White Chocolate

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration say that because "white chocolate" is not white it will not be considered chocolate in any way, you can't call anything chocolate without having chocolate liquor in the mix. The FDA is, however trying to work with all of the main chocolate factories to give white chocolate a basic and with holding definition. White chocolate is made up of sugar, milk of some sort, vanilla, lecithin, and cocoa butter. The chemical composition of white chocolate makes it difficult to manage during the baking process, the cocoa butter can occasionally melt too fast and create unwanted oils on top of the product, or to be easily burned if not cooked on low heat. White chocolate will become and remain solid if constantly stirred and prevented from mixing with water or other wet baking ingredients. When shopping for your white chocolate mix of choice, it is most important to read all of the ingredients on the back and make sure that you are getting the one with cocoa butter, as with some of the more cheaper versions will use vegetable fat instead. You can note a huge difference in the quality and the taste of the product.

Prepackaged white chocolate or white chocolate chips are often dissolved and used in many different baking recipes, even though these varieties often contain little or no cocoa butter, and thus can be much more difficult to melt.

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