Oh, the many times I’ve posted about chocolate ganache! Certainly one of my favorite ways to have chocolate, and better than any “chocolate frosting” you could dream up (and easier to make as well!), I must make ganache at least once a week here at home.

Today, though, I want to share a recipe for getting a glossy ganache glaze to use on your cakes or cupcakes (or wherever). Regular ganaches start out glossy, then turn matte as they firm up- which is fine, and looks delicious of course- but sometimes, you just want some gloss. Here’s how:

Glossy Ganache Glaze

3 pounds good dark chocolate (semisweet or bittersweet), chopped fine (I like to use my food processor for this)
1 quart heavy cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 1/2 sticks butter (I’ve used salted and unsalted, either is fine)

In a medium saucepan, over low heat, combine cream, corn syrup and butter and bring to a VERY LOW boil. Pour over your dark chocolate. Count to 30. Stir… and: glossy ganache!

This is the quickest way to deal with a chocolate craving. You know you have them… when nothing but some good, smooth and creamy dark chocolate will do. It’s the recipe I recently gave my mom (I know, it’s usually the other way around, but not when it comes to desserts) when she asked me for a “good chocolate puddin’ recipe”:

Me: Chocolate pudding? Why do you want to make chocolate pudding?
Mom: Maybe I should just buy one of those Instant Puddings by Jello… and add more cocoa powder to it?
Me: Why?
Mom: It’s never chocolatey enough…

At that moment, I knew what she needed. Mom didn’t want chocolate pudding, she wanted chocolate ganache. I gave her the recipe, throwing in the magic line “by the way, this is how you make truffles too” as an aside- and now she’s hooked. You will be, too.

Chilled Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy cream
2 cups bittersweet chocolate bits (cut from your favorite bar, or chips)
4 tablespoons salted butter, softened but still quite firm*

Put chocolate and butter in a medium bowl… set this aside. Heat heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat until hot, but not boiling. You want to see only the tiniest of bubbles. Once it’s nice and hot (but not boiling) pour immediately over your chopped chocolate and butter. Count to twenty, then stir gently til all the chocolate has melted, and you have a gorgeous, gleaming mass of chocolate before you. Transfer to little pudding cups, custard cups, or ramekins. Chill in the fridge.

Enjoy entirely on its own, with a generous-sized spoon, or top with some whipped cream (yes, the canned stuff is fine).

*the butter is entirely optional here. I like how it adds more richness to the ganache, and if it’s salted, the saltiness helps too. But you don’t need it to make ganache.

For me, bittersweet chocolate is where it’s at. Oh, I enjoy snacking on the occasional milk chocolate bar (especially if it’s something excellent like Lindt), but as a baker I must absolutely have bittersweet chocolate in the house at all times.

Bittersweet chocolate contains no milk. It’s basically unsweetened chocolate with a little sugar and cocoa butter- and, sometimes, some vanilla. It has less sugar and more chocolate than Semisweet, although you probably can use the latter in a pinch if you don’t have the bitter stuff.

I use bittersweet chocolate in my ganaches, in my chocolate buttercream, in my “famous” chocolate mousse cake. I’ve also been known to eat it straight up, from the packet. This is much easier to do with thin bars or callets, but I can rarely be stopped from slicing a wedge off one of those huge couverture bars.

The next time you’re about to make a recipe calling for semisweet chocolate, try using bittersweet instead. The darkness will make everything richer, and more chocolatey. Here are some brands I recommend:

Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chips are what I have around my home 90% of the time. With 60% cacao content, they’re delicious (although not really for snacking), easily found in any grocery store, and absolutely awesome in chocolate chip cookies.

Scharffen Berger’s Bittersweet Baking Chunks are 70% cacao, and will make any chocolate lover swoon. There’s something about Scharffen Berger’s chocolate that makes brownies and cookies so luxurious.

Callebaut Bittersweet Callets are what we use exclusively at the bakeshop, and for good reason: we want our chocolate products to stand out, to be gloriously delicious, and smooth and rich. This is bittersweet chocolate that’s neither too bitter nor too sweet… and the callets are an easy pick-me-up snack for early-morning baking.

Before anything else: this cake is not a pretty one. It is at its most basic a recipe for chocolate mousse that you stick in a tin and bake in an oven. But oh my, if you like chocolate, this tastes amazing. It’s light and melts in your mouth, yet is impossibly rich. And because you bake it in a water bath (essentially steaming it), it’s incredibly moist.

The recipe is from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess, and for a while it’s the only recipe I made from the book- over and over again. The truth is, I think this one recipe will turn you into a Goddess, domestic or otherwise, in anyone’s eyes. Make it for the chocoholic in your life- if that’s you, so much the better.

Nigella’s Chocolate Mousse Cake

300g best dark chocolate (bittersweet is best here)
50g best milk chocolate
175g unsalted butter
8 large eggs, separated
100g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

25cm springform tin
tin foil

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C and put the kettle on to boil. Line the inside of the springform with foil, making sure you press the foil well into the sides and bottom of the tin to make a smooth surface.

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or microwave, let it cool.

In another bowl beat the egg yolks and sugars until pale and really thick, like mayonnaise.

Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form then fold gently into the chocolate mixture. Pour the cake batter into the foil-lined springform which you have placed in a large roasting tin.

Add the hot water from the kettle to come about half way up the sides of the tin and put into the oven.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. The inside of the cake will be damp and mousse-like but the top should look cooked and dry.

Let it cool completely on a cooling rack before releasing from the tin. Now peel the foil gently away from the sides.

I like to sift some powdered sugar over it when we have company- but it really doesn’t need it.

I’ll admit it: Chocolate Chip are my favorite kind of cookie. They’re one of the few cookies I actually get cravings for, and whether they’re chewy or crunchy or cakey, I always say bring ‘em on!

Also: the best chocolate chip cookies are always the ones you’ve just brought out of the oven. Indeed, even the most mediocre of chocolate chip cookie batters will taste awesome if taken straight off a piping hot cookie sheet.

If you’re looking for a good recipe, look no further. I’m linking to the best chocolate chip cookie recipes to be had online… just take your pick:

The Original Toll House Cookie Recipe
This, ladies and gentlemen, is where it all started. If you want to go the traditional route, and make the cookies your mom and/or grandma probably made when you were growing up, use this recipe. It’s tried, it’s true- it’s classic.

Alton Brown’s The Chewy
Want to take it a step further? Try Alton Brown’s chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. It uses bread flour and melted butter for maximum chewiness- you can tell they’re going to be chewy because the batter is super gooey. Highly recommended.

Alton Brown’s The Thin
Another one from Alton, this cookie hits the spot when you want something crispy and buttery. Much as I love the chewy recipe above, I can never say no to crispy and buttery cookies.

New York Times’ Chocolate Chip Cookies
Finally, we come to these. Touted by so many food bloggers as “the perfect cookie”, this recipe, adapted from Jacques Torres, will give you gloriously crispy, chewy, buttery cookies with huge chunks of chocolate. It requires a lot more work than the original Toll House recipe, but oh- it’s worth it. Really, really worth it.

What’s your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe?