We are of course talking about none other than the famous white chocolate, and the answer to this question varies and usually depends on who the person answering you is.
We could reasonably say that white chocolate either has ardent fans, or it’s hated.
The truth is, of course, that white chocolate has a sweeter and creamier taste than classic milk chocolate. But that’s not all.
The main ingredients of chocolate are cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Depending on the proportions of cocoa, the type of chocolate also changes.
For example, different proportions of cocoa exist in dark chocolate and others in milk chocolate.
Regarding white chocolate, however, something different applies. Solid cocoa is completely absent, i.e. the basic ingredient of chocolate.
In fact, in the past, white chocolate was often made even without cocoa butter, which many manufacturers replaced with other vegetable oils.
Since 2004, however, the US Food and Drug Administration has made it clear that for a dessert to be defined as “white chocolate” it must contain at least 20% cocoa butter.
How Can You Tell If You’re Eating Real White Chocolate?
Back in the day, there was a way to tell if what you were eating was white chocolate and it had to do with its color. If the white was ivory then it contained cocoa butter.
If it was pure white in color then some substitute had been used. Over the years, however, many manufacturers have managed to correct the color problem by using artificial pigments.
Otherwise, some other standards set by the US Food and Drug Administration for white chocolates are to contain 14% milk residue, 3.5% milk fat, and no more than 55% sugar or other sweeteners.
Now, the European Union has adopted the US standards, and based on them we can say that there is a clear definition of what white chocolate means.
Due to its great value in the cosmetics sector, cocoa butter is the most expensive component in the formula of white chocolate.
Thus, when mass-producing bars like Cadbury white chocolate are created for US consumers, they employ the bare minimum amount of cacao to maintain the term “white chocolate” on the packaging.
The product is then simply reclassified when they don’t match these requirements; they aren’t modified or removed from the market.
Health Benefits Of White Chocolate
It appears that good quality white chocolate (consisting of 32-45% cocoa butter) has benefits for the heart, strengthens blood platelets, and regulates bad cholesterol.
In addition, cocoa butter has anti-aging properties for the skin and while dark chocolate may help prevent anemia with its iron content.
White chocolate, on the other hand, compensates for the lack of iron with a natural dose of calcium contained in dairy ingredients.
Finally, white chocolate, among other things, is low in cholesterol and sodium, while it contains phosphorus, an element necessary for our body’s energy throughout the day.
Therefore, maybe white chocolate is somewhat wronged, as especially those that are of quality make up for an unprecedented tasting experience.
How Can I Use White Chocolate?
White chocolate can be used in a range of baked products and sweets, including cake icing and freshly baked cookies with chocolate chunks.
Especially when you want to make some cake icing, white chocolate is quite rich and gratifying because of its creaminess.
When preparing chocolate sweets and confectioneries, you must temper the chocolate, which is essentially what you do when you heat and then cool the chocolate to make it glossy and produce a “crunch” when you crack it.
If you want to prevent your finalized chocolate from melting the moment you touch it, you must temper it within a specific temperature range.
Each type of chocolate, dark, milk, and white, has its own temperature range, so make sure you complete the tempering process under the right guidelines.
And if you want to bake or make a dessert where fresh fruit or a spice blend is the protagonist, use white chocolate because it does a fantastic job of bringing out all the other aromas.
Is White Chocolate Vegan?
The quick answer to this question, which you might have also been asked or have asked yourselves a lot, is that white chocolate isn’t really vegan.
There are vegan white chocolate options available, but they cannot use the word “chocolate” to describe them.
The catch here is that anything manufactured with a milk substitute is not technically white chocolate because the official standard for both white chocolate and milk chocolate entails the presence of a specified percentage of dairy.
Therefore, vegan craft chocolate manufacturers produce products with twice as much cacao butter, half as much sugar, and no dairy, whereas established candy multinational companies use wordplay to indicate chocolate-like traits.
And the very absence of real chocolate ingredients makes them try to get even more inventive with labeling.
In addition to having ingredient lists that are full of real foods, these companies frequently source chocolate that has been responsibly produced, processed, and priced higher.
Because of their size, they have the flexibility to change their chocolate’s ingredients whenever they wish to, and they are not obligated to explain their decisions to shareholders.
The Bottom Line
Nevertheless, there is at the same time a tendency that says that even if it contains all that is defined by the regulations, there is a structural characteristic of it that does not make it real chocolate and that is that it lacks chocolate liqueur and cocoa solids.
Either way, this is probably a dispute that will never be resolved. Therefore, so long as you enjoy your chocolate, that’s all that matters!
Hello, my name is Rebecca Holmes and I am a self-proclaimed chocolate lover. I mean, who doesn’t love chocolate? Dark, milk, white, caramel, mint - any flavor, I’m a fan!
Over the years, as a professional chef, I have enjoyed experimenting with adding different chocolates into all sorts of meals.
Not to mention hot chocolate. Have you ever tried a pumpkin spice hot chocolate? That has to be one of my favorite chocolatey drinks in the world. But there’s so much more to choose from! Please enjoy my website and learn all about chocolate and how amazing it can be.
