Glazes and truffles and frostings, oh my!

Chocolate Ganache

Ahhh...chocolate ganache is a beautiful and delicious thing.  It is a perfect filling, it makes amazing truffles, glazes a cake beautifully or creates a rich chocolate frosting.  I use ganache in each of these different applications because it is so easy to make.  Memorize this recipe (which shouldn't be difficult with 2 ingredients) and use it in as many ways as you can imagine!

You start with heavy cream and semi-sweet chocolate (you can use different kinds of chocolate if you wish).  I use the microwave because it makes my life even easier and avoids the inevitable milk boil-over that will take forever to clean.  Just heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate.  That's it.  The heat from the cream will slowly melt the chocolate.

I let it sit for about 5 minutes to give the cream a chance to melt the chocolate.

 After waiting 5 minutes, start slowly stirring the mixture.  If you haven't made ganache before you may think you completely messed it up at this point.  It looks like a big mess of chocolate floating in the cream.

 Just keep stirring and it will begin to transform...

When you are done, you're left with a beautiful silky, shiny chocolate ganache.  You will be able to see your reflection in it as you try not to lick the bowl!

 I put mine in a container to freeze for when I make my Almond Joy Cake (coming soon).

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (or any chocolate, chopped)

2 C heavy cream

Any extracts or liqueurs you desire

Directions:

Place chocolate in a large heat proof bowl.  Heat cream in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove top until simmering (about 3-4 minutes in the microwave).  Pour cream over chocolate.  Let it sit for 5 minutes.  Stir gently until the ganache is smooth and shiny.  Add any extracts or liqueurs for flavoring (about 2 T per recipe) at this time.  Allow ganache to cool for 30 minutes and then...

Pour it over a cake as a glaze or a filling between layers, whip it with a mixer to max a rich frosting, allow it to completely set (few hours or overnight) and form into truffles.  I plan to post recipes using this ganache recipe in the future!