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I've been trying to make white chocolate brownies by taking a normal brownie recipe and replacing dark chocolate with white chocolate. It doesn't work, though - the butter seems to split, and the consistency gets totally wrong. I'm just trying to make a white chocolate cake that's fudgy and dense like a brownie. What am I doing wrong?

Cascabel
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Lia Tumkus
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    White chocolate isn't real chocolate, so you probably cannot just substitute one for the other. You probably need to find a dedicated recipe that was made with white chocolate in mind. – carmenism Aug 15 '12 at 18:54
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    Recipe requests are not valid on Seasoned Advice unfortunately. VTC. – ElendilTheTall Aug 15 '12 at 19:00
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    I think you could probably reword your question to make it fit. Ask why substituting fails, and post a recipe you tried. Then try and figure it out from there. Also, agreed that maybe doing your own search for an actual white chocolate recipe as @vulpix recommends is an easier path. – talon8 Aug 15 '12 at 19:36
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    I voted to close, then immediately felt guilty - there's a reasonable question under there, as other people hinted. I went ahead and edited it. Lia, please feel free to edit it further if it doesn't match your intentions. – Cascabel Aug 15 '12 at 22:13
  • @Jefromi thank you for your edit, this version looks very nice. Reopened. – rumtscho Aug 15 '12 at 22:21

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As you noticed, white chocolate doesn't have the same fat or solid makeup as regular chocolate, and in baking that will make a huge difference. The proportions of starch/binder (flour) to fat (butter & chocolate) to protein (eggs) are what make the difference between cake, brownie, fudge and everything in between.

White chocolate tends to melt faster than regular chocolate, so the baking time will be shorter, and there'll probably need to be extra flour & butter to make up the difference.

Go ahead and google for a basic recipe & then you should be able to make most of the same add-ins (nuts, extracts/flavorings) as any regular brownie recipe.

I would warn you to stay away from the "marble brownie" recipes though - they're really popular, but these are not two batters that play well with each other.

EDIT: Regular chocolate varies broadly in its fat makeup - different countries have diff regulations on what types of (natural) fats and (artificial) emulsifiers can be added to chocolate and chocolate-derived products. White chocolate has the same ingredient list as milk chocolate (w/o the cocoa solids), but again, the proportions and allowed/disallowed additives may be different. So you have to mind your brands/country-of-origin, as well as the "family" of chocolate.

Hershey's (US): http://www.thehersheycompany.com/nutrition-and-wellness/chocolate-101/types-of-chocolate.aspx

EU standards: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/product_labelling_and_packaging/l21122b_en.htm (If someone can find a more consumer-friendly explanation of EU chocolate labeling, that would be great.)

MandisaW
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  • I agree with your point. One nit-pick: I thought that white chocolate did have the same fat makeup as chocolate. Exactly the same in fact. All it is is sweetened cocoa butter. – Sobachatina Aug 16 '12 at 02:12