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Vegan Ganache Recipe

August 28, 2020 By Gretchen 38 Comments

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.

Vegan Ganache Recipe Explained in detail!

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…

So let me get a bit “science-y” 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!

The idea of mixing 2 ingredients while simple as it sounds is not always so easy.

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.

Be sure to watch the video above for a real time view of this process!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Vegan Ganache Recipe
 
Print
Vegan Ganache Recipe Serves: 2 cups Adjust the consistency AFTER mixing by adding a tablespoon or more of warmed milk while whisking smooth
For a softer setting ganache you will use more milk and for a firmer ganache you will use less milk.
See below for White Chocolate Ganache notes
Ingredients
  • 12 ounces of semi sweet vegan chocolate
  • 8 ounces (1 cup) of milk alternative.* I prefer soy, almond and oat milks for their highest fat content of all the milk alternatives
Instructions
  1. Heat the chocolate and milk together in a small sauce pot and stir (whisk) constantly over medium heat - stir constantly to avoid scorching the chocolate!
  2. Alternatively you can bring the milk to a boil then pour over the chocolate in a bowl- whisk smooth as shown in the video tutorial.

  3. Too much agitation will cause rapid cooling to below 90 degrees F which will produce an GRAINY ganache.
  4. Temperature is an important factor in emulsification of ganache. The optimal temperature is 90 degrees F to 110 degrees F.
  5. 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.
3.5.3251

 

Vegan Ganache Recipe Explained in detail!

Now as I mentioned earlier, you can make White Chocolate Ganache but it is necessary to reduce the plant 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

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susheela John

    November 9, 2017 at 9:03 am

    Double like Truely I say

    Reply
  2. Nereda

    August 29, 2018 at 1:36 am

    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!!

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      August 29, 2018 at 1:09 pm

      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

      Reply
      • Nereda

        August 30, 2018 at 1:47 pm

        Thankyou for your reply! I’ll give it a whirl! Fingers crossed it all works.

        Reply
      • sarah

        June 24, 2020 at 10:44 pm

        White chocolate has cream in it. How is this vegan?

        Reply
        • Gretchen

          June 25, 2020 at 1:32 pm

          This is Vegan White Chocolate, you have to read labels as a vegan, LOL I spend half my life reading labels now.. haha.
          CLICK HERE FOR VEGAN WHITE CHOCOLATE

          Reply
  3. Isabelle Payne

    October 18, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    Thank you for the recipe, delicious and works well!

    Reply
  4. Josef

    October 25, 2018 at 12:57 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      October 25, 2018 at 3:49 pm

      Hi Sure! CLICK HERE

      Reply
  5. Vineeta Gogia

    January 28, 2019 at 2:12 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      January 29, 2019 at 6:04 am

      Coconut milk is fine for ganache, and I do not use compound chocolate for anything but coating. I prefer to use couverture.

      Reply
  6. vineeta

    January 30, 2019 at 4:46 am

    grat recepie. can we referiderage the ganache and freeze it?

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      January 30, 2019 at 3:14 pm

      yes, then bring to room temperature before remelting

      Reply
  7. Judy

    February 15, 2019 at 3:16 am

    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

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      February 15, 2019 at 9:36 pm

      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?)

      Reply
  8. Hannah

    March 28, 2019 at 1:48 am

    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 🙂

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      March 28, 2019 at 3:20 pm

      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

      Reply
      • Hannah

        March 29, 2019 at 7:22 pm

        Thanks so much for your advice, I will give this a go 🙂

        Reply
      • ann

        April 8, 2019 at 10:26 pm

        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″?

        Reply
        • Gretchen

          April 8, 2019 at 10:38 pm

          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!

          Reply
  9. Carol

    April 2, 2019 at 3:02 am

    Hi there Gretchen – thanks so much for all the great recipes. Can this ganache be used under fondant?

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      April 2, 2019 at 3:35 am

      You are so welcome! YES It can!

      Reply
  10. Shohida

    April 28, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      April 28, 2019 at 8:06 pm

      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.

      Reply
  11. Niloufer Khatri

    July 17, 2019 at 2:22 pm

    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 !

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      July 17, 2019 at 8:53 pm

      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

      Reply
      • Isamar

        October 14, 2019 at 3:41 pm

        Hi!
        Thanks for this article. You’ve been super helpful in my transition to Vegan. I want to make a cake with white ganache. I’m going to use full fat coconut milk. Is the ratio 2:1? Any suggestions?
        I live in a very hot place, does this ganache sweat? does it melt?

        Reply
        • Gretchen

          October 15, 2019 at 3:53 am

          Hi Great and THANK YOU TOO! Yes this will be fine, the ganache will sweat mostly if it is in a super cold refrigerator and then goes (quickly) to extreme hot temperatures. Chocolate typically starts to melt in 90F

          Reply
  12. Kjersti

    August 15, 2019 at 11:09 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      August 16, 2019 at 4:37 am

      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

      Reply
  13. Nicole

    October 24, 2019 at 6:31 pm

    Hi Gretchen!

    I was looking at the comments on how to make your aquafaba Swiss merengue into chocolate Swiss merengue and I’m planning on using the ganache method explained above. If I add it in and find that the frosting is too soft or runny could I add more powdered sugar? Any suggestions?

    Reply
  14. Nicole

    February 10, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    Can this ganache be used for frosting and truffles?

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      February 10, 2020 at 6:45 pm

      YES!

      Reply
  15. User

    April 8, 2020 at 8:21 am

    Hello! I only found light coconut milk. Can i still make the ganache? should i make any alterations to the original recipe? I hope you will see this! thank you

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      April 8, 2020 at 2:29 pm

      yes will be fine

      Reply
  16. vineeta

    December 29, 2020 at 2:16 am

    can you please send me the link to the white chocolate ganache .thank you. we get compund white choclate here,can i addsomething else for incresing the fat content?

    Reply
  17. Aniah Foster

    December 30, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    HI! I’ve made ganache before using dairy ingredients (before switching over to plant-based eating) and it came out great. The recipe that I used called for 8 oz of dark/semi-sweet chocolate and 8 oz of heavy cream to make 1 pint of ganache. Now that I am vegan, how would I go about adjusting the amount of milk? I’m using unsweetened vanilla almond milk, which isn’t high in fat, so would I need to add oil? If so, how much and what kind? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Gretchen

      December 31, 2020 at 2:21 am

      Hi There, you are on the Vegan Ganache recipe article, I think (? thought?) I clarified that here?
      As there is a vegan recipe ratio here on this very article

      Reply

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Yep, it's me Gretchen~ Owner of Gretchen's Bakery. Well, I no longer own a real bakery since I sold mine in late 2014, and since mid 2016 I make nothing but the best vegan recipes! Read More…

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