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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!

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  • I'm guessing it probably does have to do with firmness when chilled. I'd counter though that there's no reason to use good chocolate in a recipe like that. :P
    – SourDoh
    Commented Feb 7, 2014 at 19:43
  • The source of the recipe may give an answer, sometimes brands publish recipes in order to plug their products. Please tell us how your experiment works for you, it would be great to have an answer.
    – GdD
    Commented Feb 8, 2014 at 21:04
  • @GdD The original recipe might very well have been intended as a plug for the fako white chocolate chips, my neighbor just copied it from a random blog. I'm sure it was passed around a lot before it wound up on that blog. I'm interested in the experiment too, I'll definitely report.
    – Jolenealaska ♦
    Commented Feb 8, 2014 at 22:27

2 Answers 2

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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.

CptCrunchCookies

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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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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  • No worries, you can always use real white chocolate and just mix in some palm kernel oil to soften it back up!
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Feb 8, 2014 at 0:40

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