How to Make Chocolate Ganache

Learn how to make chocolate ganache and you'll master beautiful truffles, cakes, frostings, and tarts with just three ingredients.
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Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

Learning how to make chocolate ganache can be a little tricky: A pastry cook short on patience is a pastry cook staring down at a grainy, broken mess. Somebody who's mastered the technique, on the other hand, is somebody in possession of an essential ingredient to a cake, tart, or batch of truffles.

At its core, chocolate ganache is nothing more than a smooth emulsion of dark chocolate and heavy cream (pro tip: and a smidge of unsalted butter), the ultimate 3-ingredient dessert and a building block in a countless number of pastries. Here's how to make chocolate ganache, in six easy steps:

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

1. Chop the chocolate

Use a serrated knife is key to chopping good-quality dark chocolate, which usually comes in bars or blocks, into small pieces. The teeth of a serrated knife grip the chocolate more easily, and often cause the chocolate to shatter into even smaller pieces. One more chopping tip: Make sure your cutting board is clean and doesn't give off any residual odors (nobody likes oniony ganache!), and that both the cutting board and the bowl you put the chocolate into are completely dry: Water causes melted chocolate to seize up.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

2. Heat the cream and melt the chocolate

In a small pot on the stove, heat cream almost until it's nearly simmering. Meanwhile, start to melt the chocolate in short bursts in the microwave (stirring after each burst) or in a double boiler over just-simmering water on top of the stove. No need to melt it all the way—a partial melt is plenty to help achieve a smooth emulsification with the cream.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

3. Stir the cream and chocolate together

When the cream is hot, pour it over the chocolate. With a spoon or spatula, stir gently from the center of the bowl to create a strong emulsion.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

4. Continue stirring the mixture to emulsify

Watch the ganache come together as you continue to stir gently from the center of the bowl. This will create a "vortex" that pulls in and evenly blends the individual chocolate pieces into a smooth, thick, and glossy emulsion.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

5. Add butter

Add a little bit of softened, unsalted butter, and stir until it's incorporated. This will give the ganache a little more richness, and help it shine.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks

6. Use The Ganache

Now the ganache is ready to use. In liquid form, it works as the purest, most chocolatey sauce, glaze, or drizzle. Pour it into a tart shell and chill for an easy, ultra-rich dessert. As it cools, the ganache will harden and can be shaped into truffles, used to frost a cake, or fill sandwich cookies.