10 hours ago, sbain said:Hi folks. asking on this old thread because you seem to be masters of caramelized white chocolate. I tried it today and wound up with dried out powder! Weird.
I am using good couverture chocolate (Eitienne Guittard 31% Creme Francais). I baked it on a sheet at 250 F for about 30 minutes, it came out as a wonderful amber brown color, but when I tried to stir it it was dry and crumbly. I let it cool and now it is a sand/pebble consistency. I tried to melt it again and it wont melt, it gets hot (120F+) but stays solid. And the worst part is...it tastes amazing!
Help! What am I doing wrong? Do I need to add cocoa butter? if so how much and when?
Thank you!
I have made it many, many times and it always needs a good whack of cocoa butter to thin it out - sometimes up to 20% - and I always end up blitzing it with an immersion blender to get it totally smooth. I make mine in vacuum sealed bags in the pressure cooker. If I don’t need it right away I dry off the bags and store them with my other chocolate and when I want to use it I put it in a melter with about 10% cocoa butter, then add more as needed as it all melts. If I need it right away I take it out of the bags and add the cocoa butter to the hot mess while it’s cooling. Both ways work equally well for me.
Edited to add that I use @Chocolot“s pressure cooker method, which can be found here:
