I just made milk chocolate Ganache and it looks oily and a little separated I've only made dark chocolate before and I didn't have this problem. I reduced the amount of cream to make up for the milk chocolate. I used 23oz of chocolate and 6.5oz of heavy cream.
Does it get better after it sets up? Is there a special trick to milk chocolate? I know there's some experts out there who will know the answer to this

I just warmed it up in the microwave and it looks like it came together Hopefully this will work, but I would love to know why this happened so I could avoid it in the future...anybody????

Try mixing it in a food processor.

I made some not that long ago that came out oily. I had melted my chocolate ahead of time, since I had a lot of it, and I'm pretty sure that I got the cream too hot. I think the combination between the two caused problems for me. It wouldn't thick at room temp either.

I ended up using it to make chocolate icing, and froze the rest for a later use and started fresh on the ganache, since I was already having cake issues.

I ended up throwing in the towel. After I warmed it up it looked great and even looked good as it was cooling on the counter, but as soon as I stirred it, it just looked gross, tasted good, but looked gross and separated, Maybe it was all of the tears I cried into it It was for my dad's birthday cake and he ended up getting ice cream sandwiches because I flopped on 2 cakes I still can't figure out what went wrong?!?!?!?

It sounds like you broke the emulsion. If it can be fixed, you need to let it get back to about body temperature and whisk. If it won't come together it's probably because you cooked the chocolate by overheating it or having it in the micro too long. Another fix is to try and melt more chocolate over a double boiler and add it, sometimes adding a little fresh is all the kick it needs.

Good luck,

Jen

Did you use real chocolate or those candy melts?

I used ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. I heated the cream in a pan just until it started to simmer and then poured it over the chocolate. I let it sit for about 5 minutes and then stirred it. It was really hard to stir at first (like glue) which I did not notice when I tried it with dark chocolate.

agree with FromScratch, think your chocolate either seized or overheated. Chocolate is temperamental, if it's stirred too much, temperature exceeds 120F, drops of water (or even steam) came in contact... then perfect emulsion can brake.

It will seize or turn into a grainy, clumpy mess in the bowl if even a small amount of water comes in contact. If is overheated, it will be quite thick and lumpy. Seized chocolate cannot be fixed, but it can be put to other uses, on the other hand is -sometimes- possible to save overheated chocolate.

If the chocolate has seized, there is really no way back to the original chocolate. However, if some more water is added, the grainy mass magically turns silky smooth again. What happens is that the emulsion inverts; whereas fat was the continuous phase in chocolate, now water is the continuous phase and the fat is distributed/"dissolved" in the water. This emulsion might be quite stable and a good starting point to many wondrous things such as drinking cocoa, chocolate sauce, ganache/truffles, foam/mousse ("chocolate chantilly") or even as part of a brownie or cake recipe.

If the chocolate was overheated you will want to cool the chocolate, as it is harder to save overheated chocolate that has been at a high temperature for a long time. To cool the chocolate, remove the bowl from the heat source, transfer the chocolate to a dry, cool bowl, and stir in a handful of solid chocolate chunks. Stir constantly and allow the solid chocolate to bring down the temperature of the melted chocolate.

Then, if thick or lumpy,try straining it through a sieve first. If this doesnt solve the problem, add a spoonful of vegetable oil or melted vegetable shortening and stir thoroughly. You can also try adding some freshly melted chocolate with a few drops of soy liquid lecithin (an emulsifier, available at health food stores), or using a handheld immersion blender to smooth the chocolate. If none of these tricks helps your chocolate, save it for use in baking recipes and begin again with a fresh batch of chocolate.

Hope it helps