What's the best way to fix a split chocolate ganache?
Three popular methods, tested.
Every baker has their own split ganache story and the havoc it ensued.
Mine didn’t actually happen to me, but to my husband. As a valentine’s gift, my fella decided he would make me chocolate truffles. Unfortunately the poor chap was also suffering with a bad cold and was off his game. He doesn’t lose his temper often, but when that ganache split, he flew into a frustrated rage and threw the whole thing across the kitchen into the bin!
Ganache is expensive and needs good quality chocolate with a high cocoa butter content to set. Which makes that horrible grainy, greasy mess all the more heart breaking.
So, my question for this week is:
What’s the best way to fix a split ganache?
Before we begin the experiment, what is ganache anyways?
For the uninitiated, it sounds dead fancy. But it’s actually quite straight forward.
A very basic ganache is combining warm cream and chocolate to form an emulsion. That’s it.
You use differing amounts of chocolate and cream depending on what you want to do with it; more chocolate if you want to make truffles, less chocolate for a pourable ganache or glaze.
For vegans/plant based types, you can make ganache with infused water or fruit purees instead of cream.
For cake frosting, it’s commonly 50/50 dark chocolate to cream. And that’s the recipe I followed for this experiment - if it’s good enough for Bake off and Masterchef, it’s good enough for me.
Why does it split?
Let’s consider what an emulsion is… it’s a water (in this case cream) and a fat (chocolate) forced together, even though they don’t like each other! If something about their environment isn’t quite right, they will do whatever they can to come apart again.
The main reasons it tends to split are…
You have over agitated the ganache. Once gently whisked, ganache needs to be left alone and not stirred too much! But then, under agitating it can have the same effect.
Your cream or chocolate is too hot. Or too cold. Ganache is a temperamental mistress.
How do you fix it then?
I add a little warm milk and whisk, which works beautifully. However for this experiment, we have looked at three other methods…
The Immersion Blender Method: Chef Gemma Stafford of Bigger Bolder Baking suggests using an immersion blender to whisk it back to glory.
The Bain Marie Method: Many pastry chefs, including Nicola Lamb of Kitchen Projects, suggest whisking back together over a Bain Marie.
The Warm Water Method: Lamb also recommends adding a little warm water, a table spoon at a time and whisking. This one is intriguing, as usually water makes chocolate seize.
The Experiment
Like any good experiment, I endeavoured to ensure all other variables remained constant.
The plan: make one big batch of ganache, split it and then separate it into three equal weight portions.
This was to ensure I followed the same recipe, used the same chocolate, did the same things to purposely split the ganache, all three portions had split at the same point, and I completed the experiments at the same time as best I could (with a bit of husbandly help). I also whisked each one for two minutes maximum.
And what were we looking for? Our testing metrics; ease of method, and that the method works, producing a smooth, glossy ganache.
The recipe used:
300g dark (70%) chocolate
300g double cream
Place finely chopped chocolate in a bowl, heat your cream in a saucepan until it’s just about to start boiling, then pour over your chocolate. (Some recipes suggest melted chocolate - but I went with chopped for this experiment.)
Gently whisk together to form a perfect emulsion.
Pour into a shallow tray, press cling film onto the surface of the ganache to stop it forming a skin, leave in the fridge to set.
The results
Well, it turns out that when you actually want to split a ganache, it is an absolute bitch to do so.
Here is a comprehensive list of all the things I had to do to turn my irritatingly beautiful, glossy, shiny ganache into a grainy, oily mess;
I chopped up my cold chocolate into not particularly fine chunks.
I over boiled my cream.
I did not whisk gently, in fact I agitated like mad. Yet it remained stubbornly shiny and smooth.
I considered a comment from Niki Signit’s all-encompassing tome Lateral Cooking, that when things go wrong with a ganache, it’s usually due to excessive heat or moisture. So I put it in the microwave on high for two minutes.
I chucked in a load of cold water.
I chucked in AN ICE CUBE and virtually screamed with frustration when this made my ganache even glossier!
I whisked it like mad with an immersion blender.
I whisked it over a Bain Marie.
Eventually, I went for the ‘under agitation’ route. I left it on the Bain Marie and didn’t touch it for about 15 minutes.
Finally, finally! After all this abuse, it split into the most disgusting ganache I have ever made. So much so, I was a bit concerned the methods wouldn’t bring it back together at all.
Let’s see how it went down:
The Immersion Blender Method
From a ease perspective, getting out an immersion blender can be a bit of a faff, but otherwise it was ok.
However, as you can see from the picture, this definitely did not work in the two minute time frame.
I did carry on for another two minutes after this and it sort of started to come back together, but not really. I’m not sure if this might work better if you had a larger batch of ganache (I was only whisking 200g) but for this experiment, this method certainly didn’t make any difference.
The Bain Marie Method
Getting out a Bain Marie is pretty faffy, particularly if you are feeling a bit stressed about a split ganache.
Also, this didn’t work. In fact, it seemed like the ganache was splitting even further. Further research shows this method works better when your ganache is too cold. Which after at least 15 minutes simmering away on a Bain Marie, my ganache was not.
The Warm Water Method
We have a clear winner people. What a revelation!
Not only was this easy - I simply poured in a table spoon of warm water from the tap and whisked gently - but it worked a dream, with my ganache coming back together to glossy, smooth, glorious joy within a minute. Hallelujah.
So there we have it, no need to stress or chuck it in the bin. Just a little warm water is all you need to save the day and fix that broken ganache.
If you have a ganache disaster, I’d love to hear it!
Until next time… when we’ll be checking out Pavlova.
Ha! Been there. Good to know you’ve got my back for the next time!
I can concur that boiling water whisked in is also acceptable and works like a dream. So counterintuitive. I discovered this whilst styling a baking book in the summer last year and it was so hot almost every ganache I made split!