— Mitch Miglis

Well, um, we can find a substitute. Um, let me, let's talk about coconut butter and the advantage there just very quickly. Um, you know, coconut butter, it, it'll start to set up pretty hard, you know, at, um, at room temperature. And if it gets any chill at all in the air, it's gonna be pretty hard. And that's what gives, um, the, uh, a lot of the structure, okay, um, to the chocolate ganache. Um, so if we remove the cocoa butter, ideally we would find something that also sets up hard at room temperature, okay? And we've had students that would try, um, to, to just replace that with a nut puree or, uh, a date paste. And while those things, uh, certainly taste good, um, uh, they are still a little bit lacking in the structure element. Um, but you can give that a try and see if it might fit, uh, you know, your particular application. Um, now another thought is that if you were to melt some, uh, chocolate, the higher the cocoa content, well, yeah, the higher the, the cocoa butter content, the, the better. Uh, but, but basically, if you melt some chocolate and then, uh, incorporate that into that, uh, that filling or that base, that right will set up hard, uh, when it's chilled. And, uh, you know, for example, we've got other, um, sort of pie and, and, you know, chocolate mousse sort of, um, recipes, uh, that call for a combination of tofu and, um, melted chocolate and, uh, that the chocolate, uh, you know, when it sets up is, uh, gives it a lot of structure. And so that's, uh, you know, perhaps something to keep in mind. In fact, just a couple of days ago, um, you know, chef Char, uh, shared with me, um, a, uh, a chocolate cheesecake recipe that came from via Instagram, and it, it is baked, give it this, this look, um, of, uh, of a baked cheesecake. Um, but it, um, you know, it had tofu and then it had, uh, melted chocolate in it, and it's set up beautifully, uh, you know, very, very stiff and, and, uh, and rich and smooth. And so, uh, you can certainly then adjust, right? The quantity of chocolate, if you want something that's gonna be, you know, harder or a little bit, uh, softer, um, you know, once it's, uh, chilled. So you have some control through experimentation as well. Um, but do give that a try and again, see if, uh, there might be a solution in there that fits, um, you know, the way that you're gonna serve it, uh, as well as your preference for the, the viscosity or the stiffness okay. Of that filling. Okay? And, and I, and so I'll give you an example. Um, if you're going to serve this in a crust, like in a pie form, or, you know, a tort sort of a form, and you're gonna cut out wedges and serve them, you know, you want that feeling to set up enough that it's not going to ooze onto the plate shortly after you slice it. Uh, you want that appearance to, to stand up, um, so that, uh, the, the guests can enjoy that, uh, presentation as well. But on the other hand, if you're gonna serve it, you know, as a moose that's, uh, maybe in a, in a, a wine glass or in a ram in, then the structure is less important. Um, you just wanna maintain some mouth feel, uh, that's gonna be a satisfactory to you and your guests.