Have I ever mentioned that I like to improvise when cooking? Sometimes improvisation results in wonderful creations. Other times, especially when working with temperamental ingredients, improvisation results in a big, yucky mess. (Isn’t that the story of my life?!)
Last Saturday, I decided to make some chocolate truffles filled with chocolate ganache. I’ve worked with chocolate before. I make fudge almost every year and have been doing it for about a decade. I felt pretty confident that I could follow the simple instructions for chocolate ganache. I was wrong! Very wrong!
“How wrong?” you ask. Well, I made a tiny mistake and my ganache was a tiny bit grainy. Just a tad bit. I decided to “fix” it, and I ended up with this.
That is not fixed!
For you to truly appreciate my experience, I’m going to show you in a photo step-by-step how my hubris caused my epic fail.
I started with some simple ingredients. I knew that by using chocolate chips (which are already tempered) it would be a touch trickier, but how hard could it be?
I set up a double boiler by putting a bowl over a pot of water on the stove. I made sure that there was a pretty tight fit so that the steam didn’t cause the chocolate to “seize.” I turned the heat on medium (which I now realize was too hot), and let the chocolate melt.
Isn’t that pretty? No graininess, no seizing, just beautiful, melting chocolate.
I added my cream (which I realize now I should have heated first and then added the chocolate. I guess I should read all of the instructions before I begin, huh?)…
It didn’t incorporate as well as I thought it would.
I kept whisking and it finally came together, but it was a touch grainy. I consulted the internet about how I can “save” ganache once this happens.
Those tips didn’t work. In fact, it got worse!
What was I going to do? I didn’t want to waste perfectly good chocolate! Thankfully, I found one website which explained that once your chocolate ganache is gone, it’s gone. BUT… you can use it in other things, like cookies. So I whipped up a basic oatmeal cookie recipe and spread it in a pyrex pan, like this…
I spread the chocolate mess over the top.
I spread the remaining cookie dough over the top and let it mix a bit with the chocolate. Then I put it in a 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, they were browning, so I removed them from the oven. They probably could have gone for another few minutes, but I like my cookies chewy.
And here they are! They were delicious, too!
I might have to mess up some chocolate ganache again and make these cookies!