Introduction to the chocolate ganache shelf-life.
With the proper precautions, slab chocolate ganache can have a long shelf life. To get the most out of your ganache topping, it’s important to understand how to store it and when you need to throw it out. In this guide, you’ll learn about the best storage methods for keeping your ganache fresh for as long as possible.
Adjust the proportions of ingredients of chocolate slabbed ganache.
Getting the right proportions of ingredients is essential for the longevity of the product. They ultimately determine its success.
In my opinion, it is not the best approach to extend an item’s shelf life if chefs or experts focus heavily on the amount of cream, chocolate, butter, and other ingredients.
Looking at the most influential ratios, they are more effective and efficient. You can find them here:
– Rate of Water content, which is also strongly related to the activity water (named AW)
– The rate of simple and complex carbohydrates, also known as sugars and sweeteners, should be monitored.
– Rate of fat materials, grease, or lipids.
– Rate of Alcohol
Decrease the Water content to make the chocolate ganache last longer
(or Increase the percentage of dry materials)
It is important to know the types of ganaches you want to reach, then the number of weeks or months that you’d like to get.
After having determined your goal, you can move on 😉
Water content is the most important ratio to deal with to extend the shelf life. So to extend it, you’ll have to increase up this rate by dropping the water content. How?
This is quite simple; you have to reduce all ingredients containing water, such as cream, milk, and even butter (16% of water in the classic butter).
Or to increase the dry materials, that could be sugar, the ratio of chocolate – dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate – fat, and fiber materials, or any rich dry materials ingredients.
About a slab ganache, you must be between 14% to 24 % of water content or to be between 76% to 86% of dry materials (and more…). That is strictly the same.
So here are my own rules 🙂
-Short shelf-life of around two weeks (15 days shelf life); around 76/77% of dry materials
-Mid-shelf-life around four weeks to 9 weeks (30 to 60 days shelf life): 79/82% of dry materials
– Long shelf-life from 12 weeks and more: more than 84% of dry materials.
Be careful water ratio is strongly related to many other parameters: humidity, airtight storage, moisture, and type of sugars,…
Activity Water (AW)
In summary, free water is water that is not absorbed by dry materials. This ratio is determined by the types of ingredients, their amounts, and the water content. The “Grover Formula” is one way to calculate it, or an AW-meter can measure it.
Therefore, the water-to-fat ratio of ganache should be between 0.75 and 0.89. If you can measure or calculate it for your Chocolate Ganache, then…
For 0.87 to 0.89, around one month shelf-life (30 days shelf life)
For 0.84 to 0.86, around 6 to 9 weeks of shelf-life
For 0.80 to 0.83, around 10 to 12 weeks of shelf-life
For 0.75 to 0.80, around 16 to 26 weeks of shelf-life
Again, caution should be taken when dealing with the Activity Water ratio, as it can influence many different things such as humidity, airtightness, moisture content, and sugar levels…
Ah yes,… I should also mention that this duration time (in the two previous chapters) should be in a room temperature environment (approximately +18/20°C) with an average relative humidity of 45/60%.
Choose your Types of sugar
Each variety of sugar has its own effect on the water and ganache texture.
For example, regular sugar (also called granulated sugar, caster sugar, white sugar, cane sugar, icing sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, or Muscovado sugar) is a disaccharide (known as sucrose and saccharose, among other names). Adding this type of sugar to your ganache will prolong its shelf life, but it could re-crystalize after a few weeks. I have often seen dark chocolate ganache bonbons with a light, crisp texture from the recrystallization of sugar. The outcome also depends on the other components and the methodology used. I suggest adding or substituting with a different type of sugar, such as simple carbohydrates.
The sweeteners Corn syrup, glucose syrup, dextrose, glucose powder, invert sugar, honey, and fructose, for example, are all monosaccharides (simple carbs). These natural components make up a lot of fruits (usually fructose and glucose). By virtue of being “single-saccharides”, these sugars make the ganache softer, smoother, and keep its consistency for a longer period of time; this type of sugar also greatly reduces re-crystallization.
I recommend replacing 40-60% of the sugar with glucose syrup or other monosaccharides and possibly increasing the sugar ratio of the ganache in order to extend its shelf life.
Another advantage of glucose syrup is that it has a much lower relative sweetness (0.7) compared to regular sugar, with regular sugar having a reference point for the relative sweetness of 1.
An additional type of sweetener is the sugar alcohol. They are not actual alcoholic beverages; this is just a scientific name. Manufactured from traditional sugar (disaccharides) and basic carbohydrate (monosaccharides), which have been previously outlined. Don’t incorporate more than 5 % of the complete mass of your ganache, as most have a laxative effect.
That kind of sweetener is incredibly effective for making chocolate ganache last longer. Common types of sugar alcohols include sorbitol, maltitol, glycerol, lactitol, and so on. The other advantage of these sugar-alcohols is their low sweetness compared to other sweeteners, with a range of 0.4 to 0.8.
These kinds of sugar are often used in the chocolate industry.
Sugar ratio
Sugar plays a big part in how long slab chocolate ganache can last. The kind of sugar used can make a big difference in the shelf life, as previously discussed.
I consider as Sugar ratio only the previous sugar noticed in this article: Monosaccharides, Disaccharides, and sugar-alcohols.
Aim to have between 20-38% sugar in slab chocolate ganache–anything above that can make the texture too soft. This amount is mainly used for confit and caramel ganache.
