From drip cakes to covering an entire cake in ganache
The call for a perfect Vegan Ganache Recipe is greater than ever
The good news is a perfect vegan ganache recipe is not too much different from what we used to make before being vegan!
still just two simple ingredients whisked together to perfect shiny perfection!
However when making a vegan ganache recipe the plant milk alternatives we are using now are slightly thinner and way less fat than traditional cow cream from our past lives.
So we have to reduce the amount of milk by a small amount to compensate for that discrepancy.
Normally the ratio for a standard ganache is 1:1
Meaning if you have a pound of chocolate you would use a pound of cream for a 1:1 ratio of cream to chocolate.
There are two ways to go about actually mixing those two ingredients together to form what is known as an emulsion.
Ganache
The Science Behind Ganache
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible
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.
2 Ways to making vegan ganache
#1- Boil the plant milk and pour it over the fine chopped chocolate in a bowl and whisk smooth until melted and emulsified
Or my preferred method:
#2– Combine the plant milk with the chocolate in a heavy bottom sauce pot and heat over low flame while stirring constantly with a whisk to melt the chocolate while creating the emulsion.
Keep in mind that chocolate is very temperature sensitive.
Most people say, “But I thought you can’t add liquids to chocolate!”
This is true, however in the correct ratios liquid and chocolate are the best of friends!
But be forewarned, if you don’t add enough liquid to the chocolate you will find a clumpy seized up mess!
THE RATIOS:
I like a slightly thinner ganache for covering cakes like here on my Almond Joy Cake.
By adding just another tablespoon or two of plant milk to the ganache for a much better, pour able consistency.
I always use soy milk for my vegan ganache recipe.
It is the thickest and most stable with the least amount of stablilizers (typically)
And it has the most fat and protein of all the milks!
BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE DRIPS!?
For those famous drips a thicker ganche you will give the best consistency
The recipe listed below is the standard ratio for the best drips around!
No Crack Zone Ganache!
PRO TIP:
Adding just a teaspoon of melted coconut oil to the ganache recipe will prevent cracking once the ganache is applied to the cake
Because plant milks have considerably less fat than traditional cow cream ganache recipes
We have to add some fat back to the recipe and I find coconut oil does the best
Keeping the ganache shiny and crack free!
Cannoli Cake
What’s the Best Chocolate to use for Ganache?
It really isn’t necessary to use an expensive chocolate here
In the bakery I would buy a grade of chocolate specifically labeled “Ganache Chocolate”.
Just don’t forget to look at the ingredients list for the chocolate to make sure there is not milk added into it!
But what about White Chocolate Ganache?
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 and a large amount of sugar without any cocoa liquor in it at all!
So is it even really chocolate?
We’ll leave that topic for another day!
You can make White Chocolate Ganache easily but it is necessary to reduce the plant milk amounts even more 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
Stirring more than heating since white chocolate is the most sensitive!
So always stir and heat less!
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.
Notes for Success:
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.
CHECK OUT THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO STEP BY STEP VISUAL TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE A VEGAN GANACHE RECIPE
Adding Liquor or flavorings to Ganache for truffles and fillings
By substituting 1- 2 tablespoons of the plant milk with liquor you can make an infused ganache
Add ground nuts and even fruit or nuts pastes to ganache too!
No more than 3 Tbs to the recipe listed below to avoid throwing off the balance
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- Hazelnut Truffle Cake
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- Rum Truffles
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- Spiced Truffles
Check out some recipes using vegan ganache! Click the links below!
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- Chocolate Truffle Cake
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- Chocolate Ganache Tart
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- Cookie Butter Crunch Cake
Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake
No Bake Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Tart
TRUFFLES=GANACHE
One last thing!
The fanciest truffles you have ever eaten are simply GANACHE!
Check out how to make 2 ingredient ganache truffles
- Vegan Chocolate 12 ounces (336g)
- Plant Milk *I prefer Soy Milk 1cup (237ml)
- 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!
- 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.
Simply remelt the ganache gently in a sauce pot on the stove stirring constantly or carefully in the microwave in 15 second increments
Double like Truely I say
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge as pastry chef. I enjoy learning every time from you. God bless you.
Hi Gretchen!
I need your help! I would like to make a vegan white chocolate ganache to cover a cake that will set-up hard so that I can cover it with fondant. I use almond milk and add it to the chocolate and heat them up together. I haven’t found a ratio that works well yet – I either end up with a consistency that won’t set-up (even after keeping it in the fridge) or one that is too thick from the start & is too thick to spread and sets up too fast before I can smooth it out on the cake.
If you have any suggestions about the ratio or anything else I might be doing wrong, I would really appreciate any help!
While I do not have a huge amount of experience with vegan white ganache, I have researched a little bit for you and it seems 2:1 works best.
So if you use 1lb white chocolate, use 8 ounces of coconut milk
Thank you Gretchen, I will give that ratio a try! I had tried 4:1 and 3:1, but not 2:1 because I thought that was for dark chocolate. I’ll give it a try and also swap out the almond milk for coconut milk (or maybe coconut cream?) to see if that will make a difference too.
Thanks again for your help!
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.
White chocolate has cream in it. How is this vegan?
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
Where do you buy vegan semi sweet chips
When I was in NJ Wegmans has them!! They are so amazing & great & cheap LOL I bought a bunch…. now that I’m running out (and no longer in NJ!!) I’m not sure what I will do!!
Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chips are vegan, delicious, and inexpensive. The chunks are NOT vegan, however, so stick to the chips.
Costco has 2 kinds of semisweet chocolate chips that you may see on the shelves. The ones that usually come in the white bags do not have dairy in them and tase great!
Thanks for all of this advice!
Guittard semisweet chocolate chips are vegan, fair trade, non-GMO and they taste fantastic! They also have vegan “super cookie chips” that are larger and disc shaped. You can find them at most mainstream grocery stores and they’re even less expensive at Target stores.
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
Hi! Peanut milk is OK? Or has it too much fat on it? Thank you!
Yes would be great!
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!
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?
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
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
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?
Can this ganache be used for frosting and truffles?
YES!
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
yes will be fine
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?
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!
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
Thanks so much for this recipe! I used it on an improvised smores pie and my whole family loved it. The texture of the ganache was just perfect. I’m sure this will become a go-to recipe for us 🙂
hello!the ganache will be firm enough to hold under a sugar paste covering in a decorated cake?thank you in advance for the answer!
Yes