I had no idea that white chocolate would be so difficult to make. You melt some stuff together and pour it into a mold, right? Well, kind of. I’ve tried so many recipes and the resulting white chocolate, from every batch except the final one, was pretty terrible. It tasted like eating sugar flavored non-butter tasting butter. I tried with powdered sugar, too. It wasn’t just a honey thing. I also tried with maple syrup. It sounded like the best idea ever before I tried, but no. It wasn’t.
I made some ginger white chocolate cookies with all my different batches. The recipes with powdered sugar left crusty sugary bits. It’s like the oil melted and fried the sugar. Weird. And the honey versions just completely melted into complete nothingness. So I wouldn’t bother putting this in cookies.
BUT! I did made some dip that required melted white chocolate and that was fine. FINALLY something this stuff is good for. :)
Good white chocolate should contain cocoa butter, which is an ivory colored fat which is extracted from cocoa beans during cocoa production. When doing my white chocolate research, I read that one brand of white chocolate chips doesn’t even contain cocoa butter. Just hydrogenated oils, sugar, and emulsifiers. Eww. So make sure you at least buy white chocolate that contains cocoa butter!
Now cocoa butter. The stuff’s expensive and for me, the taste of all the homemade batches weren’t nearly as good as store bought. So why would anyone want to make it homemade? I originally bought my cocoa butter because I wanted to make non-processed white chocolate. But the question is if it’s worth making when it’s several times more expensive and doesn’t taste as good as the processed kind.
It could be that the cocoa butter I got wasn’t “good” cocoa butter. In the other homemade white chocolate posts online, people loved their white chocolate. It could also just be that I don’t know what real white chocolate tastes like and I only like the junk that’s artificially flavored. That wouldn’t surprise me.
My experiment taught me that I need to cut down on the white chocolate. I eat a ridiculous amount of it. Milk chocolate doesn’t even compare in my eyes. And dark? Bah. I don’t like that stuff. Nope. I love the stuff that is basically fat + sugar + emulsifiers.
So in summary:
- Don’t bother making white chocolate unless you want to melt it and mix it in with other stuff. Eating it raw isn’t so nice, in my opinion.
- White chocolate is pure junk. Make sure the kind you buy at least has cocoa butter in it.
❀
Homemade Honey-Sweetened White Chocolate
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 100 grams
Ingredients
- 3 ounces (85 grams) cocoa butter
- 3 tablespoons (60ml) honey
- 1 teaspoon powdered milk
- seeds from one vanilla bean
Directions
- Over medium heat in a small saucepan, melt the cocoa butter and add the honey, powdered milk and vanilla bean seeds. Mix until smooth.
- This is where most recipes stop and they all resulted in grainy textures (at least for me). So you need to temper the chocolate. To do this, bring the chocolate up to 120F (49C) while whisking frequently.
- Now let it come to 79F (26C). Let it cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then put it in the fridge for 5 minutes. Continue this pattern until it reaches 79F (26C). This took me about 10-15 minutes.
- Place the chocolate back on the stove and bring it back up to 87F (31C). Do NOT let it go over 89F (32C) or you'll need to start the entire process over again.
- Pour the chocolate into molds and let it sit at room temperature overnight and then store the chocolate in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Do not skip the tempering process! It resulted in a much better chocolate than the previous versions where I didn't temper the chocolate.
Tempering directions were adapted from Veganbaking.net
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49 comments on “Homemade Honey-Sweetened White Chocolate” — Add one!
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Dumb question, does it taste like honey?
I want to make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies but my dad isn’t a fan of white sugar. So hopefully this will work out well.
Sorry for just now seeing your question! Hopefully you found the answer in the post (second paragraph). This recipe won’t work in cookies as it just melts. And it does taste a bit like honey! Sorry. :/
A minute after sending my comment I did find my answer! Thank you so much and no apology is needed! :)
Hi there! I’m exciting to try this just wondering about the tempering process. You suggest refrigerating the chocolate after. Isn’t the point of tempering that the cocoa crystals formed are in a more solid state and that refrigeration is not required?
Thank you!
Hi! That’s a very good point. I actually have no idea why I say to refrigerate it. Thank you for pointing that out! I’ve updated the recipe.
Hi there. So I used your recipe but I added 2 table spoons more of the dry milk. Also…my steps were: melt the butter. While the butter is melting, mix together the honey, powdered milk and the vanilla until you get a creamy consistency with no lumps. Then, get the butter off the burner (if the butter it’s melted, you don’t need more heat). Stir in the cream until you get a mayo-like cream. Put it in your mold and place it in the fridge until firm. Delicious and creamy and yummy. Thank you so much for your recipe
I’m happy that it came out well! I’ll have to try your version. Sounds good. :) Thanks for sharing your changes and for your comment!
