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May. 28th, 2009 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWhile making eclairs the other day, I broke the ganache. (I was reheating it after several weeks in the fridge. If you let the ganache in the top half of the double boiler and just pop it in the fridge, it dries up and cracks and gets weird after that kind of time. Fresh ganache is easy to reheat but fridge-aged ganache is difficult to reheat without breaking it.)
The last time I broke the ganache, all was lost and I had to throw out the ganache. It was gross and weird, where the chocolate solids split from the clear fat. Merely stirring faster and upping the heat was not enough to save it. I tried that last time and it didn't work. I threw the broken ganache out and made a mental note to try different things the next time I broke a ganache.
So, this time, once the ganache broke and went all wahooni-shaped, I added some butter. No dice. I added some water. Didn't help. I added some more fresh chocolate to melt to see if that would work. No. And then I grabbed a splash of milk from the fridge and it was like magic, the ganache was whole again, the clear fat incorporated into the chocolate solids and the whole thing made a lovely sauce again. It was nearly instant. So. If your ganache has broken and Very Expensive Chocolate is about to be dumped into the trash, try a splash of fridge-cold milk and some whisking to see if that makes it All Better or at least All Better enough to use and eat.
The last time I broke the ganache, all was lost and I had to throw out the ganache. It was gross and weird, where the chocolate solids split from the clear fat. Merely stirring faster and upping the heat was not enough to save it. I tried that last time and it didn't work. I threw the broken ganache out and made a mental note to try different things the next time I broke a ganache.
So, this time, once the ganache broke and went all wahooni-shaped, I added some butter. No dice. I added some water. Didn't help. I added some more fresh chocolate to melt to see if that would work. No. And then I grabbed a splash of milk from the fridge and it was like magic, the ganache was whole again, the clear fat incorporated into the chocolate solids and the whole thing made a lovely sauce again. It was nearly instant. So. If your ganache has broken and Very Expensive Chocolate is about to be dumped into the trash, try a splash of fridge-cold milk and some whisking to see if that makes it All Better or at least All Better enough to use and eat.
