Looking to buy some ready made ganache for chocolates, any ideas? Uk based would be prefered
Thank you.

You might try the Chocolate Society (www.chocolate.co.uk). I think they have some products like this, if not retail, then in their wholesale division.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

Belcolade is a Belgium company that manufacture ready made ganache.

[url]http://www.belcolade.com[/url]

Here you can find the address to the UK distributor:

[url]http://www.puratos.com/Contact/default.asp[/url]

“Porcelana: The Holy Grail of Pure Criollos” (Marieel E. Presilla)

It seems they do:
[url]http://www.puratos.ca/products/list/00200330150931.asp[/url]

I’ve also seen a version with real vanilla but the link is not awailable right now.

“Porcelana: The Holy Grail of Pure Criollos” (Marieel E. Presilla)

cool, didn’t know they had that. It’s not really a cream based product, and out of necessity they’ve got a fair amount of preservatives in it, but it’s good to know

emmah – you may wish to contact them and ask them to direct you to a distributor that would offer it to you in smaller quantities. if you’re unable to get a response from them (you should be able to) let me know as i know their US sales rep/technical guy, and we cross paths every once in a while

Functionally, I can’t think of a reason they’ve got it in there. If it’s in the dark, I’d wonder if it was in the white as well. The only reason I can think of is that for some reason, perhaps it’s the carrier for one of the preservatives, and thus, must be labelled. Based on it’s position on the labell, it’s in there at single digit percentages or less, so there’s not much of it there.

Many chocolatiers actually allow their ganaches to sit at room temperature overnight so that the cocoa butter can crystallize slowly. When eaten, the ganache will then melt more slowly and result in a very smooth mouthfeel. However, when refrigerated immediately after production, the ganache hardens too quickly and doesn’t form sufficient crystals, which consequently results in a greasy mouthfeel. Regardless of which type of ganache you make (soft or hard), it will ideally last for one week at room temperature. Scalding the cream; the chocolate’s sugar content; the cocoa’s moisture-absorbing properties; and phenolic compounds all contribute to this long life.

I would not store a ganache (especially a hard ganache) longer than a week because the dry cocoa particles will eventually absorb too much of the moisture. When this occurs, the cocoa particles clump and stick together, thus forming a coarse and unstable mass. But here’s another thread that may help:

http://www.seventypercent.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=58&whichpage=2

Alcohol will extend shelf life, and many manufacturers do add it for this purpose. But most of the time, I find that alcohol and chocolate is a foul combination due to clashing tannins. However, some spirits do pair well with chocolate, but finding the right ones takes some research and experimentation.