OMG readers and suggestions!

For those of you who just want my ganoche recipe, here's the TLDR link to it below.

Just as a warning for what's about to follow: I'm a bit high on my meds right now. I had to not only come home early from work yesterday but to stay home today because I have just contracted a latex allergy! I wasn't aware this was something you could just spontaneously get from working around and with latex, and I'm sure not happy about it. I'm rashy (although even after not even twenty-four hours of meds, the blisters are already drying up and the rash looks tons better) and dizzy and exhausted. I slept for close to twelve hours last night and will probably nap later. As long as I'm sitting, things aren't too bad, but standing up makes me want to sit down again. Whoo.

Anyway, back to this foodie business. I love food. I'm fat and while I'd be happier if I, say, had a little more definition to my chin, I'm content the way I am. I can walk to work comfortably and only occasionally get winded when climbing up small flights of stairs. And I love food. Maybe not as much as, say, Anton Ego, but I love it. I used to be picky as heck - I wouldn't eat pizza because it had tomato sauce on it and I don't like the taste of tomatoes, but ketchup and spaghetti-os were fine - but I've been growing into more food as I get older (pizza is phenomenal!) and loving to try to cook with more and more ingredients as time passes. I love keeping fresh garlic and onions in the house and peppers for as long as they last, all three things I think my parents would be shocked to find that I not only eat but enjoy now.

Of course, like any fat person, I like chocolate. Any form of chocolate is great, but I really enjoy dark. I'd say 'The darker the better!' but once it gets to a point, dark chocolate just isn't tasty anymore. Don't believe me? Go take a big bite out of some baker's chocolate and you'll see what I mean. Man, that was a mistake.

But all this is getting to the main point: ganache. My wife tells me that I have a request to post my recipe for this wonderful concoction, so I thought 'Hey, if someone's going to make a request, I'll totally do it!' So here goes.

Actually, oddly enough, the wikipedia article I posted a second ago has pretty much all you need to make a good ganache! But I'm not going to leave it there, that'd be silly. And lazy. And while I'm typically both of these, I'm medicated today, so here goes!

I've used ganache a few times. I was first introduced to it by the Dove Ice Cream containers (probably vanilla caramel pecan): they pour a layer of ganache on the top of their ice cream before they ship it off. I remember bypassing this ice cream a few times before my food evolution, mainly because I had no idea what ganache was and didn't have a good phone like I do now to look it up with. I got it once, and was hooked, but I still didn't get what made ganache so friggin' tasty. I figured it was something so far out of my league that I'd never be able to do it at home and just left it at that. Then, watching Good Eats (Oh, that wonderful Alton Brown...) he threw out a ganache recipe as a frosting recipe in Art of Darkness III, kind of as an afterthought if I remember correctly. Or was that the chocolate sauce? It's been a while and I'm medicated. He made it look so simple! It's just equal parts dark chocolate and cream. And heck, I love both of those ingredients (I should do a post on my favorite uses of cream at some point...) so I thought, what the heck, let's give it a go! I don't remember what we used the original batch for - it was so good, I think we just ate it with spoons from the fridge, though I do remember pouring about half of it onto the tops of some Ben and Jerry's we had in the fridge and letting it sit for a bit to indulge in some Dove-like chocolate love. When my wife's most recent birthday came around, I knew I wanted to make her a fantastic cake - at the time, we were not doing so great financially so the cake was about all I could get for her birthday, so I wanted it to be as great as possible. So, after finding an awesome cake recipe online (I looked through Alton Brown's, but fell victim to his sciency-overcomplicatedness far too easily, and this recipe had the most irresistible URL ever) I decided to make a ganache frosting for it, like Alton Brown suggested in the first place!

I came across some problems with the ganache frosting, though. It was lovely in consistancy when beaten with a whisk, but it was too bitter, because, of course, I used semi-sweet chocolate to make it. So how to fix this, I thought to myself? Well, if it's too bitter, why not add some sweetness? I'm afraid I was silly enough not to be making notes at this time so I'm going simply by memory now, but I know I added sugar and a little vanilla. I used confectioners sugar at the time because I didn't want it to be grainy but I bet superfine sugar would work just as well. I believe the recipe went something like this:

Simple Ganache
16 oz (2 cups) of heavy whipping cream
16 oz (2 cups) of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pour both in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in small intervals (15-30 seconds, depending on the strength of your nuker), stirring after each interval. Continue until the chocolate's melted and the two can be mixed. Mix!

For the frosting, the basic recipe had this added to it:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
a dash (somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 tsp, to taste) vanilla

Once the chocolate and cream are mixed, add the sugar and vanilla and mix again until combined. Cool to room temperature (if you're lazy or pressed for time you can toss it in the fridge, but keep an eye on it) and beat with a whisk until to the desired consistency. Spread over cooled or frozen cake and enjoy!

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