s frankly limitless range of macaroons and the filling he uses for his peanut butter and jelly macaroon makes a fantastic ganache. Although I use smooth peanut butter and not crunchy

For this I use:

• 100g of double cream
• 240g of milk chocolate
• 215g peanut butter

Make the ganache as we have done using Paul’s technique. Set it aside for a minute or two to firm up a bit then stir in the peanut butter until combined

2. Cheats Salted caramel – Now you can of course make some brilliant salted caramels combining glucose, golden syrup, boiling sugar and so on and then add that to a ganache, or you can open a jar of Bonne Maman caramel sauce, spoon a large quantity into a bowl, add a few twists of salt and combine and then add this to still warm milk chocolate ganache. It is truly amazing on a chocolate mud cake and is always a firm favourite when tasted at wedding fayres (especially by the groom!)

1. In first place it has to be the truly amazing Hazelnut
It was national Nutella day a few weeks ago and coupled with the sad news that Michele Ferrero died days later aged 92 my number 1 favourite flavoured ganache has to be hazelnut, made using Nutella obviously (although other brands work just as well!) add a generous tablespoon to warm ganache and stir

Now for the curveball I tempted you with right at the beginning of this blog.

A few years ago I was luck enough to go to a chocolate making course at Paul A Young in Soho, now his salted caramel truffles and chocolate brownies are out of this world but that’s not the subject at hand what is are his marmite truffles!

The story goes, or so his head chocolatier retold it, that a journalist asked Paul if any flavour would go into chocolate to make a truffle to which Paul replied yes and the journalist retorted by suggesting what even marmite?! And thus gauntlet set down the marmite truffle was born

Not for the faint hearted but definitely worth a try I give you marmite ganache

Add a teaspoon of marmite to a quantity of dark chocolate ganache and combine (or more if you like a stronger taste)

So love it or hate it these are my top 6! chocolate ganache recipes… well for today anyway

K x