What Brand Of Chocolate Do You Use For Your Ganache?
Decorating By loriemoms Updated 13 Nov 2008 , 9:35pm by Sweet_Guys
I was buying my chocolate at Traders Joes and they no longer carry it (they just want to carry their own brand, which was waxy and yecky) I need to make a really good ganache, not from hersheys or anything. What brand of chocolate do you use in your ganache to give it a good rich dark chocolate flavor?
I was wondering how you get the ganache to partially flow off the cake top and stop midway. Do you flash freeze it right after you start pouring? I have never worked with ganache before, but I am anxious to try it. Any advice?
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I use Ghirardelli with great results. I use semi-sweet. I've also used the brand of chocolate that "Aldi" stores use. I don't know the brand; it's something pretty generic, but the taste is great! To get the ganache to stop midway on the cake when you pour you just have to pour slowly, a little at a time. Good luck.
We use a blend of Merckens and Peters. You can get it at CK Products or Country Kitchen Sweet Arts.
Paul & Peter
I have made several cakes lately with ganache......and used a combo of Hershey's Milk chocolate and Ghiradelli.......they both got raving reviews.....so it's working for me. Most of my customers and family prefer the milk chocolate over the dark chocolate...
I have used the Hershey's Symphony bars with delicious results. Very sweet and creamy.
I use Callebaut dark, it's delicious and alwaysgets raves.
I love Sharffen Berger too, but it can be hard to find unless I order it on-line. Usuallly I use Ghirardeli.. it has a great flavor and is easy to find.
Merckens and Peters aren't real chocolates are they? I mean I know that Merkens has a dark chocolate product, but it's confectioner's coating isn't it? I don't care for the chocolate flavored Merckens.. (any Merckens really).. it doesn't have a deep chocolate flavor.
I mostly use the Trader Joe's Pounder Plus bars, which are made by Callebaut. (Incidentally, Trader Joe's chocolate chips (at $1.49 a bag) are made by Ghiardelli (which charge over double that for the bittersweet chips).
You might want to try Lindt (which is widely available, even at Walmart) bars, which come in a variety of cacao %'s. I like Valrhona best if I'm making something for a special occasion.
I too use the dark Ghiradelli kind. Its affordable but so much tastier than plain chocolate chips for ganache.
I use Ghirardelli's because it is available at Sam's however if I had easy access to it I'd use Sharffen Berger all of the time! Sandy 2008--here's the answer to your questions about dripping ganache over a cake in this thread called "How to make chocolate to drip down the side of a cake". http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-609816.htmlad
The local Harris Teeters in NC carry Sharffen Berger, but is is $3.99 for 3 ounces and the cake I make uses 6 oz. melted and 12 oz. chopped for a 9 " or 10" round; so I only use it for a REALLY special occasion, I just can't pass that cost onto the customer and it would eat way too much into my profit to use it regularly.
Jkal---
You're right: Merckens is a coating chocolate...However, people enjoy the dark chocolate because it has a sweetness to it that your typical real dark chocolate doesn't have...In that case, people don't mind eating dark chocolate because they know they're not eating bitter chocolate.
Paul & Peter
Wow thanks guys for the suggestions! I may give them all a try! (I found the traders Joes to be kind of waxy..did you have any problems with it pouring nicely?)
Not with making ganache, no. If I'm just melting the chocolate to use "straight" without the heavy cream, I do add a touch of canola oil.
Jkal---
You're right: Merckens is a coating chocolate...However, people enjoy the dark chocolate because it has a sweetness to it that your typical real dark chocolate doesn't have...In that case, people don't mind eating dark chocolate because they know they're not eating bitter chocolate.
Paul & Peter
Good to know.. I have dark chocolate Merkens.. I used them to coat cake balls. I just can't get past that waxy flavor they have. I am not into sweet stuff though. I like really dark chocolate.
At least the Merckens we get doesn't have a waxy taste...They're better than that company out of Illinois that teaches cake decorating classes!
The reason we went with Merckens is because they use palm kernel oil in their chocolate preparation rather than beeswax.
Paul & Peter
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