In a chocolate business, making some products in advance is essential to save time (and stay sane!).
But what about ganache? Can you make it ahead of time, store it, and reuse it when you need it?
The simple answer is no, and here’s why.
When you prepare any ganache and emulsify it, you have to pipe it inside the shells as soon as it reaches its ideal working temperature.
Here’s a quick reminder of those temperatures:
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27 °C (white chocolate ganache)
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28 °C (milk chocolate)
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30 °C (dark and milk chocolate)
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32 °C (dark chocolate)
So why don’t I recommend storing ganache?
Well, because you might face a snowball of issues:
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It’s difficult to pipe: If you make a ganache and let it cool below its ideal piping temperature, it becomes too viscous and impossible to pipe (especially if made with dark chocolate).
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You’ll have to heat it up above 35 °C (melting point of cacao butter), emulsify again, wait for it to cool to its ideal temperature, and then pipe it into the shells. In other words, the emulsion you made is lost, so you have to redo the whole process.
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Your formulation becomes unbalanced: When you warm a ganache above 35°C (to ensure a good emulsion), you might lose water, making the emulsion break. That means you’ll have to add a small amount of hot water to the ganache and hand-blend it again to recuperate the emulsion.
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Excess water: Adding more water is risky because you increase the free water in the recipe and shorten its shelf life.
In conclusion, make your ganache only when you’re ready to use it.
-Melissa