the how-to's of plant~based (not so) white chocolate
a guide to chocolate's most unlimited canvas
My hope is that, for makers who are new to crafting plant-based white batches, or your haven’t tried yet, this post will help you understand how our choice of alt-milk doesn’t just affect flavor, but impacts texture and tempering.
If you’ve already been making PBW chocolate, there’s always a new insight to learn!
Yes, there are still folks who believe white chocolate is not real chocolate, and there will always be those folks. The lessons in this post aren’t about that (or an attempt to help them know what they’re missing). The important thing—always—is to craft what we are drawn to crafting.
If you are curious about crafting, want a better understanding of the how-to’s, or wondering about tasting plant-based white chocolate, this is for you. I’ve included a break-down of the different options, how (and why) they craft differently, and a recipe pdf.
What craft white chocolate is NOT: it’s not that cheap icky white candy coating, it’s not vanilla-flavoring-laden dairy white chocolate, and it’s not those sad white chips sold in the baking aisle. This is one reason why it’s fun to call it “not-so” white chocolate :)
When I crafted my first renditions of PBW (plant-based white) I had set out on a flavor mission to make a white chocolate that wouldn’t require dairy, soy, or coconut. My result was that I created something entirely new: it wasn’t exactly what I was trying to do, but it happened. What I’ve hoped for over the years of sharing my recipes and approach is that, for all of us bean to bar craft chocolate makers, PBW can be an amazing canvas of flavor and color and inclusioncrafting for our creativity.
Basic points to understand
PBW has % but it’s not “about” the %;
Craft chocolate started the % trend as a way to indicate the higher amount of cacao we use in comparison to industrial chocolate, which traditionally used lower amounts, along with other ingredients and oils that aren’t cocoa fat. Listing a bar’s % serves as a helpful indicator to chocolate buyers of the intensity of the bar: 100% of course, has no sugar, so it offers straight-up cacaco origin flavor. 70% is 30% sugar, which might appeal to someone with a more gentle palate, and so forth.
The expectations are different for PBW: flavor is still the focus, but it’s not cacao flavor we’re highlighting. That said, one of the most common mistakes I see (and experience when tasting PBW bars) is texture issues: the texture has to be spot-on. Yes, we still need to refine long enough.
Cocoa butter is key
A white chocolate needs to be at approximately ⅓ cocoa butter to achieve tempering, structure, and melt. Note, this is different from discussions of “what can be called white chocolate.” I am not discussing the definition of white chocolate by the EU or US FDA or whatever government entity in your locale defines it.
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Stay true, but wander far
A basic plant-based white recipe can range from 30%-45 % cocoa butter. Once a recipe/formulation works for you, you can tweak it/change it to suit your ingredients, within the guiding principles.
In fact, you should. See the next point.
My ingredients are not your ingredients
I know we’ve all been conditioned to read recipes that state “add 1 cup of sugar, two cups of flour,” etc, and that in this conditioning the implication is that EVERY INGREDIENT IS THE SAME. I am shouting (sorry) because we all know differently now, but old habits die hard.
How this applies to all chocolate we craft: For example, sugar has properties that effect it’s perfomance and flavor when heat is applied. How “my” sugar behaves in a batch won’t be how your choice of sugar behaves. This is true for my choice of every ingredient I choose: cocoa butter, sugar, milk-replacer (grains, nuts, seeds, etc).
Tweak with intention and take good notes
If you learn anything from this lesson, please jump on the "you can do this your way" pony and ride it as far as you'd like to go.
Sometimes those seemingly random changes of direction that come to us nicely delivered by the small voice in our crafting-in-our-sleep minds, is the best gift the cacao goddess will ever send us.
But ALWAYS, always take notes, and write down even the smallest weight, time, ingredient adjustment. If when you create that brilliant bar you will want to be able to create it again.
Ingredients
PBW chocolate isn’t limited to cocoa butter + sugar + our alternative to milk powder
Cocoa butter creates the structure (it IS what makes it chocolate), and creates the medium for the suspension of all the other refined particles. It also imparts aroma (recall, what we smell influences what we taste and perceive as flavor), and is needed for tempering.
Sweetener bleached cane sugar, natural unbleached sugar, panela, maple sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar, (etc!) brings in flavor, as well as sweetness.
Plant-based non-dairy milks
It is extremely helpful to recognize these land in three categories: Grains/Grasses, Nuts/Seeds, Fruit/Other.
The reasoning behind the categories is very simple, but also, in 99% of makers new to crafting PBW (including those who haven’t taken one of my classes) it is missed and misunderstood, and the results aren’t as good as they could be.
Grains/Grasses: oats, amaranth, quinoa, hemp, rice, millet, buckwheat, cassava flour (not technically a grain/grass but it behaves similarly), corn, etc. Corn and millet are grasses, in case you were thinking the stuff you mow in your yard.
Note that only bars using certified gluten free grains can be labeled GF; oats are GF, but often are milled on equipment that processes gluten-containing grains. If in doubt do not list your oats (or other ingredients) as GF.
This category adds fiber/texture, i.e, bulk, without adding additional fat.
Since there is an increase in fiber/texture, the batchcrafting time length depends on achieving the texture goal.
Additional cocoa butter may be needed in your recipe formulation to avoid a thick/viscous batch, and to create flow.
Grains/grasses are typically very well-dried dried before sending to stores/resellers (or else they would get mold etc) and if in powder/flour form can be used as-is. If whole, work best if pre-ground before adding to melanger.
