White Chocolate - Page 3
After winnowing, the nib is ground up to create chocolate liquor. The liquor is a fatty viscous liquid. If you are having trouble imagining this, just think about peanut butter, as the two substances are actually fairly similar. If you were making unsweetened chocolate, you would simply let the chocolate liquor cool and the result would be unsweetened chocolate. However, since we are making white chocolate, we must press the chocolate liquor to draw out the fat. The fat is also known as cocoa butter. And yes, it is the same cocoa butter that is used in skin care and tanning products. The remaining substance is ground up and the product is cocoa powder. If we were making regular milk chocolate, we would then mix together cocoa butter, sugar, milk, and chocolate liquor. However, since we are making white chocolate, we combine the cocoa butter, sugar and milk to create white chocolate. As you can see, the only difference is that regular chocolate has the chocolate solids and white chocolate does not. Every other part of the process is identical. Even similar additional flavors, like vanilla are often used. This may be part of the reason why many people think that milk chocolate and white chocolate taste very similar.
Earlier, it was mentioned that white chocolate is a popular topping for gourmet dog biscuits. Dogs cannot tolerate regular chocolate because it contains a substance called theobromine that is toxic to dogs. Humans can break down this substance easily, but in dogs it builds up and causes cardiac failure. In very small amounts, the theobromine isn’t fatal, but in large amounts it can be. Needless to say, but if you think your dog has eaten more than a small amount of chocolate, it is best to get her to the vet as soon as possible. As for the safety of white chocolate, however, all the theobromine is in the cocoa powder, the chocolate solids. Since white chocolate does not have any of the solids, it is a perfectly safe treat for a dog, aside from the fat, sugar, and cholesterol.
