Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Ganache
Brown Butter Milk Chocolate Ganache
This brown butter milk chocolate ganache recipe is a great alternative to traditional chocolate ganache. The addition of brown butter gives it a lovely nutty flavour, and the flakey sea salt gives a great contrast to the sweet chocolate – it literally melts in the mouth!
It’s perfect for piping on top of brownies or chocolate cakes, and it makes a great filling for macarons (or wedged between chocolate chip cookies!).
Making chocolate ganache is so simple, and once you’ve mastered it you’ll want to use it in all your desserts! One tip when it comes to your chocolate ganache ingredients is to always use good quality chocolate, I make sure I do this in whatever I’m baking and it makes such a difference to overall result.
I really hope you enjoy my recipe for milk chocolate ganache! If you’re looking for other ganache flavours check out my Whipped Ganache 101 video and recipes.
Â
Ingredients
Method
Into a small saucepan, add the unsalted butter. Cook it over a medium low heat, stirring occasionally until it reaches a deep golden brown colour and smells nutty. It should take around 4-5 minutes.
Pour this into a small bowl and allow it to set to room temperature so that it is the consistency of soft butter. This can take quite a while if you leave it at room temperature, but you can speed this up by placing it in the fridge and stirring it every few minutes until it thickens. If it sets slightly firmer than soft butter that's fine.
Scoop the soft brown butter into a separate dish and weigh 65g of it.
Into a tall jug, add the chopped chocolate and set it to one side.
Into a small saucepan over medium heat, add the cream and glucose (or honey if using) and stir it gently until it is steaming, and the glucose/honey has dissolved.
Once hot, pour this immediately over the chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes.
Blend until smooth, then add in the weighed brown butter and blend again.
Pour it into a bowl and then stir through the sea salt flakes (not fine table salt). Cover the surface directly with cling film. Chill in the fridge for 3 hours.
Once chilled, use a hand whisk to whisk it to a medium peak. It will whip up quite quickly, so be very careful not to over whip it. Use it immediately.
Ingredients
Directions
Into a small saucepan, add the unsalted butter. Cook it over a medium low heat, stirring occasionally until it reaches a deep golden brown colour and smells nutty. It should take around 4-5 minutes.
Pour this into a small bowl and allow it to set to room temperature so that it is the consistency of soft butter. This can take quite a while if you leave it at room temperature, but you can speed this up by placing it in the fridge and stirring it every few minutes until it thickens. If it sets slightly firmer than soft butter that's fine.
Scoop the soft brown butter into a separate dish and weigh 65g of it.
Into a tall jug, add the chopped chocolate and set it to one side.
Into a small saucepan over medium heat, add the cream and glucose (or honey if using) and stir it gently until it is steaming, and the glucose/honey has dissolved.
Once hot, pour this immediately over the chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes.
Blend until smooth, then add in the weighed brown butter and blend again.
Pour it into a bowl and then stir through the sea salt flakes (not fine table salt). Cover the surface directly with cling film. Chill in the fridge for 3 hours.
Once chilled, use a hand whisk to whisk it to a medium peak. It will whip up quite quickly, so be very careful not to over whip it. Use it immediately.
Definitely going to try it, thank you
Enjoy!
Thank you for the einem recipe. Is it possible to make the ganache the day before and just whisk it directly before use? And if so, should I store it in the fridge or leave it cool at room temperature?
Thank you and greetings from Germany!
Meggi
Hey! This should be fine although i’ve not tried it – I’d store it in the fridge đ
This ganache is so good! I just made it & used a macaron filling. Delicious! Can I freeze the leftover or will it seperate/deflate upon thawing? Thank you!
So glad!! Unfortunately it won’t freeze so well as it is cream based
Thank you Matt itâs delicious and as you said I will use it on my brownie
Enjoy!
Can this be used to ice cakes instead of typical ganache ?
Hey! No the ganache would be too fragile to decorate a cake with. The agitation from scraping it would likely cause it to split. I’d use it to fill macarons or pipe on top of brownies!
How do you feel about filling donuts with this?
Personally it would be too heavy for me!
Can i used salted butter and omit the salt ? Thanks
Hey! The flakey salt is important because it doesn’t quite dissolve, so it really adds to the flavour of the ganache. If you don’t have sea salt flakes but just have table salt, I’d use this instead of salted butter (although it still won’t have the same result as flakes!).
Could I use a darker chocolate or would the fat ratio compromise the texture?
Hey! I’ve not tested this with dark chocolate but it’ll most likely end up too thick using this. You’d need to test it by increasing the amount of cream. I’d start by adding 100g if using dark chocolate. Hope this helps!
We stumbled over here coming from a different web address and thought I might as well check things out.
I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking into your web page again.
