Homemade White Chocolate

During Marie's visit in August, I got it into my head to try my hand at making white chocolate.

We were about to get some white chocolate chips for a recipe she was making for Zane's birthday and after reading the ingredient list decided to forget that (made mostly of hydrogenated oils... and where was the cocoa butter... which is really  the substance of white chocolate ) ; we opted to get white chocolate at the health food store instead. They didn't have white chocolate chips there, but they had white chocolate bars, so we snagged one for the recipe as a replacement to the chips.  The Chocolate bars  were wonderful, but not cheap, so we thought lets try making it.  It really is one of the easiest experiments I have ever done.  Here are the ingredients in a nut shell: Cocoa Butter, Organic Powdered Sugar, Powdered Milk and Vanilla or Vanilla Bean.  It takes 5 minutes to make, and tastes just like you know White Chocolate should.  Another nice thing is you can increase or decrease the sugar to your own liking.

Russell, Olga and Eddie are the big white chocolate eaters in our family; the rest of us prefer your basic milk or dark chocolate, but I do really enjoy adding white chocolate chips to various baked goods.  After trying my hand at this I decided I'd like to make our own Christmas chocolates this year; both white and dark chocolates, as well as chocolate chips. If I order on-line, in bulk, I found that it was a good deal cheaper than from the healthfood store;  It will also be nice to provide a healthier version of our Christmas candy.

"Cocoa Butter, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

 The Cocoa Butter wafers look good enough to eat.

But at this point, they have no sugar in them, so they are not so yummy yet.

All they need is to be melted together with some sugar, powdered milk and vanilla....

Poured into molds..... and then they are good enough to eat.  I found my molds at Hobby Lobby.  This mold works as a chocolate chip mold for me

 Pretty little white chocolate chips.....awe.

I also lightly, roasted some nuts, and added them to some of the white chocolate.

I made these little nutty buddies in the background; didn't have any other chocolate molds for them, so I tried them in the mini muffin pan.  They weren't so easy to get out of that pan, so I wouldn't recommend it, but it does works in a pinch.

I added shredded organic coconut to one batch, and left another plain.
  They were all delicious.  I do love the white chocolate with nuts or coconut.
Click here if you are interested in Green Chocolate

Recipe

Homemade White Chocolate
Ingredients:
8 oz Raw Organic Cocoa Butter (Food Grade) or 1 cup
1 Cup Organic Powdered Sugar
1/4 Cup Powdered Milk (look for powdered milk in a very fine powder... or grind it until it is very fine, in a blender or coffee grinder.
2 Vanilla Beans; (scrape out that vanilla caviar and add it), and 1 teaspoons vanilla extract (alcohol based) or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (alcohol based) if you don't use any vanilla bean.

Instructions
Place  the Cocoa  Butter in a double boiler, or  a bowl placed over a pan of water on a burner turned to medium heat.  Add the powdered sugar and powdered milk, stirring as it begins to melt.  Next, add the vanilla.  Stir well to make sure sugar and powdered milk are dissolved.  Pour into chocolate molds (I coated them with cooking spray....which probably isn't necessary if you use the silicone molds, but the hard plastic molds seemed to need the help releasing)  Allow the chocolate to harden several hours; you can refrigerate for 10-20 minutes to finish the hardening or leave at room temperature for longer.    Turn out on parchment paper.

About Powdered Milk:
Many of the recipes I looked at added a smidgeon of powdered milk, and when I tried those recipes, my white chocolate tasted very waxy, and not very creamy.  I can't see the purpose of adding a tiny smidgeon of powdered milk.  I mean  white chocolate seems to cry out to be called a "Milk Chocolate" don't you think?   It needed more powdered milk, so I added  more and it was just the thing needed. I used non-fat powdered milk.  I believe that I could safely experiment with  a little more powdered milk... so it is on my list for next time.

About Tempering Chocolate:
Also, some of the recipes talked about their white chocolate being "grainy", and gave formulas to avoid this.   It is called tempering the chocolate.  It makes the chocolate perfectly smooth and shiny.  I did actually learn a bit about that, and may post about it on another post, but I didn't get a "grainy" texture.  I don't think it was quite as smooth as commercial white chocolate, but still very satisfactory.  I did use powdered sugar, which  I believe is a key, and also chose a very fine powdered milk, which helped.  I could taste the grainy-ness of the powdered milk as I taste-tested all the way through, but once  cooled and hardened, I didn't detect any grainy-ness. 

Finding Cocoa Butter:
When I first hunted for Cocoa Butter, there wasn't any in the baking, cooking or food section of the health food store.  It came to  my head that they might have it in the body lotion section, and they did. Even though I found it there, it was still listed as food grade, and so I bought it and used it for my first batch of white chocolate.  I have since checked at Whole Foods and on line,  and ended up ordering it online.  I think I might choose Here are some good links for you: Mountain Rose Herbs , Bulk Apothecary and Jedwards International.