What kind of chocolate should I use for chocolate ganache? The kind of chocolate you choose is a matter of personal taste. Traditionally, ganache is on the slightly bitter side of the spectrum, so the Ganache Mafia might hunt you down if they discover you’ve used milk chocolate in your ganache. My feelings? Yeah, milk chocolate isn’t the traditional choice, but who am I to judge you and your chocolate choices? Chocolate is chocolate. It’s kind of like when my brother had kind of wild hair in high school and I told my parents that if that was the worst thing he was doing, things were in pretty good shape. If your options are milk chocolate or drugs, go for the milk chocolate. Feel validated enough? What do you mean by equal parts? What you want is equal parts chocolate and whipping cream. Before someone jumps on me, when I say “equal parts,” I don’t REALLY mean equal parts. You’re wanting, say, 8 oz. liquid (heavy cream) with 8 oz. net weight chocolate chips. So unless you’re going to do 1 1/2 c. heavy cream with a 12-oz. bag of chocolate chips, you’re going to need a kitchen scale. Anyway, all you need to do is heat up the heavy cream till it’s hot with little bubbles around the edge, but not boiling. Pour it over your chocolate and let it sit without disturbing for 3-4 minutes and then whisk until smooth. If the ganache is on the thin side, wait a few minutes and then whisk it up again. It thickens REALLY quickly, so you won’t have to wait too long. When it’s “solid,” it will be more like fudge. You can use the solid form a little more like regular frosting or you can use it in its liquid state to drizzle over chocolate, pound, or angel food cake. It also works great as a fondue–just dip berries, cookies, pieces of cake, marshmallows, etc. If you don’t use it all at once, you can store the leftovers in an airtight container and just heat it up until your ganache reaches the desired consistency.
