Candy Making Substitutions?

[iswari]

Would Earth Balance work in place of butter for the ganache of a truffle? I've used it in all kinds of baking with no problem, but have never tried using it for chocolates. Thanks!

Comments

[diarytypething]

I've found that rice milk tends to work really well for ganache. Definitely not soya milk because it tends to separate leave lumps of cocoa butter on the outside of the ganache, but melt the chocolate with a little bit of rice milk, maybe adding a bit of icing sugar if you need it to keep its shape, you get some pretty good chocolatey goo.

[iswari]

Maybe you misunderstood...I actually was asking about butter substitute, not milk substitute. A couple of the recipes I was looking at called for some butter and I wanted to know if I could veganize that or if the taste (esp since EB is a little salty) or texture would be weird.

[diarytypething]

I've never needed to use a butter substitute in ganache, and I don't think I ever used butter to make it in my pre-vegan days. So I was just passing on my own vague recipe to show that you don't need the a butter substitute in the first place.

[poisonstream]

earth balance has salt in it so you need to be careful with it in baking. not sure how that would effect truffles though.

when you type in "vegan truffle recipes" on google it yields a few recipes without any sort of butter subsitute

[iswari]

Thanks. I am trying to figure out if I can make a specific truffle recipe that does call for some butter, or if I should just scrap the idea if EB will screw it up. I was worried about the "too salty" thing.

[laughing_anima]

Nut butters work good for that, but they add their own flavor.

[blueheron]

I have used earth balance in ganache before, without a problem. EB, rice milk and high quality dark chocolate makes a lovely ganache. I never considered it "too salty".

That being said, if it is a concern for you, get your hands on some food grade cocoa butter. It is solid at room temperature (well, below 18 C, I think), like EB, but will compliment the chocolate better while still added the extra fat.

[iswari]

Oh, interesting! Where do you get that?

(And thanks.)

[blueheron]

Good question on where to get it. I can find it at some of the health food stores around here. Specialty food stores or maybe specialty chocolate shops (the kinds that make their own chocolates) might also sell some.

Sorry I can't be of more help!

[anonymous]

I've never had a problem with using it in ganache. Or in truffles/candy in general... :)

[freakykitten]

Sorry iswari... that was me!