Light Whipped Ganache Filling and Frosting

By norsegal8

This ganache has double the weight of cream to chocolate. It is so light and airy it seems to disappear in the mouth. The pale brown color makes it ideal as a filling rather than a frosting, although, it pipes well at room temperature. Light ganache is a less conventional filling for Swiss Black Forest Cake or any light chocolate cake such as génoise or biscuit. It also works well as a filling for a charlotte and is divine in Triple Chocolate Cake encased in sheets of chocolate praline.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces Bittersweet chocolate*
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• My favorite sweetness balance is 4 ounces semisweet chocolate and 4 ounces extra bittersweet. If I am planning a very sweet topping such as Chocolate Praline Sheets, I use all bittersweet.

Preparation

Step 1

1. Break the chocolate into pieces and process in a food processor until very fine. Heat the cream to the boiling point and , with the motor running, pour the cream through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process a few seconds until smooth.

2. Transfer to the large bowl of an electric mixer and refrigerate until cold, stirring once or twice (about 2 hours). You may speed chilling by setting the bowl in an ice water bath and stirring frequently. Do not allow the mixture to get too cold, or it will be too stiff to incorporate air.

3. Add the vanilla and beat the mixture just until very soft peaks form when the beater is raised. It will continue to thicken after a few minutes at room temperature. The safest way not to overbeat is to use an electric mixer until the ganache starts to thicken and then continue with a hand-held whisk.

4. If the mixture gets overbeaten and grainy, it can be restored by remelting, chilling and rebeating.

VARIATION
Quick Light Whipped Ganache: If you need the whipped ganache sooner and cannot wait for the mixture to chill, the following method gives equal results but involves a little more work.

Refrigerate the bowl and beaters.

Using a double boiler or a microwave on high power (stirring every 10 seconds if a microwave is used), melt the chocolate pieces with 2/3 cup of the cream. Remove from the heat before the chocolate is fully melted and finish melting by stirring constantly. Set aside until no longer warm.

In the chilled bowl, beat the cream until traces of beater marks just begin to show distinctly. Add the chocolate mixture and beat just until soft peaks form when the beater is raised.