Thank you!
can i use a regular blender if i donât have access to a stick/wand blender?
Yes this should be fine!
Do we have to use only hand whisk to whip or can we electric whisk to whip the cream
Hey! I’d recommend using a hand whisk as it will whip up very quickly, so you don’t want to risk over-whipping it with an electric whisk.
Is it wrong just to eat this on its own? It’s soon good
Absolutely not!
Hey Matt…
That’s a wonderful recipe. Would love to try my hands on. The heavy cream we get here, is already sweetened. How to adjust the sweetness here. Can you please guide me..? Thanks in advance.
Hey! I’m unsure as haven’t tested this with any sweetened creams. What country are you in? I’ll see if I can find an alternative!
Can this fantastic ganache be used to fill and decorate a cake? You do mention that it has to be used immediately.
Hey! No I wouldn’t use it for this purpose as it would be too heavy on the palette. I’d use it to fill small things like macarons, or to pipe on top of brownies.
Hi, do you think this ganache can work as a bonbon filling or is it too thick for that? In case it’s too thick – would it be also good without whipping? I’m thinking of skipping the whipping step, and fill in the ganache to the bonbon shells when they just chilled to room temperature, and let it firm completely like that.
I think it might be too thick for a bon bon filling. Could be worth trying? I’m not a huge expert on bon bons I’m afraid!
Hey,Matt. You’ve mentioned several times that you’d use this ganache to fill macarons or top brownies,so I’m planning to use it for a macaron with a brownie center! But these quantities make a lot of ganache so I’m planning on using only half or even less of it. Does that mean that if I divide the ingredients by 2 I should also devide the 65 grams of brown butter that have to go in the ganache? So I guess that means 32 grams than… Thank you!
I would say it won’t make very much, maybe only enough to fill 8/10 macarons! But yes you can half it no problem!!
Hey Matt great recipe. Making a large batch of this ganache, do you reckon after whisking and separating into small piping bags, would it keep the nice texture after a few days? Currently using namelaka, but looking for a better alternative
I wouldn’t recommend storing it after mixing as the texture will gradually deteriorate. Needs to be whisked and piped fresh!
Can you use this for a chocolate truffle?
I’m afraid I haven’t tried – worth a go!
Hey, you said you wouldnât use this ganache for decorating a cake. How about for piping rosettes on top of an iced cake?
Yes should be good for that!
Hi Matt,
Can I dip this ganache for donuts? Was thinking of dip donuts to this ganache recipe while it’s still lukewarm around 30°C ish. Or should I reduce the cream? By how much?
It would be too thick to dip I’m afraid. But you could increase the quantity of cream to make it much thinner!
Hi Matt. I did try this recipe. BUT, I should confess I used white chocolate and honey. My family loved it. I then put it on a chocolate cake. I also left it overnight and then used a hand beater. Thanks for sharing
So glad!!
Hi! Great recipe! đ Weird question – is it possible to use the unwhipped ganache as a cookie filling(sandwich cookies/cookies with a small concave on top for filling)? Also, could I freeze the unwhipped ganache for longer storage period and defrost when needed to fill the cookies in future?
It would be quite soft if you didn’t whip it so I would recommend whipping it then piping it into your cookie. I don’t love freezing cream based ganaches so I’m afraid I haven’t tried
I made this ganache and it was absolutely delicious! I used it as a filling for macarons (French method) and initially they were great! About 36 hours later the macaron shells were mush because I think the ganache is too moist of a filling. I may try using this filling again, but costing the bottom of the shells with a thin layer of melted chocolate to act as a barrier.
Oh I’m so glad!
In Canada, its hard to find double cream. Where its available, its extremely expensive for small quantities (170g). If we had to use 35%, should we increase butterfat ratio? any advice?
I haven’t tested it at that fat percentage but I would try a straight 1:1 swap and just see how you get on!
Hey Matt,
Huge fan of your whipped ganache recipes. I use your vanilla bean whipped ganache from your 101 post all the time.
In your Whipped Ganache 101 post you use gelatine as a stabiliser and that’s why I love it so much because I use it in between cake layers and it holds up so nicely.
How would I be able to adapt this recipe to use gelatine? Would it be simply adding it to the cream and glucose in the pot on the stove? Just want to get your thoughts đ
Thank you in advance!
Sorry Lora do you mean without gelatin??
This was insanely good and my new favourite ganache! I piped this on top of a shortbread cookie and it was a hit. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
So glad!
Hey Matt,
my ganache has not set after 4,5 hours in the fridge.
I ended up putting the bowl into the freezer, but still wonât set.
I used German double cream at 38% and swapped 1:1. Perhaps I should have upped the chocolate ratio..
Tastes excellent though!
Oh no!! the higher fat should make it thicker! What % cocoa solids on your chocolate?