Toasting can be used to change the flavor.
Batch color is effected by the grain/grass color.
If stored in fridge/freeze, let come to room temperature before using, and make sure condensation does not occur. I pour mine out into a bowl
Nuts/seeds: almonds, cashews, sesame, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia, pumpkin, sunflower, etc:
This category adds a lesser amount of fiber/texture than grains/grasses, but these add additional fat.
Batchcrafting time length depends on achieving the textue goal.
Fat balance is critical: too high nut/seed fat content can disrupt cocoa butter crystal formation during tempering. Overall too high fat = texture and flavor issues.
Nuts/seeds are dried and sometimes roasted before sending to stores/resellers. They can often be sourced in flour form (almond flour, for example), sometimes de-fatted form, in ground/paste form (nutbutters or tahini), and if whole should be pre-ground/pulsed before adding to melanger.
Toasting can be used to change the flavor.
Batch color is effected by the nut/seed color (black sesame, for example).
Caution: nuts/seeds can go rancid if not properly stored, and the rancidity will impart an obvious unpleasant off-flavor and aroma to the chocolate.
If stored in fridge/freeze, let come to room temperature before using, and make sure condensation does not occur.
Fruit/veg/other: freeze-dried fruits (strawberries, lemon, raspberries, etc) and vegetables (sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, etc) teas (matcha, hojicha, etc), spices (turmeric, cardamom, etc), floral (roses, lavender, etc), herbs (mint, thyme, basil, etc), coffee, charcoal, etc.
Fruits/vegetables must be in freeze-dried form, not dried (dried fruits/veg and dehydrated fruits/veg picture a dried cranberry, for example, retain moisture). They can be sourced as a powder/flour, or whole pieces: whole pieces should be pulsed in a food mill before adding to the melanger.
Spices, floral, herbs can be used in powdered form, pulsed in food mill, or used to infuse cocoa butter.
This category has many options for adding color and flavor! If it’s okay to eat, it can be used.
If stored in fridge/freeze, let come to room temperature before using, and make sure condensation does not occur. Make sure to remove dessicant packet.
Before starting, review the categories to make sure you understand what makes the categories different, and how this difference impacts batchcrafting and/or tempering.
About that fat
All fats that aren’t cocoa fat are, to differing effect, cocoa crystal inhibitors. This means they interact chemically with the cocoa butter structure to disrupt the formation of Type V crystals (the ones needed for tempering).
Ever wonder why milk chocolate is always softer and bendy, or why milk chocolate recipes require so much cocoa butter? It’s the milk fat. Some fats--especially coconut fat--are trickier than others for tempering due to their chemical structure.
It might be easier to think about it like this: if fat can be a liquid at room temperature it’s going to disrupt the crystals. Chocolate is a solid at room temp, because cocoa butter is a solid at room temp. Sunflower oil, almond, hazelnut, peanut, etc etc, are liquid at room temp—when we “ask” our bars to solidify if these fats are in a higher proportion to the cb, the bars won’t set, and the Type 5 crystals can’t grab onto other cb crystals; the chocolate will bloom.
Most makers crafting coconut-based white chocolate have found that dessicated coconut, not powdered coconut or coconut milk powder (which often contains other ingredients), skirts some of the coconut fat issues. You will still need enough cocoa butter, though, to temper.
And, a pro-tip: using cocoa butter seed supercedes (!) the disruptors, and you can add in a higher amount to temper to help cheat the effects of crystal disruptors.
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Batchcrafting
If you’ve never strayed from dark chocolate or milk chocolate, think of this as crafting without nibs (no roasting and winnowing!)
Formulations
In PBW chocolate, we swap the dairy milk powder out, and bring in our choice of grain/grass, nut/seed, fruit/other, and also, can combine these categories
the basic recipe = cocoa butter + sugar + grain/grass or nut/seed or fruit/other
combination recipe = cocoa butter + sugar + grain/grass or nut/seed + fruit/other
examples: oat milk PBW is cocoa butter + sugar + oat flour, while a combination could be a strawberry oat milk white, cocoa butter + sugar + oat flour + strawberry
Mise en place matters
Gather all ingredients and tools before beginning.
Ambient (room) temperature is always a factor in chocolate
Cool and air-conditioned kitchens keep cocoa butter from melting in the melanger, or can re-solidify melted cocoa butter. A blow dryer can work wonders.
Unlike dark chocolate, length of refining will likely be shorter, but, as with dark chocolate, texture goals are important.
The grind
Use a formulation recipe or calculate your own; weigh out each ingredient, add to melanger in ¼ increments starting with cocoa butter, followed by sugar, and non-dairy ingredient choice.
If you are set up for this, tabletop melangers can be left to run 24/7 once the batch has been started. If you prefer to stop them overnight, the batch can be re-warmed the next day and started again.
If the overnight temperatures will drop in the room where the melanger is refining, it will need to either be moved to a warmer location or have a heater brought into the room.
Flavor and texture goals
Use the best ingredients you can source.
It is a common mistake to assume that, since we’re not grinding nibs (so much refining!) and “just” sugar and our non-dairy milk ingredient, that smoothness happens effortlessly. The timing of adding the ingredients to the batch and making certain we’ve refined well past the sandy —> chalky —> silty phases is critical to making PBW chocolate that is pleasing to experience.
PDF
Comments, questions, ideas? drop them in the comments!
xxoo,
Mackenzie
Hi there, I’m trying to open the file for the white chocolate and it says it can’t open it
It can’t find the file