Not really chocolate

Friday, Sept. 22, is National White Chocolate Day! White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids.

It contains no cacao solids or liquor therefore it is actually not chocolate at all, but since it is made from the cacao bean it is still referred to as chocolate.

True white chocolate is a pale ivory color. If your chocolate is pure white, it’s not really white chocolate. Regulations from the U.S. government state white chocolate must be (by weight) at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% total milk solids, and 3.5% milk fat, and no more than 55% sugar or other sweeteners. White chocolate contains only trace amounts of the stimulants theobromine and caffeine. It often has vanilla added for flavor and is the easiest chocolate to add other flavors to such as coffee, orange, mint, etc. You can also add paste or gel colors to make fun candies or suckers.

Nestlé is generally credited for the first white chocolate bar, although earlier forms of white chocolate had probably been made. Making white chocolate was actually a way to use excess milk powder and cocoa butter which were simply discarded as trash when in excess. In 1936, the white chocolate bar Milkybar was launched in Europe by the Swiss company Nestlé, a major player in the Swiss chocolate industry. It didn’t make it to the states until the 1950’s though. Frederick E. Hebert of Hebert Candies in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, near Boston, after he had tasted “white coat” candies while traveling in Europe, brought it home with him and was the first to produce it in the U.S., according to traveltrivia.com. Nestle remains the lead producer of white chocolate today, but there are plenty of others that make it now. It eventually was discovered how easy it took to other flavors and add-ins. Chocolate companies starting experimenting with adding things like almonds or cookie pieces and these days there are lots of options with white chocolate.

This week’s recipes are easy to make and were well received in the office. Even those who said they don’t like pumpkin said the cookies were delicious! I will say, I was reluctant to add that much marshmallow to the rice krispies. It does need some extra because you are adding more than just the cereal, but I think I could have used just a little less than half the bag and it would have been fine. Make your grocery list and pick up some white morsels this week, and meet me in the kitchen for recipes using this false chocolate!