First thing’s first: is white chocolate really chocolate? The answer is, no, not technically. In order for chocolate to be chocolate, it needs to include cocoa solids, and white chocolate has none. It does, however, have cocoa butter (which I guess is close enough to warrant naming it a “chocolate”), along with a few other ingredients like sugar, milk fat, milk solids, and lecithin (a natural fatty substance found in some plants and animals). So now that we know that white chocolate is an impostor, let’s talk about what white chocolate really is.
What is White Chocolate?
It’d be fun to say that white chocolate came about by some mad scientist experiment where a chef was trying to make chocolate, but forgot some key ingredient and ended up with some kooky sweet concoction. But alas, the story isn’t that fun. White chocolate was invented in a lab at Nestle in the 1930s. Its original name was Milkybar.
Like we mentioned before, white chocolate is a mixture of cocoa butter, milk fat, milk solids, and sugar. Actually, white chocolate is regulated and has to be made from a recipe that’s at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% milk solids, 3.5% milk fat, and 55% – or less – sweetener. The mixture is sweet, for sure, but it doesn’t taste like chocolate. And sometimes, vanilla is added to the mixture making the whole thing very – well – vanilla-y.
White chocolate was always designed to be a candy bar in and of itself – a stand alone variety of candy or sweet. And because it’s not the same consistency and makeup as milk or dark chocolate, it doesn’t have the same tendencies when you melt it. This means that it doesn’t work well as a substitute for chocolate in recipes. You can still use white chocolate as a recipe ingredient, but it has to be a recipe designed specifically for white chocolate.
If you’re a fan of white chocolate, it can really be used in all kinds of ways:
- Cookies
- Brownies
- Fudge
- White Chocolate Bark
- White Chocolate Fondue
- White Chocolate Biscotti
But we want to hear from you – do you love white chocolate or hate it? Do you have a favorite recipe featuring white chocolate? Share with us in the comments!
