White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance. The melting point of cocoa butter, its primary cacao bean component, is high enough to keep white chocolate solid at room temperature, yet low enough to allow white chocolate to melt in the mouth.
White chocolate is a derivative of chocolate as it does not contain cocoa solids, the primary nutritional constituent of chocolate liquor. During the manufacturing process, the dark-colored solids of the cacao bean are separated from its fatty content (as with milk, semi-sweet, and dark chocolate) but, unlike conventional chocolates, the cocoa solids are not later recombined. As a result, white chocolate does not contain the antioxidant properties or many characterizing ingredients of chocolate, such as thiamine, riboflavin, theobromine, phenylethylamine, and serotonin.[1] Often, the cocoa butter is deodorized to remove its strong and undesirable taste that would negatively affect the flavor of the finished product.[2]
Although white chocolate is made the same way as milk chocolate and dark chocolate, it lacks cocoa paste, liquor or powder. Some preparations that may be confused with white chocolate (known as confectioner's coating, summer coating, or the brand name, Almond Bark) are made from inexpensive solid or hydrogenated vegetable and animal fats, and as such, are not at all derived from cocoa. These preparations may actually be white (in contrast to white chocolate's ivory shade[2]) and will lack cocoa butter's flavor.
Regulations govern what may be marketed as "white chocolate": In the United States, since 2004, 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.[3] Before this date, U.S. firms required temporary marketing permits to sell white chocolate. The European Union has adopted the same standards, except that there is no limit on sugar or sweeteners.[4]
Since white chocolate has no cocoa solids, it contains only trace amounts of the stimulants (theobromine and caffeine) which are present in other chocolates.[5]
|
|||||||||||||||||||