Is there any reason to use fake white chocolate chips instead of the good stuff?
I'm making funny cookies for a friend. They're no-bake refrigerator cookies made with (get this) Capt Crunch cereal, peanut butter, nuts and the aforementioned "chocolate". The recipe specifically states the brand of white chocolate chips (yucky fako). Is there any reason NOT to substitute good white chocolate like Ghirardelli? My one concern is that the chocolate is what holds the cookies together and perhaps the fake stuff cools harder after melting. The brand specified in the recipe contains sugar, nonfat milk, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, palm kernel oil, cornstarch, artificial flavor, salt and lecithin. Not so much as a molecule of cocoa butter.
EDIT: As it turns out, I have a half bag of the yucky-fakos. I can't remember or imagine why, but there they are! I feel an experiment coming on. I'm going to divide the recipe into thirds. One-third will only contain the "Creamy Vanilla Premier White Chips (el fako)", one-third will be made entirely with Ghirardelli White Baking Chocolate [bar], the final third will be half and half. I'll make them tonight and report the results!
Best Answer
Here we are, three months after the experiment, I'm finally getting around to writing it up! The fact is, the results are not very exciting.
Straight from the fridge, the three cookies (made with all Ghirardelli white chocolate, all fake white chocolate chips and a half and half mixture) were indistinguishable. At room temperature the all Ghirardelli cookie had a very minor negative. It slightly melted in the hand as you held it to eat, a vaguely unpleasant feeling. The other cookies did not melt in the hand, but tasted the same.
So, for simple no bake applications like this, there is no reason to spend the extra money for "real" white chocolate, the fake stuff is just as good and may even be slightly better.
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Are white baking chips and white chocolate chips the same?
The explanation for the difference can be found on the ingredient label. True white chocolate, almost always sold in bar form, contains cocoa butter. White baking chips contain no cocoa butter and thus can't be labeled \u201cchocolate,\u201d but they do contain partially hydrogenated oil (usually palm kernel oil).Can you substitute white chocolate chips for white chocolate?
If the recipe calls for white chocolate chips and all you have are white chocolate baking squares, or vice versa, just swap in an equal amount. This will keep the color and flavor of your recipe the same.Are white chocolate chips actually chocolate?
White chocolate is made with a blend of sugar, cocoa butter, milk products, vanilla, and a fatty substance called lecithin. Technically, white chocolate is not a chocolate\u2014and it doesn't really taste like one\u2014because it doesn't contain chocolate solids.Do white chocolate chips taste different?
Tasters noted that the real white chocolate chips were slightly creamier than the white chips, but the differences were very minimal. We concluded that when a cookie or brownie recipe calls for white chocolate chips, both real and imitation products will work just fine.Ghirardelli Accused Of Selling Fake White Chocolate Chips
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Answer 2
The issue, at least in the mind of the recipe's author, may be texture. True white chocolate (I cannot believe I just used that phrase) is of course made from genuine cocoa butter, which sets very hard compared to most other fats used in foods, including the ones you mention are in the recommended confection. It should actually hold the dish together better.
Using actual white chocolate may therefore create a candy with a much harder bite.
You will have to decide whether the trade off is justified in terms of benefit to flavor and aroma.
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