Chocolate frosting variations

Argh! Tried to de-clutter and lost my husband’s favorite chocolate frosting recipe!

Couldn’t find it on CI, although I’m pretty sure it was from one of their mags. I’ve been subscribing to CI for a very long time, so I don’t feel too wretched about sharing the fact that I remembered it on a Chowhound thread.

The first is the one I was looking for, but I always wonder about those with butter.

"Here’s the CI recipe:
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
16 oz. bitter or semi sweet choc, chopped into pieces
1/3 c. corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat cream to boil, pour over chocolate pieces. Add corn syrup, let rest 3 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Refrigerate 1-1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until spreadable.

I wonder how that compares to Rosie Beranbaum’s milk chocolate frosting that I usually make (really rich):

1 lb milk chocolate
8 oz. dark chocolate
12 oz. butter, softened

Break choc. into squares and melt in double boiler. Remove and stir until completely melted. Cool. Beat butter w/ mixer at medium speed. Beat in cooled chocolate until uniform in color."

Reply"

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Timely thread - I was watching ATK today and caught an episode with a chocolate sheet cake recipe with milk chocolate frosting. I haven’t tried it myself, but the texture looked lovely. Super simple to make, too - just melt one pound milk chocolate with 2/3 cup of cream, then whisk in 16 tablespoons of butter (room temp) and stir until it melts and is fully incorporated. Refrigerate until cool and thickened, then whisk until smooth and slightly lighter in color.

I typically find milk chocolate too sweet but atop a very dark chocolate cake, I thought this might be a winner.

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Thank you. Do you know if a frosting with butter does okay at room temp? I was reading about various butter creams, and it was m ed mentioned that some don’t do well in warm .

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I recently did a chocolate ganache with half milk and half semisweet chocolate and that mix worked well for us.

I whipped it a bit, but didn’t want it fluffy per se, so not too much.

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I think the second one would be fine at room temp due to all the chocolate. Cocoa butter is firmer than butter fat at room temp. Also, the only added water is from the butter, vs the top one that would be ‘looser’ with the liquid in the cream.

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It really depends on how warm room temp is, and whether there are other stabilizing ingredients in the recipe. I would probably shy away from these ganache-style frostings in warm weather unless I knew the environment was well air conditioned. For something a bit more stable, you might try a cooked flour or ermine frosting, possibly with mix of shortening and butter instead of all butter if you really want to make sure it holds up in the heat.

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