Chocolate

When mixing butter ganache, use liquid tempered chocolate at or near its maximum working temperature. (See Tempering Chocolate, Temperature.) It is necessary to temper the chocolate that goes into butter ganache, for all the same reasons that it is necessary to temper chocolate in general: due to the presence of cocoa butter, butter ganache exhibits the same polymorphic qualities that chocolate does. (See Polymorphism of Cocoa Butter, page 55.) If the chocolate in butter ganache is not precrystallized, the butter ganache will not set quickly and firmly and will not have a smooth, homogeneous texture. Butter ganache made with untempered chocolate not only will be unacceptably soft but it will not retain a smooth texture and will slowly develop large fat crystals in the hours and days after it sets.