I am going to make Ganache for the first time. I looked in the receipes and there are basically two different ones. One with butter and one without. Which do you prefer? Is there a difference in the consistency or taste. Thanks for your opinions!!!!!

I like to use butter in my ganache. Good Chocolate deserves butter!

In my opinion there really isnt much difference in taste. but the butter will make the chocolate stay a little softer when in cools.

I vote for adding butter.

I haven't looked at the recipes on this site. Many recipes call for semi-sweet chocolate. That's okay for strawberries, but I'll use milk chocolate in the future. Milk chocolate is just a more familiar taste and therefore it seems "better" to me.

Hope that made sense!

you can do it without butter and add 1 -2 tsp. butter flavoring as an option.

I do it without butter - just stray cream and chocolate.

i use just cream and chocolate for truffle ganache. adding butter is great for adding shine, which is ideal for pouring thinner ganache over a cake.

using milk chocolate to make ganache is a little tricker, as milk chocolate is softer than dark; when making truffles i always decrease my cream somewhat to balance this, or i do a blend of milk and dark (yum!).

the question is, what are you making the ganache for? this should direct what you put in it, and morever, what your ratio of ingredients should be to acheive the consistency you need. i find butter in ganache for truffles (which are eaten on their own) to be too cloying, while butter in ganache that will cover a cake and be eaten with cake, to be rather lovely.

I will be using it to pour down the sides of grooms cake so it sounds like w/ butter would be the better way to go. You explained alot. Thanks

I prefer dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate in my ganache. On occasion I will add butter if I using it as a filling. If I am using it as icing I don't add butter.