Learning how to properly bake with chocolate is crucial for pretty much all pastry chefs, amateur and professional alike. But it can also be something of a minefield, especially since different types of chocolate present unique benefits and challenges when baking. White chocolate, which is made from cocoa butter without cocoa solids, already confounds our traditional understanding of chocolate — so much so that the FDA even refused to recognize it as chocolate until 2002. And while it’s useful in tons of delicious recipes, baking with it does require some finesse.
One of the main issues to avoid when baking with white chocolate is browning. Though caramelized white chocolate can be scrumptious under some circumstances, it’s not always the flavor or texture that you’re looking for in a dessert, especially when it starts to cross the line from toasted to burnt. For tips on how to prevent your white chocolate treats from getting too much color, Chowhound talked exclusively with Laura Kasavan, a baking wizard and the founder of Tutti Dolci Baking Recipes.
Kasavan’s advice when working with white chocolate is to be extra cautious about oven exposure time. “I like to pull any baked goods with white chocolate out of the oven a minute or two early,” she says. “The cookies, brownies, bars, or whatever else you’re baking will continue to cook from the residual heat of the pan, while the white chocolate will retain its color.”
Why white chocolate is prone to browning and burning
If you’ve ever eaten an overcooked chocolate chip cookie, you know how unpleasant the taste of burnt chocolate can be. And while all chocolate can get overcooked or require special tricks to fix it from seizing, white chocolate is especially susceptible to browning and burning. As Laura Kasavan explains, “White chocolate can start to brown in the oven because of its fat content.”
As we know, white chocolate isn’t made with cocoa solids. Instead, it typically contains a high percentage of cocoa butter (at least 20% in order to be classified as white chocolate), sugar, milk products, vanilla flavoring, and lecithin, a fatty substance that acts as an emulsifier in chocolate. This composition means it has a higher fat and sugar content than other forms of chocolate, giving it a lower melting point. White chocolate melts at temperatures between 99 and 109 degrees Fahrenheit, while dark chocolate’s melting point is 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Different chocolate brands might have slightly different numbers for these figures based on specific recipes, but the point remains: White chocolate melts quicker than milk or dark chocolate, which also means it burns quicker.
That’s why closely monitoring your cooking time for white chocolate is so essential. Whether you’re melting it for dipping or using it as a key ingredient in salted caramel white chocolate chip cookies, the goal is to heat your white chocolate just until it becomes soft, melted, and yummy — and not a second later.
