Kade in the kitchen: with Ganache

 by Kade Bentley – 

Ganache

Ganache ( guh-nosh ) is a decadent dessert using heavy cream and chocolate.

It’s often served as a cake frosting, but has versatility as a candy dipped into the center of a chocolate truffle, or atop a slice of pie. To be honest, I just eat it out of the bowl with a spoon.

*a note on consistency*

An average ganache, made using a ratio of 1:1 cream to semi-sweet chocolate, is about as firm as a chunk of fudge, but is more fragile when cold, and much meltier when warm.  More cream will produce a softer final product, typical of a cake frosting. More chocolate will produce a harder final product, good for covering in chocolate or rolling in cocoa powder.  If cooled ganache is allowed to become warm it will melt.

                                                              Kade’s Curry Ganache

Time: Half hour cooking time, a few hours chilling time

Ingredients:

• 9 oz Semi-sweet or dark cholate as chips, or crushed into tiny pieces

• 1 cup Heavy cream (I have sub’d coconut cream. Delicious, but never solidified the way dairy did)

• 1 Tbsp coconut oil (for consistency. optional)

• 1 tsp Curry Powder (or cinnamon or fruit liquor or any other flavor, tbh)

• pinch Sea salt

Instructions:

Slowly heat cream in a small heavy-bottom sauce pan or double boiler. Watch like a hawk, and keep moving so cream doesn’t scorch. Whisk curry powder into cream.  As soon as a slow simmer forms remove pan from heat and immediately dump all the chocolate into the pan. Make sure the chocolate is covered evenly. Also add coconut oil. Allow to melt without intervention for 5 minutes (pan is still off the heat). Poke at it with a spoon to see if the chocolate is mostly melted. If it is, proceed to next step. If not, wait some more. With a whisk, briskly mix chocolate and cream together until well blended into a glossy dark brown.

If dressing a cake: allow ganache to cool slightly until workable. Stir well and dress cake. Allow to chill in fridge a couple hours.

If molding: grease molds, pour, and chill in fridge a couple hours.

If serving by itself: pour into single-serve vessels such as tiny bowls, glassware, or little paper cups (such as for cupcakes or chocolates) and chill in fridge a couple hours. OR just scrape it all into one bowl, chill, and carve chunks off separately to serve on ice cream, pie, in coffee, or on a spoon in-between meals.

Whenever your ganache is where it needs to be, sprinkle the top with a touch of sea salt crystals and/or curry powder for a bit of fashion and flare.

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Can be stored for weeks or more in an airtight container in the fridge.

To use stored ganache as a frosting, warm slowly while stirring to melt, then re-chill to set.

What is chocolate?

Chocolate is a bean originating in south-central America, having been cultivated in the area for millennia. It grows in a pod on the theobroma cacao tree. The bean is harvested, removed from the pod, fermented, cleaned, roasted and ground before being processed into the chocolate candy most people are familiar with.

Ethical consumption?

The production and distribution chain of chocolate is a result of the labor of many skilled workers including growers, harvesters, chocolate makers, chocolatiers, sellers, and consumers like yourselves.

Chocolate is grown almost exclusively in previously colonized (developing) nations near the equator to be sold as a commodity on the global market, including large portions grown in western Africa and Ivory Coast.

In order to limit costs, (and maximize profit) multi-national conglomerates and other buyers “compensate” cocoa workers with unfair wages and harsh working conditions contributing to conditions of poverty in these regions. Production of chocolate relies upon child labor and contributes to the trafficking of children for agricultural work.

Fair Trade practices have been established by some companies to counteract exploitation of workers and children. Despite ethical concerns, there is no global standard for working conditions or compensation, and global chocolate manufacturers continue to support cocoa production using child labor and modern-day slavery.

A consumer could do some research into the brands of chocolate they are purchasing to find out how their cocoa is produced. Unfortunately, this information is not easily available, and fairly traded chocolate is more expensive to produce and ultimately purchase in stores. This causes any ethically produced chocolate to be an extravagance, making it difficult for working people to find and afford.

Kade Bentley has collected experience from commercial kitchens, vegetarian and vegan collective living, organic farming, and a general love of food. They can cook for one or 100. As a “kitchen witch,” They believe that how and with what we sustain ourselves has a spiritual significance, and sees eating and cooking as agricultural acts. They support small farms, the right to whole nutritious food, generous use of butter and coconut oil, and the creation of a more just food system.