I'm planning to make a white chocolate mud cake and since I am relatively new to the world of high end ingredients, I bought some Valrhona, Green and Blacks, Callebaut and Guittard. While the Valrhona and Green and Black's taste is pleasant and smoothe, the Guittard didn't seem to have much flavor and the Callebaut, in my opinion, just didn't taste good. I know that my taste buds are slowly changing from being exposed to finer ingredients and perhaps are not where they should be (I used to just looove canned frosting and French Vanilla Coffeemate...neither of which I can tolerate now), I was wondering what others thought. What is white chocolate supposed to taste like (mainly a rhetorical question)? Does the flavor change when baked/cooked? I always thought of white chocolate as "vanilla chocolate" (if that makes any sense). Perhaps my palette is too used to vanilla chips like Nestle's and it will grow on me? Sorry for rambling. Just got a lot of $$$ in white chocolate in my pantry. Do any of you have a brand preference?
Vickie3336: Are you just planning on making a reg. mudcake with white cho on the top instead of reg. cho. or were you going to try to make the bottom part white cho. too? I used a recipe very recently to make Mississippi mud cake and as an alternative they suggested using a brownie mix if you didn't have time to make the cake, but of course I have never seen white cho. brownie mixes either. I was trying to find the recipe I used because I thought there might be a way to make it white cho., but I have never seen white cho. powder that was unsweetened.If you were to use white cho. I would leave out quite a bit of the sugar because white cho. is quite sweet as it is. I would just make a reg. mud cake and then top the marshmallows with white cho. melted and drizzled on. Best wishes. Let us know how it comes out. If you would like I can give you my recipe. Just pm me.
Jules: I'm planning to make the Bluehue's white chocolate mud cake recipe that was in the Mud Cake scratch off. Here's the recipe:
Shared by Bluehue
250g butter
250g white chocolate
1 1/2 cups sugar
200mls water
.......Melt all of these together in a saucepan
.......then
1 cup SR flour...sifted
1 3/4 cup plain flour...sifted
2 eggs...
1/2 cup sourcream
AND I ADD I TEASPOON OF VANILLA PASTE - WHICH WASN'T IN THE ORIGINAL RECIPE.,,,,makes a differance -
......Mix into chocolate mixture.
Bake at 160C for up to 2 hours - this is for a 10" round cake tin but will all depend on tin used and your oven
I use this for cupcakes and cakes
My oven is fan forced so i knock the temp own during the last 45 mins.
If you are refining your recipes to include the finer ingredients, use what you like. Some white chocolate is really sweet and some is just better tasting. I can't help you with the brand as I use a local chocolatier. The amount of chocolate will dictate what role it plays in the final product. In all baking, chocolate mellows out when paired with other ingredients vs. eating it plain.
All 4 of those are really good, but they all have different cocoa butter content, and the Valrhona and Callebaut have several different white chocolates with different cocoa butter contents. and they all taste and react different!
My personal choice:
Guittards white chocolate buittons - To me it has the best overall flavor and workability. It melts nice, is not greasy and isn't overly sweet. It's the best for putting in stuff.
Green & Blacks - Best tasting white chocolate. I love it. Can eat a whole bar. But 2 problems, it has vanilla beans which is not that big of a deal if you are OK with that, but the biggest problem is they only sell by the bar. 3 oz I think. It is expensive. You are paying for it being organic. Great for coatings and ganaches.
Valrhona and Callebaut are very good also, but white chocolate actually goes rancid and gets a funny flavor, so yes, you can buy it by the pound but lots of stores buy the big blocks, cut it and package it themselves then it sits on the shelves for a while. I've bought some bad Calle before and had to take it back. My advice is if you buy either of these brands make sure you look at the expiration date of any store packaged chunks or buy the pre-packaged.
FromScratch, I'm glad you posted about Green and Black's. I remember you have written that it was your favorite and I wanted to try it. It's about $20.00/lb in bars vs. my $10.00 with the chocolatier. I'll have to try it now and see how it works in my recipes.
Thank you all for your input.
FromScratchSF: That's interesting about the Callebaut blocks because that is exactly how I purchased it from a high end market. It was the taste of that white chocolate that was the impetus for this thread. It never occurred to me that it could be bad. Just checked the label and there is no date on it.
Thank you all for your input.
FromScratchSF: That's interesting about the Callebaut blocks because that is exactly how I purchased it from a high end market. It was the taste of that white chocolate that was the impetus for this thread. It never occurred to me that it could be bad. Just checked the label and there is no date on it.
Ah HAH! I'm willing to bet that's probably your problem because when it's fresh out of it's original mylar packaging it's divine. But cut it up, wrap it in cellophane and leave it on a shelf for a few months? Stale at the very least and quite possibly rancid from just being left out. I'd take it back to the store. I mean, think about the chocolate aisle, how many prepackaged chocolates are just wrapped in cellophane? None. They are all in mylar/paper foil to protect them from light and humidity.
I don't think you can buy small bars of Calli, I think it only comes in 10 lb blocks or 15kg in the buittons, but I know Valhrona does come in smaller pre-packaged bars at the store. That's the only way I'll buy just to make sure it was packaged properly and fresh.
FromScratch, I'm glad you posted about Green and Black's. I remember you have written that it was your favorite and I wanted to try it. It's about $20.00/lb in bars vs. my $10.00 with the chocolatier. I'll have to try it now and see how it works in my recipes.
Slight humanitarian rant-I think G&B is one of the very few companies that is investing in and trying to improve the living conditions of the Dominican Republic, instead of raping the land and people like everyone else there. That is where that chocolate comes from and another reason why it's so expensive. Follow them on Facebook, they are really doing great stuff for that island. I've been there and boy, do the people need it. I still can't justify the higher price point for my cakes though since they don't do wholesale (like everyone else) but if I want to just eat a chocolate bar, I grab the G&B white chocolate over any others. Flavor 1st, but it helps that they seem to also be a really good company.
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