White chocolate is probably the least favourite chocolate, when it comes to baking or confectionery making. Some people think that white chocolate is not chocolate at all, because it often doesn’t contain much of the original cocoa bean ingredients.
But, I usually say, if you don’t like white chocolate, it could be because you’ve not found the one you love yet! Every time I buy chocolate for my courses I always add some samples of chocolates I’ve not tried before.
Recently I went through a ‘white chocolate phase’ and discovered some amazing 40% cocoa solids white chocolate, which tasted like a creamy cappuccino and wasn’t sweet at all!
White chocolate ingredients
In order to know how to substitute white chocolate, we need to know what is white chocolate made of in the first place.
- Cocoa butter (or mixture of other fats)
- Powdered dairy milk
- Powdered white sugar
- Lecithin (to make the chocolate smoother)
- Vanilla
If you’ve never tasted cocoa butter (and to be honest, not sure I’d actually recommend it…), is tastes like a high fatty substance with a faint flavour of a chocolate. Good quality white chocolate would still have cocoa butter in as one of the ingredients, but cheaper brands usually replace all or some of the cocoa butter with other fats (which are cheaper to buy)
Substituting white chocolate in baking
Replace the white chocolate with the same amount of white chocolate substitute to make sure your recipe will turn out well.
White chocolate baking chips
In most recipes swapping white chocolate for the same amount of white baking chocolate chips will work fine. The only time when it might be a problem is if you need your white chocolate to melt fully.
White chocolate chips are specially made to withstand the high oven temperatures, so that when you bake them they don’t loose their shape and cool right down without melting.
White chocolate eating bar
You can easily swap the white chocolate in the recipe for any kind of white chocolate eating bar
White chocolate baking or cooking bar
Baking chocolate has usually highter amount of vegetable or other cheaper type of fat, which not only melts better but it also makes the chocolate more pliable (which is perfect if you are making something like a chocolate mirror glaze).
Milk chocolate
Use the same amount of milk chocolate as the white chocolate in the recipe
Dark chocolate
Use the same amount of dark chocolate as the white chocolate in the recipe.
Most recipes can be adapted to suit other types of chocolate, but if you do replace it, you will of course end up with a completely different cake.
I’ve seen a lot of people recommending to swap white chocolate with milk in baking recipes, but to be honest most recipes with white chocolate are designed so that they work best with the sweet and light flavour and the white flavour. This is why, you need to think about the flavour combinations first and consider the second flavour before you swap the white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate.
For example, if you have a recipe for a White chocolate & Raspberry cake, you’d be better off swapping the white chocolate for rich dark chocolate, which will bring out the best in the raspberries. On the other hand, milk chocolate is going to drawn the sharpness of the raspberries and make the whole cake taste a little dull. It’s not totally right or wrong, your cake will be edible either way.
Make your own homemade white chocolate
The next thing you can do is to replace the white chocolate in a recipe with your own homemade chocolate.
You can make the chocolate first and then use it or just add the ingredients in the recipe, depending on what you are baking or making.
Cocoa powder
If you decide to go with the milk or dark chocolate option and don’t have a chocolate bar, you can use coco powder with butter, icing sugar and milk powder.
Depending on what type you chocolate you are trying to replace, you can find the exact quantities in my blog post about cocoa powder. Using cocoa powder will result in either milk or dark chocolate, but of course not white chocolate.
White chocolate mix
You are welcome to make your own white chocolate first and then use it. If you are using white chocolate to blend into your recipe (it doesn’t have to stay whole like a chocolate chips or decorations on the top of a cake) you can easily just use the ingredients for white chocolate, mix it together and add it to the rest of the recipe, without actually making the white chocolate into a chocolate bar.
If you need a vegan recipe, my dairy free version of white chocolate recipe is very easy to make.
To replace 100 grams of regular white chocolate use;
- 50 grams of cocoa butter (suitable for culinary use)
- 50 grams of powdered milk
- 20 grams of fondant (white, icing) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla seeds (optional)
- To make the white chocolate simply melt the cocoa butter first in the microwave or on a bain marie; slowly and carefully.
- Add the powdered milk and stir in.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla if using.
- Stir until it’s all mixed and the mixture thickens a little.
- Normally you’d pour the chocolate to a chocolate mould (or just on a tray) and leave it to set in the fridge.
- If you are using the chocolate straightaway, you can just leave it in the bowl to set a little, but don’t have to leave it to set completely.
White chocolate recipes
- White chocolate ganache for cake covering >>
- White chocolate truffles with condensed milk >>
- White modelling chocolate >>
Why not stay in touch…
I hope you enjoy making this recipe and if you do, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram or Facebook and add the hashtag #cocoaandheart so that I can see your post.
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Magdalena
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