The Simple Trick You Can Use To Thicken Ganache

In the world of cakes, frosting is frosting is frosting, right? Well, not exactly. There are actually a lot of different types of frosting, each one with slightly different characteristics and made for slightly different purposes. One of the most popular is ganache. Made with heavy cream and chocolate, it's a richer, thicker frosting that can be used for icing a cake or as a filling for treats like truffles and cakes.

Making homemade ganache is fairly simple, according to The Spruce Eats: Heat the cream, then pour it over chopped-up chocolate and whisk it all together until the chocolate is completely melted. However, there are some ways to tweak the basic recipe to suit your needs. For instance, if you're using your ganache as icing, you might want it to be thinner. But if you're using it as a filling, you might want it to be thicker. And regardless, no one wants a runny ganache. If you're dealing with a too-thin mixture, here's a quick and easy way to thicken it up.

According to the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), thickening a ganache is as easy as simply adding more chocolate. The consistency of your ganache will depend on the ratio of heavy cream to chocolate. The more cream you use, the thinner your ganache will be. On the other hand, the more chocolate you use, the thicker your ganache will be. As for what the perfect ratio of cream to chocolate is? ICE suggests using two parts chocolate to one part cream for a ganache that's thick enough to use for truffle filling. You can tweak that accordingly based on your needs.

Baking Kneads explains that type of chocolate you use can also make a difference in the final consistency of your ganache. White chocolate, for example, will make for a thinner ganache, so if you want a thicker one, you should use a darker chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa.