For the sour cream ganache, Rose recommends using semi-sweet chocolate that doesn’t exceed 53% cocoa solids or the sour cream could taste bitter.  It seems “these days” that you either find milk chocolate or 70%+.  (I know that ghiradelli mades a 60% baking bar and an unspecified “semi-sweet” baking bar that is probably a bit less, but I don’t like either of these.)

Would you think that I could mix a 70% dark with a milk chocolate that is 42% cocoa solids?  If I did that 50/50, I would average 56% cocoa solids, so I’d probably go 60/40 or 55/45, wth the greater amount being the milk chocolate.

I don’t see how this would be a problem, but as the recipe specified semi-sweet and one never knows what chemicals can do when introduced to one another in unexpected circumstances, I thought I’d ask!

Thanks so much for any thoughts!!!

—ak

I use the ghiradelli and the end result is delicious.  Are you making the cake on the cover?  I think that was the cake with the sour cream ganache. It was sinful.

Callebaut sells a bulk 53% dark chocolate that would work well, my store sells it in chunks in the cheese section.

If you want to use the 70%, reduce the chocolate and add sugar to make it equivalent to a 53%.  For a recipe that calls for 340g of 53% chocolate, you’d need to reduce the chocolate to 257g and add 83g of sugar to the sour cream.  In order to get the sugar to dissolve, you might want to use superfine, or grind it, and stir it in well ahead of time.

Good luck, hope you’ll post a pic!

OMG!  I just popped back to this thread to post that I’m making a different frosting instead, and I noticed my thank you to you both was not here!  I just got a new Blackberry, and I think it must have fallen victim to something I only noticed recently — accidentally hitting the backspace button instead of the enter button moves you back a screen and kills what you’d entered.  Shocking!

So, first, apologies.

Now, re-thanks!

Baker—thanks for your thoughts on the Ghiradelli!  Did you use the kind marked 60% or the one that was, I think, marked semisweet but didn’t have a percentage listed on the lable?  (If you remember, that is.)

Julie, thanks for the chocolate advice.  I wasn’t sure if it was better to mix the dark and milk to achieve the percentage, so I appreciate the advice on reducing chocolate and adding sugar.  I recently found that section in my new TCB, BTW, FYI.  (LOL!)

Anyway, thank you both!

Since I just did a choco, I’m going to try a honey cream cheese buttercream, but I will keep all this in mind for future sour cream ganache!