There’s almost no difference between adding a tiny teaspoon of milk powder and not. The reason why so many people have problems with the oil separating from the other ingredients is because you need to use an emulsifier like soy lecithin.
Here’s a better recipe:
8 oz cocoa butter (melted)
8 oz non-fat dry milk powder
8 oz sugar
1 g lecithin
1 vanilla pod (split and soaked in the cocoa butter 1 hour)
Would be a better recipe to try. Granulated sugar will be better than powdered however you almost need a wet grinder to combine the ingredients to produce anything like you’d get in the store. For all practical purposes, the above ingredients I mentioned in almost the same portions are what store-bought white chocolate bars use.
Maybe you should post your own recipe.
Lol!
Hi,
I’m also interested in making milk chocolate and have put together my own recipe that I’m gonna try. I was looking at your recipe and it seems to me like you have way too much cocoa butter for a 100 g chocolate and not nearly enough milk powder. I’m guessing this might be the reason why your chocolate didn’t turn out as well as you would have liked.
Cheers,
Ian
Thanks for the advice! I’ll look into more recipes. :)
I was so happy to find a recipe without powdered sugar ♥
I tried this recipe even though I didn’t have a thermometer and it just wouldn’t set (even in the freezer)It still turned out delicious.
I’m going to attempt it again.I was wondering what is it that makes the chocolate set?
Your photos are very beautiful ♥
Thank you, Alice! I’m happy you liked the chocolate. :) I wasn’t sure about what makes chocolate set so I did some research and found this: Tips for Success when Working with Chocolate. It says, “When chocolate fails to set up correctly its either because the chocolate was not in good condition to begin with (meaning it had gone out of temper by being stored in an inappropriately warm place, causing it to melt and then reset on it’s own) or you initially overheated the chocolate (past 90 degrees), when melting, and/or didn’t seed correctly) by not stirring the second batch of chocolate into the first aggressively enough, which is what helps expedite both, the cooling down process and homogenization). Any of these circumstances will cause the chocolate to not set up correctly.” So I’m guessing not having a thermometer might have been to blame? It’s just a guess! Good luck with the next attempt. :) Thanks for the feedback!
Bonafide WHITE CHOCOLATE FREAK here in France…so we must be kindred souls!!! Valrhona “Ivoire” or Caillebaut make fantastic white chocolate…and the Lindt with the vanilla specks is delicious too!…I wish you wouldn’t have mentioned the “pure junk”/no redeeming value reminder…Mouth bliss is so underrated!!!
Haha. Isn’t American white chocolate awful?! Or at least most of it. While I was in the US over the summer, I tried a few different kinds and couldn’t believe it. It tastes like plastic and chemicals! It was just awful. So happy that even the cheap store brand stuff is awesome over here in Germany. :) I’ve never actually tried Valrhona “Ivoire” or Caillebaut. I’ll have to look for them! Thanks for the tips. :D
Lindt is my absolute favorite brand of chocolate regardless of whether it’s milk, white, or dark. It is VERY widely available at any grocery store in the U. S., even in very rural areas. So we do have good chocolate in the U. S.
Hershey’s, the cheap common candy bar here is lousy whether it’s milk, white, or dark. It all tastes and feels like flavored wax. So we also have very crappy chocolate in the U. S.
hiiiii
i just did my chocolate and its great. so now i'm wondeing could this be later mixed with milk like chocolates from store?
Hi! You mean mix this homemade white chocolate with milk chocolate? Or… what's milk like chocolates? I guess you could do whatever you're thinking! I'm not sure it'll taste good but you could take a little amount and try it. And if it works, do more! :)
no :D, i meant mix it with milk to make it like syrup for fruits or something. i'll try it anyways :))
Hmm. Sounds interesting! I hope you mixed it with cream and that it worked out. :)
i didnt, because i ate it all :D
ok now i have another problem. i tried to make the chocolate adding coconut palm sugar (grind to powder) and coconut oil and it didnt work. have you ever tried doing it with dry sweetener? or was the cocnut oil the problem?
