#ConfectionCollection: Fleur de Sel Ganache Squares

I wanted to call these truffles as it’s much more catchy than ‘ganache squares’ (lets be honest they’re really cubes) and everyone instantly knows what chocolate truffles are.

Sadly, that’s not the done thing and I can really only call them truffles if they look like their pig-foraged namesake.

These ganache squares are very simple to make, I think they’re even easier than truffles. There’s no hand rolling or coating in tempered chocolate to be done with these and because they’re cut to size you can make them as big or small as you like.

For these ganache squares I have used two kinds of dark chocolate, as I think it compliments the salt flavour more. For the ganache I used Callebaut 53% Belgian dark chocolate and to coat the ganache I went for Amedei 70% Toscano. You can always use milk chocolate, but whatever you go for, use something with a higher cocoa content for the coating,

The ganache is a traditional mix of chocolate, cream and fleur de sel, which is a hand harvested sea salt. It’s off-white in appearance and slightly damp, but it’s a very delicate, almost sweet, salt that is used a lot in patisserie. If you can afford it, you will really taste the difference. Alternatively, you can use a good quality sea salt and it will still taste delicious.

The ganache is poured into a cling-film lined loaf tin to set and placed in the fridge for a couple of hours. When the ganache is set, it’s coated in melted chocolate on both sides, sprinkled with more fleur de sel and then left for a few minutes to set.

The chocolates can be cut into squares, diamonds, rectangles or whatever shape you prefer.

There are a couple of tricks that can be done with these chocolates so that they are easier to make and look neat. When melting the chocolate, do so in a bain-marie over a very low heat. Just before nearly all the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat and rest the bowl on a tea-towel, keep stirring the chocolate until it has all melted. Ideally you don’t want the temperature of the chocolate to exceed 45ºC otherwise you risk melting the ganache you’re trying to coat and you’ll have to wait for the chocolate to cool before using it.

keep your ganache in the fridge until you’re ready to coat it, then peel the cling-film from it, as you will need to flip the ganache after the first chocolate coating. Gently coat what will be the base of the ganache in chocolate and spread it thinly and evenly with a stepped palette knife, dust the chocolate with cocoa and leave for a couple of minutes to set. The chilled ganache will help it set even more quickly.

Flip the ganache so that what was the base, is now the top – this should be perfectly flat, then pour the remaining chocolate over the top, spread it thinly and sprinkle it with a small amount of fleur de sel.

To cut the ganache into squares, heat a knife with warm water and wipe the excess water off. Using the residual heat, trim the block of ganache to neaten it and then continue to warm and wipe the knife for each cut before returning the squares to the fridge to firm up for another hour.

These will keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container stored somewhere cool. If it’s very warm or humid, you’ll need to keep these in the fridge, but this will mean the salt on top will slowly begin to dissolve as is the nature of salt.

Fleur de Sel Ganache Squares

Patisserie Makes Perfect

A delicious fleur de sel ganache coated in dark chocolate

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Confectionery

Servings 30 +

Ingredients

  

• 200 g Chocolate between 35-55%
• 175 ml Double Cream
• 1 Tsp Fleur de Sel
• 100 g 70% Dark Chocolate
• Cocoa Powder for dusting

Instructions

 

• Line a standard 1lb loaf tin with clingfilm, ensure there's plenty of overlap.
• Add the cream to a saucepan and bring it to the boil, in another bowl add the chocolate, chop it into small pieces if necessary.
• Combine the cream with the chocolate and stir until all of the chocolate has melted, then add the fleur de sel and stir until dissolved.
• Pour the ganache into the prepared tin and lightly fold the cling-film over to cover it. Place the ganache in the fridge and leave it to set for a couple of hours.
• Take the dark chocolate and melt it gently over a bain-marie, heat the chocolate to around 45C, remove the chocolate from the heat even if all the chocolate hasn't melted, set the chocolate on a tea-towel and stir it until the chocolate has melted.
• Take the ganache from the fridge and peel off the cling-film, at this stage leave the ganache as a slab.
• Pour half the melted chocolate over the ganache and dust it with cocoa powder. Leave the chocolate to set for a minute or two and then flip it over on the cling-film.
• Coat the top of the ganache with the remaining chocolate and sprinkle it lightly with the fleur de sel.
• Leave the chocolate to set before trimming the edges of the ganache and then cutting into squares, diamonds or rectangles. The simplest way to do this is to warm the knife in water and wipe it before each cut.
• Return the ganache to the fridge and allow it to cool for another 30 minutes. The ganache squares will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks, if it's humid, you'll need to store them in the fridge, but remove them about 10 minutes before eating them.

 Thanks for reading.

Angela