Inspiring Uses for White Couverture Chocolate

If you’re looking for some unique inspiration for what you can do with white couverture chocolate, you’re in luck. We might be your preferred wholesale distributor of baking ingredients, and though our specialty doesn’t necessarily lie in our depot of experience, we still like to keep a few aces up our sleeves for the benefit of our customers.

In this article, you’re going to find some really unique and interesting uses for white couverture chocolate - but before we get too deep, let’s cut to the chase with our terminology. Sure, you’ve heard of chocolate, like Callebaut Couverture Chocolates, but just what is couverture chocolate?

What is White Couverture Chocolate

So, to answer the question of what the difference is between white and dark couverture chocolate, we need to get into the details of couverture chocolate.

In short, couverture chocolate is one of the highest grades of chocolate that you can buy, and it has to do with the number of chocolate liquids and solids contained in the blend. That means that couverture chocolate must meet minimum requirements for cocoa butter and cocoa solids.

Most couverture chocolates in the United States contain a large percentage of both; here, to be considered couverture chocolate, a blend must contain at least 35% cocoa solids and 31% cocoa butter. However, many blends contain much more than this, and in most cases, it is prominently labeled on the package. If you have concerns about a specific blend, call us and we’ll let you know what’s in it.

Hold on - before we go any further, we know what you’re thinking; that white chocolate typically contains no cocoa powder or cocoa solids, and if not none, then very little. If there are any, white chocolate usually contains so little of them that the amounts are negligible. Worry not, cocoa butter comes in prime importance here.

In order to be considered couverture chocolate, white chocolate still must contain an adequate level of cocoa - usually 20% - to be considered real. Therefore, though it doesn’t contain any (or almost no) cocoa solids, it’s still real chocolate, and still has a ton of rich, velvety, unctuous, chocolatey flavor.

Because of its high levels of cocoa butter, and in the case of dark chocolate, cocoa solids, couverture chocolate is capable of creating that beautiful velvety sheen when it is handled, melted, and tempered properly, as well as that crisp, delectable “snap” and mouthfeel.

white chocolate

Interesting Uses:

Enough of the prattle about white chocolate and what it is; you probably already knew that and came here for the inspiring uses. With no further ado, here are some of our best suggestions for how you can use white chocolate creatively in the kitchen with your baked goods and other confections and sweet treats.

1. Enrobing

Forget the enrober that does everything in industrial quantities; once your chocolate has been tempered properly (more on that below) you can do your own enrobing at home in your own kitchen!

Enrobing, by the way, is the process of covering or enrobing, a food item in another medium, in this case, chocolate. It can be done with other coverings, though.

Cake bars and other treats that are coated with chocolate are typically enrobed, although they can be dipped - see below for more on that.

Melt and temper your own white chocolate at home and enrobe your own sweet treats, whether they be cake based or something else! It’s the perfect way to add a splash of rich, cocoa-buttery flavor to your recipes, and it’s an even better way to add color and contrast!

2. Dipping

Similar to enrobing, you can also dip your own treats in white chocolate at home without the help of fancy equipment or specialized tools. A little bit of knowledge and experience in handling, melting, and tempering will go a long way.

Plus, you can dip basically whatever you want in white chocolate, and let’s face a pretty basic fact. Most people dip with dark chocolates and dipping in white chocolates will be a great break from the norm.

You can dip fruits like strawberries or bananas, little baked treats like Rice-Krispie treats, or even, if you’re feeling very fearless, something less conventional like bacon or potato chips. Some people love that sweet and salty mixture, and you won’t know till you try.

3. Create shavings or chips for contrast and accenture

Here’s another really cool use for white chocolate that doesn’t entirely revolve around flavor and instead is more central to the pleasant contrast that white chocolate can provide with some foods. Of course, the little bursts of pleasant, smooth white chocolate flavor won’t hurt any.

If you have a bar or a block of white couverture chocolate, you can use a very sharp knife, a peeler, or a cheese grater to make fine shavings or chips of white chocolate which can be used as a pleasant contrasting accent with many different foods.

This is a particularly effective method for adding some contrast to dark chocolate icing. For example, if you have a dark chocolate cake, you can sprinkle some chips, slivers, or shavings of white chocolate across the surface of the icing for a nice, vibrant look that will really pop. White and back are beautiful together, catch the attention, and, what’s even better, white and dark chocolate are natural mates!

4. Create your own chocolate treats or molded candies

Another more intuitive use of white chocolate is to create your own chocolate treats or even molded candies. Whether you want to create something with a candy center or mold it yourself is up to you, but when you do it yourself, you can make whatever you want.

Another popular practice is to make your own solid molded candies with white chocolate or from a combination of white and dark chocolates. You can mix and match them or layer them to create a multicolored effect; you can also pair the white chocolate with colored compound chocolates to make seasonally-appropriate chocolate candies.

