We've been thinking a lot about white chocolate since hearing it discussed on Good Food last week. This chocolate definitely gets short shrift in the food world, and we admit to often passing it over ourselves in favor of dark, bitter chocolates. But David Lebovitz and Evan Kleiman are right - white chocolate deserves a little more credit. What do you think of it?
It's true that white chocolate isn't "real" chocolate in that it doesn't contain any actual cocoa nibs. Instead, white chocolate is made almost entirely of cocoa butter with sugars and other solids mixed in.
The flavor is milky and light - like eating solid cream. We think it's very smooth and has a great melting quality. Like anything, there are great white chocolates and not-so-great white chocolates out there. Finding one you like requires sampling different kinds whenever you can - what a tough job!
As Lebovitz mentions in the Good Food interview, white chocolate makes a good foil for other flavors. Tart fruits and berries are a sure bet, as are any other strongly-flavored, forward ingredients. It also goes extraordinarily well with tropical flavors like coconut, macadamia nuts, and mango.
Used in baking, we think that white chocolate adds a rounded background flavor. You wouldn't know it was there if it wasn't pointed out to you, but it mellows out other flavors and gives richness.
We like making white chocolate mousse for dessert and then topping it with a sauce made of seasonal berries. Lebovitz, of course, makes ice cream!
How do you use white chocolate in your cooking and baking? What are your favorite flavor combinations?
Related: Chocolate's Savory Side: Don't Wait for Dessert!
(Image: Flickr member kim siciliano salem licensed under Creative Commons)
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White Chocolate Cheesecake and black coffee, please.
I agree- White Chocolate deserves more credit! white chocolate mousse is one of my favorite desserts...
I love making chocolate covered strawberries with white chocolate. I've made them with milk and dark chocolate as well as I just think the flavor blends so well with fruit, as you said.
For some reason, I really don't like the stuff. I think it has a really cloying taste. Too sweet and too rich (and that is NEVER a problem with anything else for me).
I suspect my dislike might be tied to a field trip to a candy factory I took as a little girl. We were given so much white chocolate I probably got my lifetime fix and so haven't been able to eat any more since.
Good timing on the white chocolate post. I was at the store this past weekend and walked past the baking aisle checking out the chocolates. The Ghiradelli(sp?) premium white, white chocolate caught my eye, so I took a look at the ingredients. To my surprise, it contained no cocoa butter, but instead used palm oil as the fat. Then I looked at the Nestle white chocolate and it too contained no cocoa butter, using palm oil instead. I then grabbed the house brand white chocolate and amazingly, it used cocoa butter. I was befuddled: 2 name brand chocolates faking the public making mockolate for the sake of profit, while the lowly house brand gives us the real stuff. Very odd.
In any event, I bought a bag of the house brand, but I don't know what to make with it.
i've always wanted to try a flourless white chocolate torte but have heard that you need real chocolate or else the texture doesn't work. yea? nay?
i'm w/ moema. white chocolate just doesn't do it for me. always tastes slightly off/stale/bad. too sweet, too much of a weird aftertaste. all this time, i thought i was the only person in the world who didn't like white chocolate. i'm not alone!
I think it's fantastic under the right circumstances (mousse, on fresh strawberries, etc.)
But I'm also a person that would count a real buttercream icing as a food group if I could.
I've never really cared for it either. Its too sweet/rich. It tastes off and usually gives me a headache. I can deal with it as an ingredient background ingredient in moderation, but avoid entirely as the showcase flavor.
I also don't care for frosting all that much either, so maybe that has something to do with it...
(exceptions include chocolate frosting in combination with yellow cake, and white frosting in combination with strawberry cake. That's about it.)
I think I'll third moema's comment. I really dislike white chocolate by itself but it works well in fruit flavored truffles like my beloved key lime truffels.
I don't care for it on its own or as the predominant flavor, but I was won over by its inclusion in a cake recipe (White Chocolate Whisper Cake in the Rose Beranbaum's the Cake Bible) - the cocoa butter added such a softness to the crumb that I can understand why it's Rose's favorite white cake (which can be dry).
White chocolate is usually flavored with vanilla, so if you don't like vanilla or the vanilla flavoring is not good, it's awful. I love vanilla, so *good* white chocolate is heaven. So often, however, what's marketed as white chocolate is overly sweet, harsh imitation vanilla flavored, and grainy.
Make these cookies and you will rethink white chocolate: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/006154brandied_cranberry_white_chocolate_chip_cookies.php (I did for mother's day and my family couldn't stop talking about the rich flavor.)
My husband's favourite chocolate is white chocolate, something I always found suspect.
However, he has taught me to appreciate it, although I sometimes find it too sweet.
He won me over with the famous Belgian chocolate, the Manon, which is robed in white chocolate --
http://www.leonidas.com/pralines?id=DETEN&prod=543&hcat=18&cat=36
http://www.leonidas.com/pralines?id=DETEN&prod=533&hcat=18&cat=36
The best is Daskalides version, with a whole walnut
http://www.daskalides.com/en/pralines.aspx?id=38
mmmmm
I make coconut macaroons dipped in white chocolate and they are requested at every party. The recipe originally suggested dipping in semisweet chocolate but the creaminess of the white chocolate just matches perfectly with the chewiness ofthe macaroons. Simple recipe but melt in your mouth good.
Oh, and I also just had a friend's white chocolate and raspberry scones and am waiting for her to give me that recipe because they were soooo yummy. Good pairing.
i love white chocolate, but i made lebovitz's recipe for the ice cream, and it was almost inedibly sweet. i could only eat a few bites. i miss the nestle alpine white bar. mmm.