I've never tried it that way but I do love your creativity. :) I don't think it'd work just because this chocolate is a very fussy recipe. I have an idea though! Find a white chocolate recipe using powdered sugar (like this one: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2011/07/how-to-make-white-chocolate-in-less.html) and use your powdered coconut sugar. I imagine this would be even yummier than the honey version. Good luck! :D
HI Erin, I have tried making this twice, and have followed the directions precisely. My honey always separates from the cocoa butter! I end up with cocoa butter on top, and chilled honey and vanilla seeds on the bottom. Do you have any tips? I whisk like mad too! Thanks for the recipe! Susie
Hi Susie! Sorry for the slow reply. I somehow didn't see this until now!
I had that happen with a few different recipes I tried. What I did was keep stirring every 30 minutes or so or until it was set. But I didn't have to do that with this version! Darn. :( I'm so sorry it didn't work out for you! I wish I could help more. Just keep going back and whisking! Although that makes it extremely difficult to pour it into the molds. Hmm. It's a difficult one! Sorry again. :(
Oh my goodness, you are amazing! Your candies look incredible. I'm not even usually a fan of white chocolate but I'm drooling for a piece of this right now :D
Finally the recipe, I was so curious about the final effect. I am also waiting for some beautiful baked goods made out of an apples :)
I love that these are made with honey. I've never attempted to make white chocolate on my own, but I know the grief of making a recipe over and over and over again with many fails. These are perfect… they look wonderful and the chocolate molds you used are so cute.
So funny, I don't know many people who love white chocolate as much as you do! (my husband is close, though!) I've only used cocoa butter as a moisturiser, I thought it smelled good enough to eat! Way to stick to the experiment process, at least you wound up with some really beautiful chocolates :)
I love those molds! They are super cute! Good job with pushing through even though it wasnt working for you. I definitely would have given up. But I will take your advice and just buy some from the store ;)
I would have given up if I hadn't bought a pound of cocoa butter. I have nothing else to do with it, so I thought I'd better use it up. :)
HAHAHAHAHAHHA. This had me laughing the entire time. It's so YOU!!!! "In Summary: Don't make this!" LOL :-)
Hey, I didn't exactly say that. ;) It does have it's use but the store bought stuff is so chemically amazing.
Wait, I'm confused, so if this white chocolate you made or is it some other kind of concoction? It does look tasty though. But I just can't handle white chocolate. I always get sick from eating it, plus I always thought it tasted gross. But the stuff you made looks creamy and pretty :) I love the speckles of vanilla bean :)
It is white chocolate! And how terrible / wonderful that it makes you sick. It's pure junk so I'm kind of jealous you don't suffer from this terrible addiction. :)
they do look very appealing. so they weren't good? not even the last batch? so fund the way you describe all your ordeals and your weakness for white chocolate (which I generally avoid).
No! The final batch, which is the one I posted, was good, but still not as good as the stuff from the store. I guess I'm just missing the artificial flavors. :( And I'm so jealous that you're able to avoid white chocolate. I can't get over it. It's so delicious!
They look really tasty. I have never tried making homemade white chocolate but in Germany, I loved eating it :-). Here I don't really care about it… It doesn't taste quite as good.
Nooooo! That makes me very sad to hear. I never really ate white chocolate in the US so I kind of only know the German stuff. I get the 200 gram baking bars and have them out basically all of them time on a cutting board. But if the US stuff isn't good, maybe I won't have to eat so much of it when I return. That's a good thing!
Oh wow, these look so professional. It seems that you went through a lot of trouble to get them right! I probably would have given up :-)
Me too if I didn't have so much cocoa butter to use! You should get a candy mold. They make candy making so easy and pretty. :)
Those look lovely, I just have used the same shapes for dark chocolates with cream filling and they are lovely, will try your white chocolates too….
I just looked at your page and I have the same exact heart mold too! Woohoo. I made chocolate peanut butter fudge with that one. Will go see if you have a recipe for the cream filled chocolate!
Good for you + your tenacity trying to perfect the recipe! I've never been the hugest fan of white chocolate, which now I feel is all for the better. =) dark chocolate is definitely my thing – the darker + deeper, the better!
Thank you! And good for you for liking the dark kind. I just like the junky stuff. Oh well. :D
Erin – best white chocolate I have ever found is Green & Blacks. You see the vanilla seeds in it. As far as I know their content is pretty good. I am the opposite – 85% dark every time. :-)
I'll have to check it out! Thanks for the tip. :)
I'm so glad you kept at it until you got the result that you wanted. I love the molds you used, and even more that you sweetened it with honey!
Thanks, Cassie! And I'm happy that someone appreciates that it was made with honey. :)