Doing without Delia by Michael Booth

Author:Michael Booth [Michael Booth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2009-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

Simple Yet Awfully Time-Consuming Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients (Serves 4-5)

400g couverture chocolate – I like to blend something mild with something darker and more malevolent, even 99 per cent you can play around to find a blend that works for you. I have tried with ordinary cooking chocolate, thinking that it didn’t really matter because I was going to cover it later with couverture, but it didn’t set very well and I had to put it in the freezer so that I could cut it up into pieces before coating it.

225g double cream

Around another 150g couverture chocolate for the coating

Bring the cream to the boil. If you want a flavoured ganache, now is the time to add the ingredient – for example, a large bunch of chopped mint leaves or the zest of two lemons or oranges. If you are doing this, leave it to infuse for a couple of minutes after it has boiled. Strain the cream over the chocolate in another bowl off the heat and stir until it melts and mixes.

This is the slightly tricky part because you will now need a mould. After scouring the cooking supply stores of Paris, I still couldn’t find the type of mould they used at the Ritz school, so I got a local metalworker to knock a couple up out of stainless steel. What you are after is a very simple frame, like a picture frame with the glass and backing removed, around 200mm x100mm and 10mm deep. Cover a chopping board with clingfilm, place the frame on top and pour in the cream and chocolate mixture, trying to keep the top as smooth and level as possible. Cover with cling-film and leave it to set in a cool cupboard for at least a day.

This is a ganache. You can scoop it out and form it into quenelles as an accompaniment to ice cream or other desserts, or just wolf the lot down before anyone in your family discovers you have made it. Alternatively, to turn it into posh little chocolates with which to astound your friends, remove the frame from the ganache (cut around the edge with a sharp knife to release it). Melt some more chocolate over a bain-marie, and paint it over the top of the ganache with a pastry brush. Leave it to set, then turn the ganache over and paint the underside too, leaving that to set also. You may have to give it two coats. What you want it a soft ganache sandwiched between crisp chocolate. With your sharpest, longest knife, carefully cut the ganache into bite-sized squares, 10mm x 10mm x 10mm, or larger if you don’t care what people think. Place your knife in hot water and then wipe it dry once in a while as you do this.

Now comes the tricky part: tempering the couverture chocolate so that you can cover your ganache sandwich in glossy, snappy coating. Melt two-thirds of the chocolate you have set aside for this ever so gently over

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