"Cassandra J. Nichols" > wrote in message
...
> Janet Puistonen wrote:
>
>> White chocolate may not technically be "chocolate," but it certainly
>> isn't almond butter.
>
> I believe it is cocoa butter, or at least based on it.

"White Chocolate" is composed of :

Cocoa Butter (the fat from the cocoa bean)
Milk (Powdered, flake, crumb, or other form)
Sugar
Vanilla
Soy lechithin

The cocoa bean is approximately 53% fat though I was examining some only two
weeks ago in a fermentation house in Mexico that had been analyzed to be 57%
cocoa butter. The ground beans are squeezed in a hydraulic press expelling
the cocoa butter and leaving behind a cake of cocoa solids which is then
ground into cocoa powder.

The milk is generally dry when it is added. This can be in the form of
crumb, powdered, or flake. You can add wet milk to it (or to regular
chocolate) to make milk chocolate but it take longer to process since you
have to dry it all out again.

Sugar .... Well, sugar is sugar mostly (as long as it isn't beet sugar yada
yada.)

Soy Lechithin -- an emulsifier to make it all flow, mold, and handle more
easily. This is really optional but many manufacturers add it so that they
don't have to use so much cocoa butter.

That's about it as far as the ingredients for white chocolate.

Hope this helps,

-Art