White chocolate often gets a bad rap. I've been guilty of disparaging this form of chocolate (I even wrote a debate paper in high school arguing that white chocolate was not even real chocolate). White chocolate tends to be sweet and a bit boring to me. I love flavor and complexity so this misunderstood chocolate has been a bit neglected in my baking.
To be clear, I am talking about ACTUAL white chocolate. Not those white baking chips that deceive people into thinking they are buying real white chocolate when they are actually buying palm kernel oil mixed with sugar in a morsel form. Don't believe me? Go to HEB and pick up a package of "white baking chips". Not chocolate.
Going back to real white chocolate, even the real stuff is a tad sweet for me and i feel like it lacks character. Buying high quality does help, its creamier and less sweet. BUT....I recently discovered caramelized white chocolate. I came across an article from America's Test Kitchen by Erica Turner about caramelized white chocolate in a pressure cooker. Intrigued, I gave it a try. The result? MIND BLOWN. Caramelized white chocolate has a rich, complex almost nuttiness to it, but still has the white chocolate flavor. It's less sweet to me (I'm assuming because the sugar has been caramelized) and it has such wonderful depth to it.
So, naturally I had to use it in a macaron!
Introducing the Caramelized White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Macaron! The macaron is covered in toasted macadamia nuts and dried cranberries and filled with a caramelized white chocolate filling. The filling brings out the wonderful flavor of the macadamia nuts beautifully. You will definitely want to try this one out!
Here's a simple recipe for caramelized white chocolate-its super easy! Use it to add to macadamia nut cookies, or make ganache, or drizzle things...anything you would use white chocolate for!
Caramelized White Chocolate (Recipe from Cook's Illustrated Erica Turner)
Break about 3 oz of white chocolate (the real stuff) into pieces and put in a mason jar and cap tightly
Add about 4 cups water to your pressure cooker, add the mason jar and close
Cook on high for 90 minutes
Release pressure and remove jar (carefully, with oven mitts obvs), and stir with a butter knife for a few minutes until smooth. It will look scary and crumbly at first, just keep stirring, just keep stirring...Dory, anyone? If you didn't get it you obvious haven't seen Finding Nemo a million times:)
Drizzle warm or cool on a baking mat until hard and break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!
-Rachel
Original Recipe:
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/6570-how-to-caramelize-white-chocolate
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