Making a smooth truffle with caramel

Hello again!

I posted something similar to this topic before, concerning a broken ganache that was made with salted butter caramel and a mixture of milk and dark chocolate. Before, my ganache broke horribly and I was not able to fix it (due to using an emulsion blender). I made the ganache again, adding the very hot caramel to the chocolate, stirring until emulsified. Although it emulsified well, it was not as smooth as I had hoped (slightly detectable graininess).

Are there recommendations for making this type of ganache to ensure it's as smooth as possible? My approach next is going to be to melt the chocolate (to about 100 degrees) then wait for the caramel to cool to that temperature and then blend into the chocolate by stirring. I'm hoping this will create a creamier texture.

Any experience with this type of ganache to share?

Thanks!
Zach

When I add cream to ganache, it's scalding (which is well over 100 degrees). I think that your caramel was probably well over 212 degrees (boiling temp for water), which may be the source of your problem. Try heating the caramel to about 175, and strain through a fine mesh before chilling.

I'm interested to see what others have to say about this.

Yep, that's what I think as well. Don't make the ganache, instead put the cream for making the ganache into the caramel.

So... make the caramel, add the cream, cool, add melted chocolate.

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I'm certain you are both on the right track. The problem undoubtedly is that the caramel is so hot that the chocolate solids lose their suspension in the cocoa butter. I'm going to try making the caramel (which will include the cream), letting it cool to about 100-112, then melting the chocolate to the same temperature and slowly mixing the two to keep the emulsion. I'm not sure how viscous the caramel will be at 100-112, so the blending of melted chocolate and caramel might not be as easy as I anticipate. If not, I will use a hand blender to emulsify. Although the hand blender is what broke the ganache last time, I want to test if the handblender will work with a caramel/chocolate mixture when the mixture is at a better temperature (you really should see how terribly the ganache broke instantly last time when using the handblender. I never thought it was possible for after last drop of cocoa butter to be extruded from the chocolate solids! It was quite ugly....).

Last note: what's interesting is that the recipe I used came from a recently published book for professional pastry chefs. I followed the recipe to the letter, adding the very hot caramel (although I was skeptical) to the chocolate as soon as it was ready, as instructed, but I really don't think this is the best approach. I did make it one other time per this recipe (without the handblender) but the texture was more like fudge, not smooth like truffle. I love challenges like this - especially when I conquer them! I will let you know my results soon.

I see that you are on the right steps to success... add the cream to the caramel first... you will notice that the caramel turns solid and stringy right away because of the massive temperature difference, after the caramel is melted in the cream its temperature is that of scalded cream (110 ish) and most importantly there is liquid inside again . Caramel is pure sugar, and we know if you don't hit the "saturation point" of liquid to cocoa solids it turns into the aformentioned mess. I guess in a way that chocolate and caramel are very similar in the sense of liquid/solid ratios. 1 litre of cream to 1kg of chocolate or caramelized sugar makes a nice mixture.

As for the immersion blender... put it aside..... they are very fast rpm machines... (churning butter out of the cream) I'd recommend a paddle or whip on the hobart to encorporate air instead of cutting it in...

Hope this makes sense... sometimes the words from my brain to my fingers get lost in translation



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