Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
percent of cocoa and microwave times
I was getting confused while watching Paul’s videos regarding the percentage of cocoa used for ganache and how long to cook the cream in the microwave. One video said to use 65%, one said 35% and the other 55% cocoa. He also changed is times for the cream to cook in the microwave…One said 10 minutes, one said 6 min and the last one said 4-5min.
Thank you for clearing this up for me!
Tracy
I was getting confused while watching Paul’s videos regarding the percentage of cocoa used for ganache and how long to cook the cream in the microwave. One video said to use 65%, one said 35% and the other 55% cocoa. He also changed is times for the cream to cook in the microwave…One said 10 minutes, one said 6 min and the last one said 4-5min.
Thank you for clearing this up for me!
Tracy
Hello Tracy
For dark chocolate a pleasing taste would be 50 – 60% cocoa solids. Milk chocolate try and aim for 39 – 42% and for white if you can get it 23 – 29%.
Bring the cream to a full boil, this helps to steam off some of the water in the cream and also kill off any bacteria. Wait for the boil to die down and pour over the chocolate. Wait for the hot cream to penetrate the chocolate and then begin to mix gently from the middle out to the sides. Mix gently to prevent ganache becoming oily and grainy. Every microwave is different, depending how powerful it is and how much cream will determine how long it takes for the cream to come to the boil. Keep an eye on it is the best method. Paul is only giving guide times based on his microwave. Hope this helps.
