Ever since those luscious Drip Cakes started trending (and haven’t stopped!) the call for a Vegan Ganache recipe is now bigger than ever!
It is not much different than when we were making it’s animal counterpart where heavy cow cream is used with any chocolate of your choice, and typically that was on a 1:1 ratio of cream to chocolate.
But for the vegan ganache recipe it is slightly different.
Since the milk alternatives we are using are thinner than traditional cow cream, we have to reduce the amount of milk used in ratio with the chocolate; and don’t forget to look at the ingredients list for the chocolate and make sure there is not milk added into it.
I get Baker’s Brand Chocolate easily at my local supermarket and find this is really great for making ganache. (I’ve linked it here only so you can see the brand not so much to buy it, because Amazon is way more expensive than what I pay in the supermarket just $2.59)
It really isn’t necessary to use an expensive chocolate here, and quite frankly in the bakery I would buy a grade of chocolate specifically labeled “Ganache Chocolate”.
It was definitely cheaper and who doesn’t love cheaper?
So save your Endangered Species and Green & Black chocolates for your fancy desserts and use good old baker’s brand for the ganache.
When it comes to making white ganache, this is a bit more delicate of a process whether it is vegan or not.
Many people have a hard time working with white chocolate in the first place due to the fact that it is essentially all cocoa butter (fat) and sugar without any cocoa liquor in it at all!
So is it even really chocolate after all? But we’ll leave that topic for another day and just stick to the ganache recipe.
So let me get a bit “sciency” for a minute.
As simple as it may seem Chocolate, is actually very complex.
The addition of liquids to this delicate ingredient can sometimes create complications.
Chocolate is very temperature sensitive.
Anyone who has ever over heated chocolate during the melting process has learned this first hand when the lovely chocolate has seized into a solid grainy, unusable mess right before their eyes!
I’ll never forget my first experience with making ganaches for truffles and tortes in Culinary School.
I was feeling so confident in my pastry skills.
I was on top of the world, and then as quickly as I got to the top of Mount St. Ganache, I was tumbling down to a sea of broken, curdled, grainy chocolate mess.
You see, the idea of mixing 2 ingredients while simple as it sounds is not always so easy.
Most often we are having success by chance.
So it is those times that we have failure and cannot understand WHY, since it has worked out so many times before right??
Well it’s time to understand the science of emulsification when applying it to a simple recipe called: Ganache.
Mixing Chocolate and Milk together is similar to mixing oil and water. This is not something that is naturally occurring. So the process of mixing Two other wise UN-Mixable ingredients is called EMULSIFICATION. Think Oil and Vinegar. These two ingredients will just float on top of the other unless we shake it up and then pour it on our salad, right?
With a little help from HEAT and AGITATION we can achieve a beautiful emulsion.
Before going vegan, a basic “master” recipe for Ganache is simply equal parts (by weight) chocolate and cream.
So for example if you have 8 ounces (224g) of Chocolate, you will use 8 fluid ounces of heavy cream (237ml)
This will give you a medium ganache.
But for vegan ganache the liquid amount (your milk alternative) is going to be half that.
So for every 8 ounces of chocolate you will use 4 ounces of milk alternative. (Note: I prefer soy, almond and oat milks for their highest fat content of all the milk alternatives)
For a softer setting ganache you will use more milk and for a firmer ganache you will use less milk.
So you see you can really adjust the liquid to your liking and for your specific project.
Now as I mentioned earlier, you can make White Chocolate Ganache but it is necessary to reduce the milk amounts to compensate for the added fat content in that type of chocolate. I usually start with 4 ounces of melted white chocolate and add 3 tablespoons of warmed almond milk to that
The traditional method for making ganache is to start with chocolate that is chopped to the same sized pieces.
Get it melted over a double boiler or in a microwave
Once the cream has come to a simmer you pour the entire amount over the melted chocolate in the bowl while whisking smooth.
Too much agitation will cause rapid cooling to below 90 degrees F which will produce an GRAINY ganache.
Temperature is an important factor in emulsification of ganache. The optimal temperature is 90 degrees F to 110 degrees F.
If the temperature rises above 110 degrees F, the cocoa butter in the chocolate gets too hot and the fats will pool together and separate. This is what causes a “broken” ganache.
Repairing a Broken Ganache:
Divide the entire portion of broken ganache into 2 parts.
Warm 1 part over a double boiler to about 130 degrees F. This will cause the fats to re-melt making the mixture thinner.
Take the other portion of ganache and cool it to 60 degrees F over an Ice Bath causing the fats to solidify making the mixture thicker.
Once you have reached desired temperature with both portions, remove the 1 portion from the ice water bath (to avoid any water splashing) and slowly begin streaming the hot ganache mixture into the cold mixture while stirring gently.
Double like Truely I say
Hi! Help please!! I really need your expertise Gretchen.
I have 375g of cheap dark cooking chocolate. Firstly is dark cooking chocolate ok? Does it need to have a certain % of cocoa to work well?
So would I use about 185g/ml of soy milk or almond milk or would coconut cream work better?
What size cake would this cover?
Can it be used under fondant?
Oh thank you in advance. I’m in a muddle!!
Hi Nereda! Yes the chocolate you have is fine (perfect actually) For ganache I typically use a 56% but honestly 60% or 70% is fine too it just depends on how bitter (or sweet) you want your ganache.
