Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream

Name: Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 100 grams dark chocolate ((or approximately 4 ounces)); 1/3 cup 2% milk; 2 tablespoons unsalted butter; Sugar (, to taste)

September 5, 2014/Erin Brighton/54 Comments/Desserts, Gluten Free, Vegetarian

This dark chocolate ganache without cream blew my mind. Necessity really is the mother of invention…

Jump to Recipe

For his birthday, my husband requested a “golden yellow cake with chocolate frosting.” The girls tried to persuade him to give pineapple cake a try. He politely declined. They urged him to go the cupcake route this year … no dice. So, golden yellow cake with chocolate frosting it would be.

Buy The BOX …

If you are looking for a super-delicious, gluten-free, out of the box “golden yellow” cake, I will give two thumbs up to the King Arthur Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Mix. We have used it a handful of times and every time it has been a huge success. Something that drives me nuts about most gluten-free cake mixes is that a pricey boxed mix will only get you a single layer cake or a dozen cupcakes. King Arthur Flour doesn’t mess around … 24 cupcakes or a 2 layer cake … or, in our case, a beautiful “golden yellow” bundt cake.

Go For Ganache

Once we had our beautiful bundt cake sitting on the counter, waiting for some frosting love, my daughter suggested that we make a ganache. You know, since all 9-year-olds know about these things… The only problem with her ganache request was that we had no cream in the house. Traditional ganache is so easy – high-quality chocolate and cream. Done. I searched around on the web a bit to find some ideas for a ganache without cream… I dare you, search for that. You are not going to get a lot of results.

Making Dark Chocolate Ganache

Undeterred, my daughter and I busted out our double boiler, some milk and butter, and this gorgeous chef’s bar of Peruvian dark chocolate from French Broad Chocolate in Asheville. (If you have never tasted the goodness that is French Broad Chocolates, get to Asheville quick or order yourself an early Christmas present online.)

**Peruvian Dark Chocolate from French Broad Chocolates**

When you start with chocolate this good, you don’t need to do much to it. This chef’s bar is 500 grams of chocolate. 500 grams is roughly equivalent to 18 ounces. I used 1/5 of this bar – 100 grams of chocolate. For your math problem today, how many ounces of chocolate is that equivalent to? Quick, quick … almost 3.5 ounces!

Milk + Butter

I combined milk and unsalted butter in my double boiler and heated that over low heat until the butter melted. I added the four large squares of chocolate and gently stirred the chocolate until it was completely melted. Keep the heat on medium-low to low. My kids thought the ganache needed a little more sweetness so I added two teaspoons of sugar but I will leave the sweet decision up to you… You might like the sharp contrast of the dark chocolate with the sweet vanilla cake flavors.

Not Thick Enough?

This ganache is not super thick, but it should not be thin. If you think your ganache is too thin, you can add some more chocolate to it and see if that improves the thickness. Do not get any water into your ganache – the result will not be pretty, I promise.

Kitchen Experiment Success

All in all, I will say that our Chocolate Ganache Without Cream experimentation was a huge success. The ganache dripped on nice and thick and held up well for the two days that this cake survived before being completely gobbled up. These measurements worked for us but because we are talking about drippy, gooey chocolate, there is a lot of room for flexibility… If your ganache seems too drippy, add some more chocolate. And, definitely, don’t overheat the milk and butter! Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Ganache

4.63 from 16 votes