Thick ganache for cookies when you want more chocolate
This thick ganache is the perfect spoonable frosting for cookies when you just want to add a little extra chocolate.
Thicker than standard ganache and made with chocolate chips, this is the pantry-friendly unfancy version of ganache you need in your life.
| Taste | Texture |
| Pure chocolate | smooth, silky |
| Active time | Total time | Yield | Difficulty |
| 5 min | 5 minutes | 1 cup | Easy |
Why you’ll be frosting all your cookies with thick chocolate chip ganache
- Easy: If you’re like me and buy chocolate chips whenever they’re on sale, you probably always have chocolate chips on hand, but you may not have semi-sweet chocolate BARS for making traditional ganache. I will always belong to the “Use what you have” school of life, as I try to help you to be as well.
- Homey: While traditional ganache makes for glossy perfect mirrored surfaces on cakes, chocolate chip ganache is a little coarser, a little more homey. For a textured cookie like potato chip cookies, this exact imperfection adds to the friendliness of the cookie. If traditional ganache is the black tie frosting of the pastry world, chocolate chip ganache is its barn dance cousin, and frankly, I’m here for that.
- It sets up quickly: Sometimes traditional ganache can take a while to lose its tackiness. This ganache on the other hand sets up in just a few minutes in the freezer. If you’re making cookies for a potluck, or packaging them up for a bake sale, you need a frosting that you don’t have to wait on for hours to pack up and go.
Why chocolate chips aren’t typically recommended for ganache
Chocolate chips have stabilizers like soy lecithin added to them. This helps the chocolate chips retain their shape during baking. That’s great news for chocolate chip cookies.
Unfortunately for ganache, that same soy lecithin can prevent the chips from melting into a perfectly smooth glossy ganache.
Still, I live in a real world kitchen as I suspect you do as well, so a few chocolate bits in an otherwise lovely ganache do not bother me as well.
This kind of imperfect chocolate chip ganache is perfect for adding a little bit extra to cookies, especially if you’re going to use it to stick on sprinkles. Chocolate is still chocolate, and that is good no matter what.
Ingredients for Thick Ganache for cookies
- Chocolate chips
- Heavy cream: It must be cream here; milk and half and half don’t have the same properties. Ganache made with either milk or half and half will never set up properly.
Equipment needed
- Bowl
- Spoon
Process for making thick ganache
- Heat: Heat up the cream in a small pan just until you see bubbles around the edge.
- Melt: Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips in a bowl. Let the cream sit for a minute or so, and then stir until smooth.
- Use it!: Spread the ganache on cookies like potato chip cookies, cupcakes made from easy vanilla sheet cake, or spread a layer between cookies before adding the whipped cream to soft chocolate sandwich cookies. Chill to set it; it will take only a few minutes.
Recipes to use thick chocolate ganache
You can click on any of the below pictures to take you to the recipe:
Potato Chip Cookies: These salty sweet cookies are the combination of a chocolate chip cookie with added caramel, salty potato chips, and pecans for a whole lot of extra texture and flavor.
- Peanut butter pie: Top it with this for one of the best freezer pies ever.
- Soft gingerbread cookies: Chocolate gingerbread is a thing, and it’s a good one at that. Omit the royal icing and use thick ganache instead.
- Chocolate cookie dough bark: Use this in place of the other chocolate for a richer bark.
- Rice Krispie Treats: My Gram used to top her Special K Bars with a very similar frosting. Try it on Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats, Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats, or Strawberry Cereal Treats.
- Mini Banana Breads: Chocolate + banana is always a good thing.
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies: Frost them with a slick of this ganache and a sprinkle of toffee.
- Peanut butter Reese’s Piece’s cookies: Either top them with ganache or turn them over, frost the bottoms and freeze until set for some extra chocolate to balance the incredible peanut butter flavor.
Thick ganache for cookies
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Description
Extra thick chocolate frosting that sets up more quickly than traditional ganache and is made with easy to find chocolate chips. This kind of ganache is perfect for adding to easy recipes that don’t require a lot of fussing.
Ingredients
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (170 g)
- 6 Tablespoons heavy cream (89 mL)
Instructions
Make the ganache
- Measure the chocolate chips into a small bowl.
- Heat the cream in a small pan on the stove just until you see bubbles around the edge of the pan.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let the chocolate sit for about 1 minute to start to melt the chips.
- From there, stir until smooth. Note that this kind of ganache will never be perfectly smooth because of the lecithin that is added to chocolate chips to help them keep their shape during baking. Use traditional ganache when you want a smoother finish.
To use the ganache
To use the ganache- Spread on cookies, cakes, or sweet quick breads like banana bread. This ganache does best on less fancy desserts because of it’s not perfectly smooth finish. Think big craggy cookies and Rice Krispie treats.
- Set the cookies in the freezer for a few minutes to set the ganache. Once the ganache is set, you can stack cookies and store them in a lidded container in the fridge or freezer.
- Use ganache within 1 week, kept in the fridge. You can warm it for a few seconds in the microwave to make it a spreadable consistency again.
Think big craggy cookies and Rice Krispie treats.
- Prep Time: 1 minute
- 2 minutes:
- Cook Time: 2 minutes
- Category: Baking building blocks
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: French
