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I have several bars of real white chocolate. The ingredients on the chocolate bars are, in the following order: Sugar, cocoa butter, milk, soy lecithin, vanilla

There is no veg-oil listed in the ingredients (just so you know it's real chocolate)

If I want to stretch the white chocolate, such as for making nutty or fruity truffles (or whatever), can I safely add something like this:

1 c. sugar

1 c. margarine (or 1/2 marg 1/2 oil)

(and maybe some water for added moisture)

My main priority is: Would the white chocolate harden enough?

Please understand, it's not just because of wanting to stretch it, but also because I want softer, more luscious truffles, rather than just the firm, fatty white-chocolate.

Lysine Nation
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  • I'm assuming stretching is a non-north american way of describing the process of melting chocolate? – Brendan Mar 18 '13 at 16:53
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    You do understand that truffles are normally made from *ganache*, a mixture of cream and chocolate? White ganache is white chocolate and cream. Then they may be dipped into harder chocolate for a firm coating. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 17:07
  • Actually, I'm from North America, and lived here my whole life. So much for that. Did you read WHY i want to stretch it? Also, please see my Edit, for clarification of my original question. Basically, I don't care if it's called Truffles or Melties, or whatever. All I really want is to stretch it similar to how it worked when I made the sunflower "melties" described in my edit. – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 17:26
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    Truffles is a North American term. I live in Maryland. I took a truffle making class at Peter Kump's cooking school in New York City :-) And yes, your why is perfectly compatable with ganache. Not sure why you are not liking that answer. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 17:36
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    in it's current form the question makes no sense to me because stretching chocolate isn't possible. You can melt it, mix it with other ingredients, etc, but you can't just pull and stretch it like caramel or other sugar uses. – Brendan Mar 18 '13 at 19:48
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    In this context I think stretching means "to make do with (limited resources)" @Brendan – Preston Mar 18 '13 at 20:15
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    @Brendan *stretch* in this context means to add some other ingredient to increase the volume of chocolate. When you *stretch* something you make it go farther. Nothing to do with actual elasticity, melting, etc. – Caleb Mar 18 '13 at 21:02
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    I'm familiar with that phrasing but to me it makes no sense in the context of the question. The question doesn't ask about how to make more truffles with less chocolate nor does it suggest any penny pinching or cost effectiveness. The OP appears to have something specific in mind but can't phrase it in a way that is useful. – Brendan Mar 19 '13 at 03:20
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    @LysineNation You say you want to make "softer, more luscious truffles" you've been told how (with cream) yet you're insisting on the answer being sugar margarine and oil which will make exactly what you say you don't want "fatty white-chocolate". And there is no such thing as REAL white chocolate, there is high quality white chocolate, which I assume is what you have, but it's sill mainly just fat and sugar which has been carefully mixed to taste. If you want to ruin that by adding fat and sugar it won't taste as nice. – vwiggins Mar 19 '13 at 14:52

1 Answers1

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More cream in your ganache will make a softer filling. You will need to experiment with the ratios to find the ideal consistency. You may not want to add sugar or margine to your your filling ganache, that is fairly unusual.

If you are speaking of the coating for the truffles, or truffles without a coating, you really don't want to make them softer, because they simply will not be structurally strong enough.

Note that if your ganache is quite soft, you may want to chill (or even partially freeze) it before dipping, so that it firmer and you can work with it. Assuming you are coating with true temperate chocolate, then the chocolate will harden even if at room temperature, the filling is quite soft.

SAJ14SAJ
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  • I should rephrase my question. I was searching the Net for a SIMPLE recipe to stretch REAL white choco preferably with sugar & margarine. But no such luck. It's unbelievable to me, that I couldn't find the answer to such a basic question?? I did once find a recipe for sunflower-seed candy, which I had modified using a similar ratio as the above ingredients, and they turned into yummy chocolate truffles which resembled milk-chocolate, even though it wasn't dairy. So I was wondering if it would also work for WHITE-chocolate (just as they worked with chocolate bits, sugar, marg/oil & water. – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 17:17
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    I am still not sure I understand what you are after. Truffles are a specific candy, and the way they are made is by melting together and cream to make a *ganache*. The cream "stretches" the chocolate and makes it softer. Ganaches can be any consistency from pourable liquid to quite firm depending on the ratio of cream to chocolate. Some truffles are then dipped in 100% chocolate for a firm delicious coating. I suspect that ganache is the answer to your question, even if you don't want to make truffles. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 17:25
  • OK lets forget the term truffles OR ganache. Instead, I'd like to focus on whether there's any recipe for working it out using sugar and margarine (or combo of marg & oil). I even worked out the sunflower candy by adding confectionary sugar as well. It turned out luscious, like a soft chocolate. There was no cream involved, just water, oil, marg, sugar & confectionary sugar. It was non-dairy, yet still good. My question is, how to work it for WHITE-chocolate? – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 17:34
  • If you are happy with that sunflower seed confection's result, why not use that recipe without the sunflower seeds? – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 17:35
  • Because I don't even remember the exact proportion I used to doctor up the sunflower candy recipe. It had been an amateur recipe found on the net, and it had turned out liquidy, so I added stuff. By the way, how do you stretch white chocolate using Cream (and which cream do you use, and which recipe)? Then maybe I can check the Net for substitutes. – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 18:15
  • Google any recipe for "white chocolate ganache". Or white chocolate truffles, which will be the same thing, possibly dipped in chocolate or white chocolate. You may also soften and stretch chocolate with butter or oil. You will see many confection recipes that do this, although I think the result is often inferior in texture and flavor to true ganache. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 18:16
  • You may also *not* want to add sugar; white chocolate is usually very sweet.... but that is up to you. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 18:33
  • Can someone here recommend a foolproof yummy easy recipe for stretching white chocolate (no matter if the recipe is called truffles, ganache, melties or whatever... Call me weird, but my problem with most recipes I find online, is that they're either too non-basic, or else they call for exotic ingredients. – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 18:42
  • I'm still trying to wrap my head around what you mean by "stretching" and what the hell a meltie is? I've never seen anyone pull chocolate like caramel or sugar. – Brendan Mar 18 '13 at 19:46
  • @Brendan I think "make soft like a confection" is the real meaning here.... not extending like bread in meatloaf. – SAJ14SAJ Mar 18 '13 at 19:47
  • Actually, the process of adding (cream or whatever) does stretch it (extend it) to add to the amount STRETCH THE AMOUNT, does it not? I frankly can't understand what Brendan is finding hard to understand. Also, just because my Q hasn't been asked yet, doesn't mean it's not viable. There's a lot more that's true which people are not yet aware of, than things which are true which people were made aware of. Is there any expert here, who can answer my OP including followups? Or should I give up by now? I mean, I appreciate the tip re: ganache, but I thought I'd get a basic answer, sorta like Yahoo – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 19:55
  • Stackexchange did not let me answer my own question, since 2 people saw fit to give me a minus-2 reputation. So here's the answer to my own question in case anyone else needs it for future reference (except they probably won't find it since stackexchange limits tags to newbs. heavy-cream substitute (on about.com) placed into recipe for white chocolate truffles (except even that gets confusingly not-so-easy, since the English language uses so many terms for one item, such as truffles, ganache, maybe even fudge. – Lysine Nation Mar 18 '13 at 20:51
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    Well first off, to stretch something means many different things, including making something go further. However, as your question is currently worded there are no references to being cost effective or making your ingredient go further, it does however, in context refer to a candy making technique that does not work with chocolate so that is why I asked for clarification. It's very difficult for us to answer a question that is ambiguous in its meaning. – Brendan Mar 19 '13 at 03:24