Thursday, October 14, 2010

Low Fat Milk Ganache - Cheat To Indulge!!


Do you believe in low-fat food? My answer is yes and no. I believe only in relatively low fat food. Oh yep, let me apologize at the beginning of this post if I sound like a sermonizing dietitian, since I am not one. A dietitian I mean:-). Having a tendency to gain weight easily, lose it slowly, a couple of lessons I learnt during the course of weight loss are something I am not going to forget in a hurry.

One of those lessons is, its NOT fine to eat as much food as you like as long as it is healthy, when you are on a weight loss programme. This is applicable specially to sweets and desserts which are usually made with All Purpose Flour or Maida as the main ingredient, are loaded with sugar and at least some quantity of fat thrown in. Well, sometimes the sugar is replaced with an artificial sweetener or honey or jaggery making this a 'healthy and sugar free' sweet. Honey and jaggery may have more nutritional value as compared to sugar, but honey they are definitely not calorie free!! And when you eat a sugar-free dessert, your calories from sugar are reduced in the dessert, but the calories and fat from other ingredients in the dessert are not zapped away!!!

The point I am trying to communicate is, be vary of  low fat food. Its great to eat low fat food, but is really helpful only when you eat the same in normal or small quantities and only as frequently as you are allowed to indulge. Do not binge on low fat food as you will not lose weight. If you have to lose weight, you have to create a calorific deficit. This is created when you take in less calories as compared to the calories you burn. That is when you can lose weight. That is the reason you are supposed to eat even vegetables and salads in the prescribed quantities as as advised by your dietitian. And end of my boring little speech..

So, ladies and gentlemen.. prehsenting.. a relatively Low Fat Ganache which I insist you try for sure, but treat yourself to a small portion. 


This idea for the low fat ganache was from a chef at a popular resort. I had to experiment with the proportion though to get a ganache of piping consistency. Here is what I did

Ingredients:
Low fat milk: 1/2 Cup
Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips / Chopped dark chocolate: 2 Cups
Unsalted butter: 2 teaspoons( you can omit this if you are not particular about the glaze)
Vanilla extract / Essence - 1 teaspoon, optional. 

Procedure: Heat the milk and the butter in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to minimum. Add the chocolate and stir gently with a spatula till all the chocolate melts and you have a smooth, velvety mixture. Take the saucepan off the heat. Cover the saucepan with a clingfilm and allow the ganache to come to room temperature. Stir in the vanilla(if using) and strain the mixture to get rid of any small lumps or air bubbles. Make sure the vanilla is at room temperature and not cold or the chocolate may seize.

The ganache was almost of pouring consistency and not very thick(like ganache made with cream). The consistency at this point of time is perfect to be used as a dessert topping or pouring ganache. Since I wanted to try piping the ganache, I put it in the fridge. I left it overnight as it was quite late. A couple of hours in the fridge should get the cream to piping consistency.

If the ganache is too thick when taken out of the fridge, leave it at room temperature for some time or warm very carefully for a few seconds in the microwave. Use as needed. 

I was able to pipe the ganache quite well, but had to use my free hand to 'cut off' the ganache after piping. Which is why you see tiny thin tails on the top.

This can be a perfect frosting for a low fat cake .The taste was good, but not as rich like a ganache made with cream.  But definitely worth a try I can assure you... So cheat to indulge, but just a bit:-))































18 comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Omg, absolutely looking delicious..thanks for sharing this low fat ganache, very useful for me..

FewMinute Wonders said...

Low fat with low fat coming from the milk is not a bad thing. Its good to have the icing and eat it too.

Nitha said...

Looks interesting..

notyet100 said...

thts a nice recipe,..;)

Prathima Rao said...

An irresistible recipe which will be useful to all!!!Thx for sharing!

Sushma Mallya said...

Looks so beautiful...very yummy

Treat and Trick said...

So healthy and beautiful, I too love to choose low fat version for my baking..

Rookie Qookie said...

That's super cool...esp since I keep baking every now and then and my jeans these days are stretched to the maximum..hehhe
Thanks for sharing..

Cheers,
Reshmi

Sum said...

Very tempting!

Satya said...

thankq suma for ur beautiful comments ...u really made my day ..have a happy weekend

Satya
http://www.superyummyrecipes.com

Divya Kudua said...

Rujuta Diwekar,in her book says the same thing.It is better to stick to regular food than low-fat,because we assume low-fat is good and eat endless quantities whereas,we are cautious while eating regular food.Thanks for the recipe though,I've not been baking for a while now[you know why]!!

Anonymous said...

OMG, absolute treat to my eyes. Wonderful presentation!

Anonymous said...

Wow, wow, wow!!
Im definitely going to need this very soon, but Im not going to eat it for sure ;) Will fatten people around me, but not myself...LOL! Thanks heaps for sharing this Suma!

Anonymous said...

PS: I love what you have done with your ganache. Those swirls look so cute!

Anonymous said...

Can I use this ganache for icing cake or making flowers for my cake?

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the basics of this recipe. I tweaked it a bit and thought I would share it with you. I used no fat half and half for the milk portion and only used 1/3 cup. I added 3 Tlb. of no fat sweetened condensed milk (this helped make the no fat half and half thicker). Followed the rest except that I also used some very dark unsweetened cocoa for some of the chocolate to help cut back on the fat. End result - Absolutely awesome! Used the ganache onto of some Chocolate Porter cupcakes I made! Not too sweet and pared with the cupcake really nicely.

Kayla said...

Can this ganache be put into the center of a cupcake and then baked?

Also, whats the texture of this? Is it solid or creamy?

Thanks! :)

Suma Rowjee said...

Hi Kayla! This is creamy and thick when chilled as you can see in the pictures. You could try freezing the ganache and then put in the center of cake. Do let me know if you try!