Yerba Mate Chocolate Ganache

Ganache and macarons go together like peanut butter and jelly! Everyone needs a tried and true ganache recipe and this one is sure to impress!

In any ganache recipe, the key players are chocolate, cream, and sometimes butter.

I highly suggest using quality chocolate like Callebaut, Guittard, or Valrhona. But if it’s not in the budget, don’t stress about it! Get the best chocolate chips you can find at the grocery store and the recipe should work, the ganache will just set a little differently (most likely a bit looser). That being said, when making white chocolate ganaches, you really have to make sure cocoa butter is in the ingredients or your ganache will never set well. But, that’s a topic for another blog.

When grabbing your cream at the grocery store, get the heavy whipping cream that is 36% fat or higher.

And for the last player, when purchasing your butter, I suggest a higher fat European style unsalted butter. It blends into the ganache smoother and adds a wonderful mouthfeel. If you use American style butter, then just make sure you have an immersion blender handy in case it stays a little granulated.

If you want a classic dark chocolate ganache, check out my full tutorial here along with a few of my other favorite macaron fillings.

Today, we are going to add a fun twist on the classic chocolate ganache and infuse our cream with a delicious Yerba Mate.

Yerba Mate is a traditional South American drink made from dried leaves of the holly tree. When combined with quality chocolate, it creates a decadent treat that is both sweet and slightly bitter. Here’s how to make it:

Yerba Mate Dark Chocolate Ganache

140 g Heavy whipping cream

8 g Mate (loose leaf) — I used a roasted Mate

9 g Light Corn Syrup or Glucose

150 g Dark Chocolate

25 g Milk Chocolate

25 g Unsalted Butter (softened)

Recipe will fill roughly 2-2.5 dozen macarons depending on how big your macarons are and how much you fill your macarons.

Method:

• Heat cream to a simmer, stir in mate, cover and steep 5 minutes.

• Prepare your butter by adding it into a small bowl and using a spatula cream the butter to a soft mixture. Set aside.

• After steeping, strain the cream. Using a spatula, press down on leaves in your strainer to get all the cream out of the leaves.

• Rescale cream to 140g in a clean pot. I usually have to replenish about 15g of cream here.

• Add in corn syrup and bring mixture to a simmer once more

• While cream in heating up, scale both chocolates into a heat safe bowl and microwave on 50% power (or melt over a double boiler) until the mixture is almost fully melted.

• Once cream is at a simmer again, pour over semi melted chocolate and let it sit 1 minute to melt the remaining chocolate pieces.

• Using a spatula, start to emulsify your mixture from the center with little circular motions and slowly work your way out from the middle.

• Once you have a smooth ganache, take a bit of the ganache and spoon it into your creamed butter. We are tempering in our butter here. Mix ganache with butter until homogeneous and then add it back into your main bowl with ganache.

• Emulsify mixture once more until smooth. You may use an immersion blender if the ganache isn’t as smooth as you’d like.

• Place plastic wrap over the surface of the ganache and let sit at room temperature to set up. Around 2-4 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

• Once set, pipe from room temperature onto your macarons or use as a filling for other cookies, cakes, truffles.

Recipe can be frozen or refrigerated. Make sure to bring to room temperature before trying to work with the ganache. Shelf life is 1 week in the refrigerator and up to 3 months in the freezer.

This ganache is such a fun variation on the classic dark chocolate ganache. Having the milk chocolate increases the base sweetness to balance the slight bitterness the Yerba Mate and makes for a wonderful bite inside a macaron! You could also substitute with other teas, such as english breakfast or earl grey.

I can’t wait for you to try this recipe! It was a huge hit in this household.