Valrhona Ivoire White Baking Chocolate

16 oz bag - France - as seen in Chocolatier Magazine

White Baking Chocolate

I know, I know! It’s not chocolate if it is white.

Let’s clear this up right away. White baking chocolate is not chocolate because it does not contain cocoa solids, thus missing the elements of riboflavin and thiamine - key ingredients of chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor is usually made up of at least 50% cocoa butter, a product of ground roasted cocoa beans, and those solids mentioned earlier. And Valrhona white chocolate is made up of 33% cocoa butter, whole milk powder, sugar, vanilla extract.

It is interesting (confusing?) that white baking chocolate is not chocolate, and that chocolate is not chocolate without cocoa butter. Well, that isn’t completely true either, because now chocolate can be chocolate without cocoa butter.
I think.
(You can decipher here at the FDA site for Cocoa Products. And then let us know. Please.)

In Europe, they can now use a small % of non cocoa butter oil, in place of cocoa butter, to extend how much chocolate can be made. And not all chocolate makers do this. Here, in US we can use vegetable fats in place of cocoa butter. (yuk!) I expect this is why good chocolate is good and not so good chocolate is slimy in the mouth.

So now that that is now established, it’s still called "white chocolate". And when white chocolate is good, it is really, really, really good! It was my sister's favorite chocolate of all and I have a love for it, too! Pop a few in and warm it with your mouth. Like its cousin, dark chocolate, you are rewarded immediately with the cocoa butter and vanilla flavor. Rich and satisfying as candy, or use this Valrhona baking chocolate for your best holiday cookies.

It all started in 1924 a pastry chef from Tournon created a chocolate factory, which eventually achieved a worldwide recognition, and in 1984 became the first to offer a chocolate with 70% cocoa. Valrhona in Tain l'Hermitage is considered by most pastry chefs and chocolatiers as the premiere chocolate company in the world.

Their focus is solely on their chocolate. To ensure the highest quality and optimum flavor, they grow their own cocoa beans, their own cane sugar, and their own vanilla on plantations all around the world - now that's quality control. Valrhona has finally begun to offer its professional products, cocoa and couvertures, packaged for the home pastry enthusiast, a palette of subtle flavors, to create and elaborate delicious chocolate preparations.

With 37% cocoa butter content, this Valrhona Ivoire white chocolate couverture is exceptional. It has a good balance between milk and sugar, and has delicate flavors and a very fine texture.

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa butter, powdered whole milk, soya lecithin, natural vanilla extract  (PACKED IN A FACILITY THAT PROCESSES PEANUTS, TREE NUTS, MILK, SOY, WHEAT, AND EGGS)