Increasing the amount of sugar will lengthen the shelf life of a product, making a softer texture as well. You must consider the chocolate flavor, its quality, and the desired ganache texture when making a balance.
The majority of trained confectioners concur that 30% is the lowest sugar content needed. I could not differ more strongly. I have had great success making exquisite ganache recipes with smaller quantities of sugar, in some cases as low as 30%. The results were solid. We even experienced more savor persistence on our palates.
Raise Fat content
As the Sugar ratio for your chocolate ganache, the more the fat ratio, the longer shelf-life you’ll get.
However, when water is added to sugar, grease does not absorb it. Adding more fat instead of sugar to your software or balancing board is not as effective but will still provide some benefit.
Fat does not dissolve in water as sugar does, and therefore it affects the texture and thickness of a recipe more than sugar.
But, akin to our predecessors, greasing the anointed will widen the lifespan of your ganache. This practice was once used as a method of preserving meals – known colloquially as pickling. France still has a few traditional dishes that adhere to this carrying across, for example, the delectable legs duck confit from South West France. It is a popular dish, and I’m quite fond of it 🙂
Animal fats, such as butter, cream, and others from various sources, can be in either solid or liquid forms. Additionally, plant-based fats, including cocoa butter, coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower oil and hazelnut oil are also available in these forms. Cocoa mass consists of around 50% cocoa butter.
Increasing the fat content will elongate the shelf life and alter the texture of the ganache from softer to harder. You should also consider how it melts in one’s mouth and the desired texture while eating.
Add alcohol in the ganache.
This is an outdated way to extend chocolate ganache, but it’s still effective. I recommend that you use alcohol with at least 40° proof. If you use lower-proof alcohol, too much water will be added, which could throw off the ganache recipe.
To obtain significant results in this way, you need a ganache recipe with an alcohol content of at least 0.8%. At this strength, you won’t taste the alcohol, but it will be effective in preventing the spread of microorganisms and bacteria.
I only use that method when the alcohol is relevant and of high quality, and it will match the slab chocolate ganache flavor I want.
When incorporating alcohol in a ganache, it’s important to remember it will create a softer texture. Mastering the tempering process is crucial for success.
Conclusion for your chocolate shelf life ganache
So We saw differents paths to make your ganache longer last longer, but only by the composition of it.
It is a considerable task to manage this. In our second blog post, we’ll discuss additional ways to expand your ganache. Anything outside the ganache, such as air, climate, humidity, and packaging, can also affect its quality duration. This part is just as important as the inside. I saw the potentially disastrous consequences for many of my clients if the external conditions weren’t ideal.
Enjoy your chocolate ganache journey 🙂
And more forward…,
Ganache into biscuits (such as macaroons)
Another path is to think about balancing and extending the chocolate ganache shelf-life…
Where do you pipe your ganache? If it is not in a solid block? If it is on (or in) a cookie, then how dry is the biscuit? If it’s a very dry biscuit (which is likely with some macaroon recipes), the moisture from your ganache will pass through the cookie and moisten it. Consequently, the ganache will become drier. This is an essential factor to take into consideration when calculating the measurements for your ganache (as well as for the cookie :-))
If you want to learn more about how to extend the shelf life of slabbed chocolate ganache, check out our blog for more tips and tricks. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content and recipes.
– Sugar-free ganaches (using Polyols):
These ganaches are free of carbohydrates such as sucrose, glucose, and dextrose. Polyol is a sweetener that can be used as a substitute for sugar. Those are classified as sugar-alcohol products. They do not contain any alcohol. They have no caloric value. Their goal is to capture as much water as possible in the ganache, making it softer and increasing its shelf life.
–Â Vegan ganache :
The vegan ganache is a classic recipe that does not contain cream or butter, making it simple to make.
Say goodbye to dairy and hello to plant-based alternatives! Swap out cream for water or almond milk and butter for coconut oil. Plus, all our sweeteners are 100% vegan. Does that make a coconut ganache? Nope, Because you can buy some fat coconut milk deodorized.
– Flavored ganache:
The most common flavors are vanilla (in different forms: vanilla pod, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, vanilla paste, vanilla powder,…), and cinnamon, among others… You can also add flower flavors as essential oils, such as rose, Violette, poppy, ylang-ylang,…
Heavy cream is often flavored, either directly or by infusing it with other flavors. Then the cream flavored is poured over the chocolate.Â
Conclusion for your chocolate shelf life ganache
So We saw different path to make your ganache longer last longer, but only by the composition of it.
It is a considerable task to manage this. In our second blog post, we’ll discuss additional ways to expand your ganache. Anything outside the ganache such as air, climate, humidity and packaging can also affect its quality of duration. This part is just as important as the inside. I saw the potentially disastrous consequences with many of my clients if the external conditions weren’t ideal.
Enjoy your chocolate ganache journey 🙂
…
And more forward…,
Ganache into biscuit (such as macaroons)
An other path, to think about balancing and extending the chocolate ganache shelf-life…
Where do you pipe your ganache if it is not in a solid block? If it is on (or in) a cookie, then how dry is the biscuit? If it is a very dry biscuit (which is likely with some macaroon recipes), the moisture from your ganache will pass through the cookie and moisten it. Consequently, the ganache will become drier. This is an essential factor to take into consideration when calculating the measurements for your ganache (as well as for the cookie :-))
If you want to learn more about how to extend the shelf life of slabbed chocolate ganache, check out our blog for more tips and tricks. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content and recipes.
