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Broken caramel ganache

post #1 of 8
4/12/06 at 6:22pm
Thread Starter 
Hello!

I need a very experienced chocolatier for this one - I am an experienced chocolatier, but have never had this experience before. A ganache I like to make frequently has broken horribly. It contains dark and milk chocolates melted with buttered caramel (no cream, except that used to make the caramel). I usually just add the caramel to the chocolate and it melts smoothly via stirring. However, this time I decided to try to take care of any chocolate clumps by using a hand-held emulsion blender. As soon as I used it, the ganache separated terribly. To fix it, I heated half to 130 and let the other cool to 60, then blended the two - no success. I then added the ganache to a food processor. Again, no success. The ganache is now sitting in a bowl in a big clump in the center with liquid surrounding it. I have no idea how to salvage this.

What is recommended to repair a broken ganache made with caramel?

Thanks,
Zach
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post #2 of 8
4/13/06 at 6:05am

shot in the dark

wrap it up and put it away in the cooler overnight.
Next day, chop it up, Re-melt and hand whisk.
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post #3 of 8
4/13/06 at 7:13am
it just sounds as though the milk solids have split. I'm not so sure you're going to be able to regain it. I would do as M Brown says but maybe just remelt half and add the cooler stuff while mixing. You might have to rework this into something else.
Anything different, Cream?butter? If your fat contant was not up and the water was, the aggitation may have done this.\PS not real experienced in either.
pan
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post #4 of 8
4/13/06 at 7:26am
Thread Starter 
Thanks...I may work it in to something else, perhaps by adding hot cream to it. I think I have something I could use that mixture for. This is a lesson for me that perhaps it's not a good idea to use a hand-held emulsion blender for ganache made with anything but cream.
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post #5 of 8
4/13/06 at 8:40am

over worked

yeah, it's over worked and may not come back as smooth as the first time.
you can make ganach with almost any liquid.
it does need a rest and can be over worked and under paid.:bounce:
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post #6 of 8
8/23/09 at 6:24am

Fixing Caramel

Hi Zach,

This is years after your dilemma, but nevertheless I learned something last night while catering a party that I would like to share here.

Basically, I prepared hot caramel sauce (just water, sugar, and butter) to be served with Ginger Ice Cream and fresh berries. The caramel came together fine, but after a temperature change, broke horribly. In a moment of desperation I remembered how I used to fix broken cream sauces when I worked in the business. It worked!!

I heated 1/4 of heavy cream in a clean saucepan. After it reduced a bit, I slowly poured the broken caramel sauce into the cream, whisking constantly. Just as with a broken cream sauce, voilà! the caramel came right back and held for the remainder of the night.

I was a bit shocked, but I suppose it is as simple as grafting a fat-based "sauce" (caramel) onto a new fat base (the heavy cream). The caramel was none the worse off for having cream in it.

Hope this helps (even years later!)


Terence
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post #7 of 8
8/24/09 at 7:04am
Thread Starter 
Terence,

Timing doesn't matter as it's always good to have answers at any time. That's a great idea! It has been so long that I don't even remember posting this message but I do remember the problem I had. Seems I've solved that by paying very close attention to the temperature of the caramel before it's incorporating into the chocolate and by melting the chocolate - but ensuring the melted chocolate and caramel are close to the same temperature helps ensure it doesn't break. Also, another approach is to place the chopped chocolate in a food processor and process the hot caramel over it, which helps greatly with the emulsifcation of the mixture, which I suppose could also be done for a large quantity of cream sauce if one feels that mixing by hand doesn't do it.

Thanks for the info! Always good to know extra helpful hints....

Zach
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post #8 of 8
8/27/09 at 9:11pm
I would like to say thanks for the info too.

My mother also faced this kind of problem previously but now, I can advise her what to do.

:)
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