For a delicious (and very easy!) way to decorate a chocolate cake, this ganache-style covering is hard to beat. The quantities will vary, depending on the size of the cake, but the texture is the key…so, you have to taste it as you make it. Oh, such hardship!!
Recipe: Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
- 2 bars Kinnerton’s chocolate
- ½ – 1 box Alpro soya cream
Instructions
- Pour about ½ a box of soya cream into a glass bowl and either zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it just comes to the boil, or heat over a pan of simmering water. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water or your chocolate will go hard and nasty when you add it.
- Smash up the chocolate BEFORE unwrapping the bars and drop the bits into the hot cream. Stir until it is all even and smooth.
- Force yourself to taste it! (Hard, I know.) You need a densely velvety texture on the tongue. If it’s very thin, bash up and add some more chocolate. If it’s stiff on the spoon even when warm, you need to stir in some more cream.
- When you’re happy with the feel of it, allow the mixture to cool for about 5 minutes, then put the bowl in the fridge until it is has thickened. That should take about 20-30 minutes. Don’t leave it overnight, or it may well be too hard to be spreadable.
- Stir before using, to make sure that you don’t have any unevenness in the ganache.
- Have a large mug of boiling water to hand with a flat-bladed knife for spreading. Sit the knife blade in the hot water before using it to spread the ganache over your cake. Ganache is thick enough to coat the side of your cake if you wish.
Quick Notes
If you get distracted and leave your ganache too long, warm it up a little bit to soften it. Don’t overdo it or you’ll be waiting for it to cool again!
Preparation time (duration): 5 minutes
Cooking time (duration): 5 minutes
Diet type: Dairy-free
Number of servings (yield): 12+
Meal type: dessert
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Ok, hypothetically… if one deliberately left this too long and let it solidify, would you be able to roll it into little balls and get dairy free truffles?!
Just wondering…
Ooh…Anna I hope so! Might just have to test your hypothesis, in the interests of dairy free science, of course 😉
I was wondering – does it definitely need to be Alpro cream in a box (which is the longlife version) or can it be Alpro cream from the plastic container (which is the refrigerated version and has a lower fat content)? Not that fat content is particularly an issue to quibble over when making chocolate ganache!
Absolutely you can. I do it on a regular basis and they make great presents if put in tiny sweet cupcases thingies. Hope you know what I mean! If you roll the finished ball in cocoa, they’re easier to handle and I like the bitter edge that puts on the sweet richness of the whole thing. Of course, you can also add a small slosh of alcohol for grown-ups! I can’t believe I haven’t posted these already. Will remedy that v. soon!
Experimenting is great fun…because, of course, you have to test them. And a sample of one is just not statistically significant!
Enjoy! And do let us know if you find any favourite combinations. I’ll post mine later.
Sian