Easy No-Cream Lemon White Chocolate Ganache

The best easy lemon white chocolate ganache without cream. Instead, the cream is replaced by fridge staples - milk and butter - for a zesty lemon ganache frosting.

✏️ Why you'll love this recipe

This easy lemon ganache recipe has a slightly more thick and curd-like consistency than a regular white chocolate ganache. It's also still super creamy with no cream.

This 4-ingredient lemon white chocolate ganache without heavy cream is perfect for icing cakes and cupcakes or filling your chocolates and macarons. You can also use it as a lemon white chocolate drip without cream.

It's one of my favourite white chocolate lemon frosting ideas, and it's great using cupboard staples and fresh lemons.

🥘 Ingredients

This lemon white chocolate ganache no cream recipe calls for the following ingredients:

• Butter: use unsalted butter to control the salt content and real butter not baking spread.
• Milk: semi-skimmed or full-fat milk works best.
• White chocolate: use cooking chocolate or melting wafers for ease of melting.
• Lemon zest and juice: use fresh lemons for a full zesty flavour.

See the recipe card for quantities.

Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.

♻️ Substitutions / Variations

You can swap the butter and milk for cream for a more traditional white chocolate lemon ganache. Use 180ml (1 ¼ cup) heavy cream.

For more lemon flavour, stir in a few teaspoons of lemon curd to your curd before it sets. Make sure it's room temperature or warm it in the microwave briefly first.

I love my lemon ganache to have quite the zesty kick, so I put 2 lemons of zest and juice into the mix. If you prefer a more subtle flavour, then try adding 1½ lemons' zest and juice instead.

Instead of lemon, you can swap this for another citrus fruit, such as lime. For this, I would use 3 limes instead of the 2 lemons.

📖 Method

1. Heat the butter and milk together until almost boiling, either in a microwave (30 secs at a time) or in a pan over the stove on medium heat.
2. Break the white chocolate up into small pieces in a heatproof bowl and pour the hot butter and milk mix over the white chocolate. Cover and leave for 3-4mins.
3. Stir the mix until smooth, with all of the white chocolate melted. If the white chocolate hasn’t fully melted (i.e. you can see small chocolate lumps) you can put this back into the microwave / over the heat for a bit longer until smooth.
4. Add in the lemon zest and juice, stirring until evenly mixed throughout. It will look thin and runny per the below 'Before' image.
5. Let the mix cool until set for at least an hour in the fridge until it has a peanut butter consistency ('After' image below), then use as desired.

💭 Top tips

• For the best lemon ganache, use white chocolate from the baking aisle for ease of melting. Make sure to break your white chocolate into small, even pieces if you don’t use melting white chocolate chips.
• Heat the milk and butter mix slowly and stop before boiling so it doesn't burn the chocolate, giving you a smooth white chocolate lemon ganache.
• Any
• For whipped lemon ganache frosting as a fluffy icing for cakes and cupcakes, beat your set ganache with an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer) for several minutes until pale and fluffy.
• Heat your no-cream white chocolate lemon ganache in the microwave for 30secs for a deliciously warm lemon white chocolate glaze sauce to drizzle over your treats.

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📋 Recipe

No-Cream Lemon White Chocolate Ganache

Kachina

An easy lemon white chocolate ganache that doesn’t require cream – perfect to quickly whip up a zesty and delicious frosting!

Rate this recipe here:

4.60 from 22 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Chill Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Fusion

Servings 14 Servings

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 125 g (½ cups) butter unsalted
• ▢ 180 ml (¾ cups) milk whole or semi-skimmed
• ▢ 500 g (3¾ cups) white chocolate
• ▢ 2 lemons' zest and juice

Instructions

 

• Heat the butter and milk together until almost boiling, either in a microwave (30 secs at a time) or in a pan over the stove on a medium heat.
• Break the chocolate up into small pieces in a heatproof bowl and pour the hot butter and milk mix over the chocolate. Cover and leave for 3-4mins.
• Stir the mix until smooth, with all of the chocolate melted. If the chocolate hasn’t fully melted (i.e. you can see small chocolate lumps) you can put this back into the microwave / over the heat for a bit longer until smooth.
• Add in the lemon zest and juice, stirring until evenly mixed throughout.
• Let the mix cool until set for at least an hour in the fridge, then use as desired.

Notes

Storage: Keep lemon ganache in an airtight container (or use cling film) in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Freezing: Freeze your lemon ganache in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost, re-beat if needed and enjoy!

Uses: This recipe makes enough ganache to frost a 2-layer cake (8-inch sponges, icing between layers and covering the outside) or roughly 14 cupcakes.

Top tips:

• Use good quality baking white chocolate from the cooking aisle for ease of melting.
• Heat your milk-butter mix slowly, microwaving in 20sec bursts, and stop before boiling to prevent it from burning your chocolate.
• You can whip your set lemon ganache for a soft and light frosting. Beat it with an electric mixer for several minutes until pale and fluffy.
• For warm lemon white chocolate sauce, heat your ganache in the microwave for 30secs and drizzle over your treats.

Nutrition

Calories: 269kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 39mg | Potassium: 140mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 255IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 92mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.

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