Yes your calculations are correct for the ganache
Thankyou for your reply! I’ll give it a whirl! Fingers crossed it all works.
Thank you for the recipe, delicious and works well!
Hi Gretchen. Thanks for your amazing site and videos. I want to make (vegan) white chocolate and coconut truffles. I would like to use coconut cream/milk. Will I be able to just heat the coconut cream straight from can then add it to the chopped white chocolate or do I need to stick the can in the fridge overnight and then just heat up the separated fat? Can you also provide the ratios? I want the truffles to be solid at room temperature. Thanks
Hi Sure! CLICK HERE
I have a vegan bakery. Do you recommend that for ganache for piping purposes I use coconut cream instead of almond or soy . Can I use compound chocolate for making piping ganache?
Coconut milk is fine for ganache, and I do not use compound chocolate for anything but coating. I prefer to use couverture.
grat recepie. can we referiderage the ganache and freeze it?
yes, then bring to room temperature before remelting
I’m just thrilled that I don’t need to use heavy cream!!!
Will my low-fat soy milk work, or should I get full fat?
Thank you. It would be great if I could maybe add vegan margarine and not need to buy anything special!
Xo
I use the full fat soy milk for the best thickest ganache, but if you use the low fat an addition of margarine would be a good idea! (I guess it’s 6 in 1 – half a dozen in the other! right?)
Hi Gretchen, I am wanting to generously frost 12 cupcakes with your ganache but have no idea how much chocolate/vegan milk I would need to do this, could you please advise quantities? Thanks 🙂
If you could determine how much “generously” means to you, (let’s say for example 2 ounces per cupcake?) then you would need a total of 24 ounces of ganache.
That would be 16 ounces of chocolate and about 8-10 ounces of plant milk. (since I do about a 2:1 Ratio for vegan ganaches)
** I would also add about a tablespoon of coconut oil as this will help it from drying out, I have been finding vegan ganaches (especially drips) to get cracked and dry looking, this will help
Thanks so much for your advice, I will give this a go 🙂
Hi you said in one of your comments you do a 2:1 ratio chocolate to liquid and add in coconut oil 1tbsp, can u use vegetable oil instead? Just for a heads up would 200g to 100g ganache be morw than enough to pour over a 4″ cake? And then increase by 100g for every other size, example from a 4″ to a 6″?
Yes the oil is to just add some fat (that would normally be from the heavy cream) so yes. Yes that seems to be a good quantity!
Hi there Gretchen – thanks so much for all the great recipes. Can this ganache be used under fondant?
You are so welcome! YES It can!
Hello Gretchen! First, have to say how amazing your recipes are (I actually did a happy dance for the eclair recipe, (on that note, for the Vegan Egg formula change, a fix that worked for me was to just ‘egg wash’ the piped pastries with the prepared egg per the package instructions)). Anyway, my actual question is about whipped ganache. What would you recommend for this, coconut milk (without refrigeration), coconut cream (from the top of a refrigerated can of coconut milk), or even just the coconut whipping cream (by Nature’s Charm)? And would the ratio stay 4 oz cream:8 oz chocolate? Also, if I were to do a white whipped ganache, would the ratio then be 2 oz cream:8 oz white chocolate? Sorry this is a lot of questions. Thank you!
Hi Thanks! Yeah what disappointment with that eclair recipe! Ugggh.
A non vegan whipped ganache is made my boiling the heavy cream, adding to the chocolate (in different ratios for whipped of course than it would be for a drip or truffle ganache) and then whipping it when it is cold – since th ratios are different it stay quite liquid and able to whip nicely.
I have not done this with vegan ganache at all, so I am not quite sure what the ratio would need to be without doing some testing.
Hi Gretchen ,
I am supposed to make a dairy free egg free cake for a kid with severe allergies – do you have a good chocolate recipe which tastes good as well? Second , what kind of buttercream will you suggest ? I will be using began butter . The cake needs a purple drip as well. Your article states that for 8oz we need 4 oz of coconut milk or soy or almond milk- which one is better ? Can I add purple Chefmasters gel color to it ? I hope your able to help me as I am
Horribly lost and want to make a pretty trolls cake !
Hi Yes the best easiest cake here CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE for buttercream recipes, (I use the American style one all the time)
I prefer Soy milk for the ganache it has the highest fat which is necessary for this to be great.
If you are making chocolate ganache though, (white I assume??) could get tricky. I would say to do a sugar drip or royal icing instead- much easier to work with CLICK HERE
Hi Gretchen, Thank you for what you do!!! Your vegan items are especially awesome! I need to use dairy free chocolates, due to allergies in our home. That being said, I noticed you use Baker’s Brand Chocolate in this formula for your vegan ganache. The label on this chocolate says it may contain milk. Can I use the Nestle Simply Delicious dairy free semi-sweet chips (53% cacao)? would I still use 2:1 chocolate/ratio
Hi Thanks! (and thanks for your support 🙂
I use Bakers Brand yes, it does NOT contain milk in the Unsweetened, Semi-Sweet or Bittersweet varieties, but since they do make White & Milk chocolates they will warn (as many companies who process similar items on same equipment) that they have to say “may contain” due to cross contamination.
While chips are made to “NOT Melt” (they are meant to keep their shape in cookies mostly) I do not use chips, however many people do in ganache recipes, so yes by all means try it.
Check out this post for more information about ganache and chocolate in general (*yes it is a tempering video but it has alot of good information 🙂
CLICK HERE