The best chocolate for ganache
Couverture if you have it, chopped bar if not, never chips — and the ratio changes with the type, which is where most ganache goes wrong.
If you read nothing else
Couverture or a 60–70% bar, never chips. Then get the ratio right for the type — dark 2:1, milk 3:1, white 4:1 — because that is the failure everyone has.
The product
Couverture is ideal because its higher cocoa butter gives a smoother, glossier emulsion. A good eating bar at 60–70% is entirely adequate and is what most people should use.
Chocolate chips are the one clear no. They are formulated with reduced cocoa butter to resist melting, and a ganache made from them is grainy and never fully comes together. The failure reads as technique and is materials.
The ratio is set by the type
This is the part that ruins more ganache than anything else. Roughly 2:1 chocolate to cream by weight for dark, 3:1 for milk, 4:1 for white.
A milk chocolate ganache made at the dark ratio stays loose however long it is chilled, because there is simply not enough cocoa solid in it to set. Refrigeration cannot fix a ratio, and hours spent waiting for it to firm up are hours wasted.
Percentage within a type
Higher percentage means more cocoa solid per gram, so a 75% bar sets firmer than a 60% one at the same ratio. If you switch from 60% to 75%, expect a firmer result and add a little more cream if you want the original texture.
That is a smaller effect than the type change above, but it is enough to notice in a truffle centre.
Covered in this guide
- Chocolate tart fillingThe ratio compromise a tart needs.
- Making ganacheThe method itself.
- Ganache ratio calculatorThe calculator that does the ratio arithmetic.
- CouvertureThe ideal product, and what its cocoa butter contributes.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- The Science of Chocolate — Royal Society of Chemistry(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)