Cocoa Butter

Cocoa butter is occasionally added to ganache in order to contribute to the firmness of the center. While butter softens ganache, cocoa butter results in a harder set. Adding cocoa butter firms the ganache but does not contribute to chocolate flavor, allowing other flavors to come through. Cocoa butter can be used to firm delicately flavored ganache that would be overpowered by the addition of more chocolate. It may also be added to compensate for the use of a lower-fat chocolate. Like chocolate, cocoa butter is included in ganache formulation as a stabilizer. The addition of 1 gram of cocoa butter in formulation is roughly equivalent in setting power to 2.5 to 3 grams of chocolate. Unlike chocolate, cocoa butter is pure fat, so adding it increases the fat phase of ganache more directly than adding chocolate does. When adding cocoa butter to ganache, handle it and add it with the chocolate.