What Is Namelaka, and Why Do Pastry Chefs Love It?

By Stephanie Loo

A couple months ago, when I was staging at a recently opened New York restaurant, I stumbled upon a word on the dessert menu that I had never seen before: namelaka. Maybe you haven’t heard of it either—but I think you’ll be just as pleased as I was to learn about this simple and versatile chocolate cream.

Namelaka, which translates as “smooth” or “creamy” in Japanese, is basically a velvety, slightly firm style of ganache. It’s popular in modern pastry kitchens thanks to its silky-smooth texture, which falls somewhere between pastry cream, mousse, and ganache—making it extremely adaptable for various dessert applications.

Namelaka walks a fine balance. It has enough structure for filling and building cakes, but at the same time, it offers a light creaminess on the palate. It’s versatile enough to work in almost any dessert that has a creamy component, and if you’re like me, it’s also the perfect impromptu dessert almost on its own. A big spoonful of namelaka topped with crunchy nuts, cookie crumbles (or whatever streusel I have around at home) is as good as any dessert in a fancy coupe glass I could order at a restaurant.

Here’s even more good news: Despite its rich, luscious character, namelaka is totally simple to prepare.

At its core, namelaka consists of just milk, heavy cream, chocolate, and gelatin, which adds structure and stability. And unlike many pastry cream and chocolate cremeaux recipes, namelaka is both egg- and gluten-free.

It’s also much easier to make than pastry cream. If you have 10 minutes, you can whip up some namelaka. You don’t need to find your thermometer or worry about whether your filling is cooked to the proper consistency. Making namelaka is as easy as pouring a mixture of hot milk and gelatin over chocolate, whisking until the mixture is smooth, and then letting it set up in the refrigerator overnight.

When made correctly, namelaka should be firm enough to make decorative swirls and swooshes with a piping bag but loose enough that it doesn’t need to be re-whipped after setting in the refrigerator. Namelaka takes only a few minutes to prepare, but it’s crucial to use the correct ratio of ingredients in order to achieve the perfect texture and mouthfeel. It’s also important to plan ahead, as the namelaka will need six hours or more to properly set up in the refrigerator before using. (Ideally, you’ll rest it overnight.) Before putting it in the fridge, just be sure to cover it with plastic wrap directly touching the namelaka in order to prevent a skin from forming on the surface.

There’s no added sugar in namelaka, so the sweetness of the final product will depend entirely on the chocolate you use. As a rule, the higher the percentage of cocoa, the more bitter the namelaka will be. Since there are so few ingredients in the recipe, the flavor of the chocolate will really shine, and it’s important to use a high-quality brand of chocolate (I like Valrhona, Callebaut, or Guittard). When making the recipe, chop the chocolate into small pieces, the size of almonds or even finer, so that it melts completely when you pour the hot milk over it. Whole milk is your best bet here, as a plant-based milk or dairy milk with lower fat content may not provide the same thickness and consistency.

Namelaka improves and elevates any dessert it touches: Pipe it into pâte à choux for chocolate cream puffs and eclairs, or use it to fill doughnuts, pies, or tarts. Namelaka also works as a creamy layer in a cake or as frosting or decoration for cakes and cupcakes. It might be preferable to a buttercream when you’re looking for an intensely chocolaty flavor or a silkier mouthfeel. I’ve even used it in a very nontraditional tiramisu—but honestly, I love just eating it with a spoon.

You know you want a slice.

In my newest recipe for Epicurious, namelaka is both the filling and the frosting for a dreamy chocolate layer cake with malted milk powder and cherries. The sweet-tart flavor of the cherries cuts through the richness of the other components, while the malted milk powder—which appears in both the namelaka and the cake itself—adds a toasty nuttiness.

Malted milk powder is my go-to pairing with chocolate, but when it comes to flavoring the namelaka, anything goes. There are a few ways in which you can incorporate additional flavors. The first (and probably easiest) way is infusing the milk with ingredients such as citrus zest, cinnamon sticks, ground or whole spices, or tea as it warms on the stove. You’ll then strain out whatever you infused the milk with before proceeding with the recipe as normal.

To extract even more flavor, you can boil the milk with your desired ingredient the night before and chill it in the refrigerator overnight. When you’re ready to make the namelaka, strain the milk through a sieve, add back milk to compensate for any liquid lost due to evaporation during the boiling stage, and then proceed with the recipe as directed. This requires an extra day and an extra step, but it will result in the most potent flavor. Keep in mind that some ingredients—such as matcha powder or freeze-dried fruit powder—may turn bitter when cooked with the milk, so it’s better to wait and mix them into the namelaka when you add in the cold heavy cream.

White or milk chocolate can also be substituted for dark chocolate, although you will have to increase the amount of chocolate in the recipe by 100 grams (350 grams instead of 250 grams for white or milk chocolate), because they contain less cocoa butter than dark chocolate. White chocolate is ideal when you really want the flavor of the infusions to shine through, or when you want to add a more delicate flavor that might be overpowered by milk or dark chocolate. On its own, white chocolate namelaka might be overly sweet, but it acts as a terrific blank canvas to showcase whatever spices, herbs, and various flavors you might add. Milk chocolate, on the other hand, produces a namelaka that is chocolaty, sweet, and creamy and can still stand up to more intense flavors, such as chai tea, coffee beans, or orange zest.

Namelaka is a simple and versatile pastry marvel that manages to be both light and stable at the same time. Soon you’ll be using it to fill, frost, or decorate all of your desserts—or if you’re like me, eating it straight out of the fridge.