Dark Chocolate Ganache With No Cream

Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream

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

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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.

Dark Chocolate Ganache With No Cream
Dark Chocolate Ganache With No Cream

 

 

 

 

 

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
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

Dark Chocolate Ganache With No Cream
Dark Chocolate Ganache With No Cream

 

Dark Chocolate Ganache With No Cream
4.63 from 16 votes
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Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream

Want a quick ganache for a dessert but don't have any cream? No worries. This recipe is super simple and will definitely do the trick...
Course Dessert
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Author Erin Brighton

Ingredients

  • 100 grams dark chocolate (or approximately 4 ounces)
  • 1/3 cup 2% milk
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Sugar , to taste

Instructions

  1. In a double boiler, combine the milk and butter over low to medium low heat.
  2. Add the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted.
  3. Taste test! Add sugar if necessary.
  4. Drizzle over your favorite cake, cupcakes, or ice cream. Enjoy!
Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream || Erin Brighton | vegetarian | gluten free | dessert | chocoholics | eat local | got to be NC
Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream

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Erin Brighton

I am a native New Englander now living in beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina and enjoying summers in sea-breezy Scituate, Massachusetts with my five small kids and two large dogs. I love to cook easy, local, and gluten-free for friends and family.

54 thoughts on “Dark Chocolate Ganache Without Cream”

  1. I made this recipe today, following directions, and it totally seized, then released any liquids (which was clearish-yellow) and was a dry lump in the middle of the pot!! I’ve made ganache before and have never came across this problem. So to fix it, I added more milk so it would seize again but still be somewhat creamy, dumped out the liquid, then added icing sugar. its PERFECT now!!! 🙂

    1. Hi! Yes! I rarely have unsalted butter in the house – so I often find myself using salted butter with no issues.

  2. Hi Erin,
    Thank you for this wonderful cream free genius!
    Before I attempt it, will it go hard enough to then ice over with fondant, I would like to use it to crumb coat before icing a celebration cake.
    Thanks
    Julie

    1. Hi Julie! I don’t think it will harden enough to be used as a crumb coat under fondant! I wish. That would be delicious!

  3. Hi Erin, can this recipe be used with white chocolate as well? I’m making a drop cake for my cousins graduation party and I have no cream! (Oh no) I don’t have time to run back to the store, I saw this and I hope it will work!

    1. Great question! I am not sure if that would work or not. Generally, I specifically make a ganache when I want to drizzle it thickly on something. Let me know if you try to chill it!

  4. Made this to exacting instructions and wound up with brown soup. Poured out all but 3tbsp milk butter choc soup and added a heap more choc . Then it actually worked. Recapture can’t be right. Mine was way to watery. I double and triple checked measurements . Didn’t work

    1. Hi, Lou! I hate that your ganache was not the right consistency! Different people want different things from their ganache. If you want a more liquid, pourable chocolate ganache, you generally want a ratio of 1:2 – hard chocolate to liquid. If you want a thick glaze or something to use between cake layers, you would want a ratio of 1:1 generally – chocolate to liquid. This recipe is definitely geared for pouring chocolate over something. I am wondering if our butters were very different or if you just had a thicker ganache in mind when you were making this! I am glad you figured it out.

    2. Mine was at first liquidy at first and I poured it over the cake I was making for my cousins birthday and this was the first time I made ganache so I thought maybe it’s supposed to be liquid Anyway I freaked out and had to clean up as nothing sat on top of the cake so I popped the bowl of ganache into the freezer for a bit and it solidified a bit to a beautiful thick and shiny consistency. It was just beautiful so maybe try it this way? Because this recipe is perfect! And my little cousins birthday cake was beautiful:)

  5. I’m late to the party, I know. I just wanted to let you know that this worked with non-fat milk too.

    At the last minute Wednesday night I decided to make Nigella Lawson’s Christmas Clementine Cake to take to my sister’s for Thanksgiving. This morning I decided it looked a little forlorn in its naked state and needed a drizzle to dress it up. Alas, I had no cream or even milk with a little fat in the house. And the only chocolate I had was some bittersweet chips. But I followed your recipe anyway, just adding a couple tablespoons extra chips. It was thin to begin with, but I let it cool a bit and it thickened right up. Thanks for the recipe! Maybe I can pretend it’s diet since I used skim milk? 😉

  6. I tried recipe and it came out really good. I had some 3 day expired whole milk. Worked like a charm using chocolate chips for one recipe and white chocolate chips for another recipe

  7. This was amazing!!! Thank you so much, you saved my cake order as I had no cream and no way of getting it in time. This was so quick and easy!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

  8. Not only did I not have cream, I didn’t have good chocolate. I used chocolate chips. Kept adding more until it was the right consistency. Fabulous.

  9. I’m a little late, but thank you so much for this! I’m currently stuck inside my house, and i wanted to make some chocolate ganache, but we had no cream. I found this recipe, and boy, was it a gem! I used a saucepan instead of a double boiler, and while I was worried when it not very thick at first, it thickened up as it cooled nicely. I didn’t have cake, so I just dipped some of our home made bread in there, and it tasted great!

  10. Really worked out great. I used semi-sweet cooking chocolate. Added sprinkles to the finished cake roll. My 10 year old loved it. Thank you.

  11. Worked out great for me when I didn’t have any heavy cream. Thank you! I did not add any sugar and I “eye balled” the amounts for chocolate chips. It was delicious.

  12. Hi Erin,
    Had a few doubts about ganache. I was doing a study on ganache, can you help me rank which of the below-mentioned cakes uses ganache the most :
    White Cream Cakes and Pastries
    Chocolate Cream Cakes and Pastries
    Dry Cakes and Pastries
    Chilled Cakes and Pastries
    Designer and Fondant Cakes
    Healthy and Vegan Cakes
    Fusion Cakes

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