I could also call this post “White Chocolate Ganache is a Big Pain in the Tuckus.” Until today. There was no genius involved here. Just the usual: determination and practice. A few months ago I bought an 11 lb block of Callebaut: White Chocolate thinking I would use it on my vanilla cakes instead of dark chocolate. It has been a disaster every time. It has been greasy, slippery, chunky, difficult to smooth, etc. I tried chilling, keeping it at room temperature longer/shorter and searching on the Callebaut site for answers. No improvement.
Today I tried to give it one more chance. I was just going to experiment on a cake we were having ourselves so there was no pressure to succeed. Of course, that’s when everything works. So I first started out by going with a higher ratio of chocolate to cream than usually prescribed — 4:1 (its usually 3:1). Ugh, it was worse than usual. It was curdled and greasy = broken emulsion. And then I had a doh! moment. When my dark chocolate ganache accidentally separates I beat in a couple of extra tablespoons of hot cream to fix the emulsion. I tried this with the white chocolate. I whisked in enough hot cream to bring it down to a 2.5:1 ratio and voila! Smooth, shiny white chocolate ganache. We are talking about a difference of 1.8 oz here! I tell you I haven’t done this much math and science since medical school. That’s why I love baking. An extra couple of ounces of cream and you’ve gone from sludge to creamy heaven. So, although you will read that a 3:1 ratio is ideal for couverture chocolate you need to experiment with the chocolate you have. If you’re having trouble with Callebaut, try a 2.5:1 ratio.