EARL GREY GANACHE

Y’all know I love a good coffee, but did you know I am also a tea tippler? Often my husband and I will be sitting on the couch at night and I’ll just say ‘ttteeeeaaaaa’ meaningfully to seemingly no one. This has come to mean ‘Babe, can you make me a tea?’ Anyway, this ganache is such a GREAT combo and one that is a little more left-field than say a more common espresso chocolate combo. Trust me when I say that the way the dark chocolate brings out the flavour profiles—hints of black tea, a touch of floral and bergamot—is magical.

TIMING

PREP/MIXING 20–30 mins

SETTING 4 hours or overnight

MAKES approx. 535 g (1 lb 3 oz) (for a 1:3 ratio)

INGREDIENTS (1:3 ratio)

135 g (4¾ oz) cream

3 Earl Grey tea bags or 3 tablespoons Earl Grey loose tea

400 g (14 oz) chopped dark chocolate

METHOD

Weigh your cream into your pot and add your tea bags or loose tea. Heat the cream on your stovetop until it starts to bubble around the edges of the pot—you only want a slow boil, so keep an eye on it. For a normal ganache you would remove the cream from the heat at this point, but we want to really infuse the Earl Grey into the cream, so keep it on a low heat without letting it boil for approx. 20 mins.

While the cream is infusing, put your chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. When your cream is looking like a milky-ass weak tea (light caramel colour), remove it from the heat and discard the tea bags (if using). Pour cream (through a strainer if using loose tea) over your dark chocolate. Leave to rest for approx. 5 mins—this will allow the hot cream to melt the chocolate. Then, stir the cream and chocolate together until it is a beautiful, silky, uniform consistency. While you’re there, give it a taste test—you will taste chocolate first, but then pay attention to the developing flavour and aftertaste of the Earl Grey coming through . . .

If your ganache still has lumps of chocolate in it and you’re freaking the fuck out, JUST CALM DOWN. Zap your bowl of ganache in the microwave for 20–30 seconds and then give it another stir. That should be enough to melt any remaining chunks. Repeat if necessary. Keep the ganache in the microwave-safe bowl and allow it to set at room temp. Ensure that you cover the ganache with plastic wrap, pushing the plastic wrap against the ganache so no air can get in and make it crusty.

Note: This recipe uses a 1:3 ratio, but you can change the ratio depending on the weather and what you are using the ganache for. For more on ratios and ganache uses see here.