White chocolate is not really chocolate.
- Just like tomatoes aren’t really vegetables.
- Lentils aren’t really beans.
- Koalas aren’t really bears…
Life’s confusing, isn’t it?
Sometimes people are surprised to find not a single white chocolate recipe on this entire chocolate-covered blog. White chocolate has just never been my favorite thing… because I want it to taste like chocolate and am mad when it doesn’t!
Plus, most white chocolate chips aren’t vegan, and they are full of unhealthy trans fats (partially-hydrogenated oils) and artificial ingredients.
Many of you have asked if I could come up with recipes that include chocolate’s paler cousin. But to do that, I first had to figure out how to make my own healthy white chocolate.
Thankfully, it turned out to be really, really easy!
I read up about white chocolate on Wikipedia and checked out the candy bars at the grocery store. Research! (To make research fun, all you have to do is get out of the library and head to the chocolate aisle. Who knew?)
They all consist of the same basic ingredients: cacao butter, milk solids (dry milk), sugar, and salt… Pretty much, as long as you have the one magic ingredient, the white chocolate is so easy to make it can hardly even be called a recipe.
White Chocolate Chips
(can be sugar-free)
- 2-inch cube cacao butter (30 grams, or 2 tbsp after melting)
- scant 1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract
- stevia or powdered sugar to taste (2 tbsp if powdered sugar)
- 1 tbsp raw cashew or macadamia butter (can omit; it’ll just be less creamy) (15g)
- very tiny pinch salt
- optional: If you can find it, I highly recommend adding 1/2 tsp dry milk powder—such as soy or ricemilk powder—to the ingredients for optimum creamy texture, as this is one of the basic ingredients in every white chocolate bar I looked at during my aforementioned research. However, knowing that a lot of people would have trouble finding the powder, I also tried omitting it. And then I tried adding protein powder instead (increasing to 1 tsp). Omitting or adding the protein powder instead will yield a texture that’s a little different than store-bought white chocolate, but both ways still work! (Just please don’t add liquid milk. I tried that too, and it doesn’t work.)
Melt the cacao butter (either in the microwave or on the stove). Turn off heat, then stir in all other ingredients. Pour into candy molds or a plastic container, and freeze until it hardens. Healthier and vegan white chocolate chips. Yay!
Question of the Day:
Are you going to vote tonight?
I never got around to early voting, so I will be going tonight. Unfortunately, my roommate’s and my opposite votes are going to cancel each other out… we jokingly thought about just staying home!
Link of the Day:
I had to laugh at this because I always argue that white chocolate isn’t real chocolate. I’m sure you’ve made a lot of people really happy today, I should make some of this for my brother who loves the unhealthy version. Thank you for a lovely post as always.
I left my comment before reading through all the others today. Wow you guys do take voting very seriously. Its great to see people so passionate about the future of their country. In Australia we vote for a prime minister and they just randomly get kicked out, now thats a joke. I saw the funny side of it though Katie, my parents have been saying the same thing for years about cancelling each other out.
Fun Fact: for something to be legally labeled as “white chocolate” for sale in the US it has to be made with cocoa butter. I always hated “white chocolate” because I associated it with the icky fake stuff (see: Nestle’s “White Morsels.” So clever! It never occurred to me that they weren’t chocolate!). Now that I eat the real deal, I love it! Thanks so much for reminding me that I wanted to make it, and where to find cocoa butter!
I just fell in love with you. I have a whole bag full of raw cacao butter that I bought to make one single recipe and havent known what to do with it since then. Thank you for posting this recipe!
Yummy! Brilliant idea!
Hi Katie…for some reason I really REALLY thought that you were American/Canadian! Sorry about that! ;). I have been reading your blog for ages now and kept thinking that you were American! I used to get soy milk powder in sachets in woolies. You may still be able to get it on the mainland but not here in Tasmania…but you can’t get spring roll wrappers here in Tasmania either (sigh…) Again, sorry about the idea that you were American ;). Have you tried coconut cream/milk powder in your chocolate? Maggi makes one that I think they still sell in Woolies. If you head off to an Asian food shop you should be able to find heaps of varieties of soymilk “drink” they call it but its just sweetened soymilk powder. Where are you in Aus? I come from W.A. but live in Tassie now 🙂
Huh, where did you get that from that she is NOT from the US?!
Because she emailed me and told me that she wasn’t Stella…that’s why 😉
Well that wasn’t apparent from your post. However, if she’s voting now she has to have the american citizenship or am I wrong?!
Uh oh… I did? Now I’m confused. 😕
I don’t think I emailed you… I AM American.
I think she’s getting confused by my earlier response! I’m Australian, not Katie!
What a super cute idea! Where did you get your cocoa butter? I was actually looking into buying some the other day.
Whole Foods, but you can also order online if you can’t find it at WF.
Instead of milk powder I found that you could use Coconut Milk Powder instead. But then it is a good idea to add some lecithin, so the mixture doesn’t separate.
I got the idea some month ago, but I have also used your coconut butter “chocolate” recipe sometimes. (the one with the candy in it – yum)
I am a HUGE fan of your blog! I will definitely have to make these, but I was wondering if you had any plans on making peanut butter chips?
Thanks for all the awesome recipes!
Yes! Already made, actually. Just need to take photos and post :).
Awesome idea! Actually have a big lump of cocoa butter I’ve never really played with, might be an excuse to bust it out.