Pick up a few molds, get some candy sticks, and you can even make your own chocolate pops! You can even dip cake pops in them - that’s a popular treat and surprisingly easy to make.

5. Use the white chocolate to put a piquant note on dark chocolate

We already touched on this a bit, but as we stated here, the mellow, smoother tones of white chocolate are simply the perfect pairing for the near-bitterness of dark chocolate.

That makes them a perfect match in nearly any scenario. Whether you use grated white chocolate as a sobering accent for dark chocolate or you create treats from a mixture of both of them is up to you - just know it’s practically fool-proof. Whether or not it’s your Magnum Opus or not is another thing - but it will taste good!

6. Add it to cookies or other baked goods

White couverture chocolate, like dark couverture chocolate, can be used in many of your baking ventures. However, unlike dark chocolate, which can be easily added to batters to provide rich, chocolate flavor, white chocolate is better added in the form of chips to add color and flavor.

You can add the white chocolate to batters and doughs and it will make them moist and velvety, but probably the best way to use it, which will add both color and flavor, is in the form of chips or shavings.

For example, let’s say that you are looking for little twists to add to a cookie recipe with nuts. As a quick example, though dark chocolate is great here, white chocolate can be tops too. Add in some chips or shavings and it will add a pleasant little burst of color and the smooth, rich, silky flavor of white chocolate as well. Add it into cakes, too, for an equally pleasant surprise.

7. Make a ganache

One of the greatest ways to put white couverture chocolate to use where it can be appreciated to the fullest is by creating a homemade ganache. Don’t be put off by the fancy, high-brow name; ganache is not only simple but fairly easy to use.

It is a unique way to create a drizzle or a syrup or a liquid coating from your white chocolate, which is ideal as a garnish or as a complement to other sweet treats and baked goods. It’s made by heating up the cream and then dissolving an equal part of chocolate in the heated mixture of cream.

It’s often made with dark and milk chocolate and used as a garnish, but a delicious and rich, creamy ganache can be made from white chocolate as well. If you’re looking for a way to add color and flavor to your other dark chocolate creations, a white chocolate ganache might just be the perfect pairing!

8. Drizzle it up

Speaking of creating a ganache, it is the perfect thing to use as a chocolate drizzle, although it’s far from the only way to add color, movement, and flavor to a dish with a white chocolate drizzle. If you like the ganache idea, go with it; otherwise, you can create another white chocolate liquor and use it as a drizzle that you can apply to your cakes and other sweet dishes.

Drizzle adds a lot of life to cooked and baked goods, and there are many ways to go about it; if you have milk and chocolate, you can make it easily at home, then refine the recipe to your liking!

chocolate drizzle

9. Make the best hot chocolate you’ve ever had!

Finally, if you’re interested in that sort of refreshment, you can make the best hot chocolate you’ve ever had. This recipe is specifically for high-quality chocolates like dark chocolate and milk chocolate, but if you like the savor of white chocolate, it can be made with white chocolate as well.

Get a saucepan and heat up as much milk as you think you will need to serve as milk is the base of the beverage. To the milk, add heavy cream until you have achieved the consistency that you want to see in your finished hot chocolate, and remember that it will get thicker and richer as you add chocolate.

Simmer the milk and cream, without bringing it to a boil. Take your preferred chocolate and begin to grate it into the heated milk and cream mixture, stirring constantly. The chocolate will begin to melt and eventually dissolve into the milk and cream. Add chocolate (or white chocolate chips) to taste. Butter and sugar are not necessary but they can be melted in with the chocolate if you prefer it. Additionally, spices are also not completely necessary, but you can add them if you like - cinnamon, allspice, and cloves all lend themselves well to this recipe.

A Note on Tempering

One thing to be aware of is that couverture chocolate requires tempering any time you melt it to prevent it from blooming. Well, to be fair, tempering prevents a number of problems and ensures that the cocoa liquids and solids mix together evenly and produce the fine sheen and snap desired.

If you want to learn more about how to temper couverture chocolate so that you can use it in all of your confections, just give us a call and we’ll let you know about some processes you can follow to ensure quality.

Sound Like Too Much? Meet Compound Chocolate

If you’re put off by the concept of needing to carefully temper and handle couverture chocolate and would like a quicker and easier solution for producing chocolate treats, then you might want to look into compound chocolate.

Made with vegetable oils in place of cocoa butter, compound chocolate is much easier to melt and mold than couverture chocolate, requiring no special skills, handling, or tempering whatsoever. Simply melt it carefully in a double boiler and mold it and that’s all there is to it.

You can find some of the finest compound chocolates available in our collection of Merckens chocolates right here at Stover & Company; if you have additional questions, give us a call at 724-274-6314! We’d be more than happy to help!
 

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