Caramelized white chocolate has a gorgeous golden color and tastes like white chocolate and caramel, with just a hint of freshly toasted coffee beans. Enjoy it on its own, with a few flecks of sea salt, or use it in desserts!
Ingredients
400g (or 14 ounces) white chocolate with a cocoa butter content of around 22%
a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid that can hold 350ml (or 1½ cups) of water.
Instructions
Start by bringing a large kettle of water to a boil. Pour the hot water in a large pan. Don't place the pan on the stove just yet.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Add the chocolate to the bowl of a double boiler (check out my tips on 'Faking a Double Boiler') and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has melted.
Once the chocolate is melting, make sure the jar you are using is air- and watertight. Simply seal the empty jar with a lid and drop it sideways (so it can roll around) into the pan of hot water. Look closely for any air bubbles. If there are air bubbles, this means that the lid does not make an air- and watertight seal. Try it with another jar if the first jar fails this test. The jar needs to be air- and watertight, because if water gets into your chocolate, it will change the chemical structure of the chocolate and ruin it.
Carefully pour the melted chocolate into the glass jar, all the way up to the rim. Screw on the lid - make sure it's a tight seal!! - then carefully drop the jar sideways (again: so it can roll around) into the pan of hot water. Make sure the jar is completely submerged.
Place the pan over high heat and bring the hot water to a boil again. Once the water has come to a boil, cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and simmer for 3 hours, or until the chocolate has become a deep golden brown. Make sure the water level doesn't drop below the jar; it should be completely submerged at all times. Check regularly to make sure.
After the chocolate has browned nicely, use some handy kitchen utensil to remove the jar from the pan and place it on a heatproof surface until it's cool enough to handle.
If you want to use the chocolate immediately, open the jar and use a fork to get the still slightly warm chocolate out of the jar and into a bowl or an airtight container.
Use in a recipe or serve as chunks, sprinkled with a little sea salt with a cup of tea or coffee. Enjoy!
Notes
If you want to store the chocolate, allow the jar to cool to room temperature, then store it in your pantry. White streaks of cocoa butter will appear on the surface of the chocolate, but don't worry about that. If you want to serve the chocolate on its own, just place the jar in a warm water bath (such as a pan filled with hot water) until the streaks have melted away. At any rate, it's much easier to get the chocolate out of the jar if it's slightly warm.
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2014/03/07/caramelized-white-chocolate/