Chocolate ganache

Ganache is one of the easiest things you can do to class up a plain cake, pretzels, or some less-than-stellar strawberries. It's just chopped chocolate with scalded hot cream poured over it. Use whatever kind of chocolate you like, though let's be real: white chocolate is NOT OKAY (if you're trying to feed me anyway). In this recipe, I used a mix of Ghiradelli Twilight (72% cacao), Trader Joe's 72% dark chocolate, and one cup of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Chocolate ganache
(makes about 1 1/2 - 2 cups)

Place 8-9 oz roughly chopped chocolate in a medium-sized heatproof bowl. Heat 1 cup heavy whipping cream to just under a boil. You want bubbles forming, but no violent motion. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for about 1 minute. Stir the chocolate and cream around until the chocolate is completely melted.

Into this ganache, you can dip pretzels, cake pieces, Oreos, strawberries, bananas, salted peanuts, potato chips--go wild. Place the dipped items on wax paper and put them in the fridge so the ganache can harden up. Alternatively, slather this on a cake or use it as an ice cream topping.