How To Caramelize White Chocolate For The Ultimate Dessert Flavor Boost

I consider myself fairly food-savvy, but I admit I was totally ignorant about caramelized white chocolate (also called blonde chocolate) when I began to write this article. Created by renowned chocolatier Valrhona, and branded as the company's "Dulcey" chocolate, it is basically white chocolate that is melted and slowly cooked until the sugars toast, resulting in a caramel-y flavor and lovely brown sugar hue. Like wonderfully pink ruby chocolate, it's a novelty chocolate; it's fun to look at and taste, but it can also amp up plenty of sweet recipes. You can purchase blonde chocolate already made, or you can take the white chocolate you have sitting in your pantry and make your own. Be sure to use use white chocolate and not white almond bark or another candy coating product.

Scatter white chocolate chips or discs on a clean, totally dry metal baking sheet; or chop up a bar of white chocolate and do the same. Place the tray in an oven heated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and carefully scrape and stir the chocolate every five to 10 minutes. Be sure to spread the melted chocolate around the pan evenly each time you place it back in the oven. The sugars in the chocolate will toast and caramelize and you'll start to notice the color deepening. This "cooking" process could take anywhere from 30 minutes to about an hour, but you basically want the chocolate to become the color of brown sugar or peanut butter. You can enjoy your caramelized white chocolate right away or pour it into molds to cool and harden if you want to use it in the future.

Some have described the flavor of caramelized white chocolate as reminiscent of graham crackers, shortbread, or toffee. You can use it in place of, or with, regular white chocolate in many recipes for a unique and slightly deeper flavor than white chocolate alone. Whether or not you think white chocolate is real chocolate doesn't matter; caramelized white chocolate is sublime. You can even replace milk or dark chocolate if you want to experiment with favorite recipes that call for these chocolates. Try chunks of blonde chocolate in classic white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, in banana bread and blondies, and scattered throughout your favorite scone recipe.

For a delicious version of hot chocolate, stir some of your freshly made blonde chocolate with hot milk and a pinch of sea salt. Any recipe that calls for chocolate ganache can be instantly updated when you use blonde chocolate instead of dark or milk chocolate, and you can sandwich it between cookies or layer cakes. If you like white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, try swapping in blonde chocolate for the cheesecake filling. You can upgrade white chocolate truffles and make your own caramelized white chocolate bark. Sprinkle the latter with sea salt or your favorite kind of toasted nuts, crushed pretzels, or candies.