Caramelized White Chocolate Ganache
If you love caramel and white chocolate I have no doubt that you will be completely obsessed with caramelized white chocolate ganache. It really is the best of both worlds!
You know what’s funny? Two of my favorite flavors are cookie butter and caramelized white chocolate and I have almost no recipes posted with them…
I posted this caramelized white chocolate ganache recipe almost three years ago, when I first discovered the magic that happens when you slow-bake white chocolate.
How to make caramelized white chocolate ganache
Caramelized white chocolate ganache is basically made the same way as any other ganache. If you’ve purchased my cookbook, Frosted, you’ll see that the difference between them is that white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate all use a different ratio of cream to chocolate.
For caramelized white chocolate ganache, you’ll want to caramelize the white chocolate first and then combine it with the warm cream, stirring gently just until it’s all smooth and silky.
How to caramelize white chocolate
This is probably the easiest task on the planet. You just preheat the oven to 240F, place the white chocolate chips or bits on a cookie sheet and then bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, use an offset spatula to scrape up all the chocolate, spread it back out and bake for 10 minutes again. Repeat this process 6-8 times, depending on how dark you want it to get.
Also, don’t get worried when you see the chocolate seizing, it doesn’t always for me but sometimes more than others. It’ll smooth out once you scrape it all up and spread back out. Below you can see a close-up of the chocolate, about halfway through bake time, before and after scraping and spreading.
What kind of white chocolate to use when caramelizing white chocolate
Ok, this is controversial, lol. Any time you see people caramelizing white chocolate they talk about using high quality white chocolate with a high ratio of cocoa butter. I have tried this with a few different brands and if I’m being completely honest, NESTLE WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIPS are my favorite…
Caramelizing white chocolate has worked with all the brands I’ve tried, from cheap to expensive, higher amounts of cocoa butter to chips with stabilizers. The reason I prefer Nestle white chocolate chips is because I like the taste of cheap white chocolate better than fancy white chocolate…yeah please don’t judge me, lol.
How to use caramelized white chocolate
- Use it in place of chips: so technically, you could let the caramelized white chocolate cool and harden, then use it in place of chocolate chips/chunks.
- Use it in place of caramel: I like to make it into a ganache and use it in place of caramel sauce. I have SO MANY recipes that use my homemade salted caramel sauce and you could replace it with this luscious caramelized white chocolate ganache. Some of my favorites are:
It’s also really good in place of peanut butter, almond butter and cookie butter. Some great ways to use it like this is to swirl it in brownies or blondies, freeze little balls of ganache and stuff it into chocolate chip cookies or use it to frost a cake.
How to store caramelized white chocolate ganache
- If you leave the caramelized white chocolate as chocolate and don’t turn it into a ganache, it’ll last basically forever.
- If you do make it into a ganache, it’ll stay good for 1-2 months refrigerated in an airtight container. I just microwave it a little when I want to use it and drizzle it/spread it onto whatever I want.
Thanks so much for reading today’s post, if you have any questions just comment down below, i’m happy to answer! If you ever make caramelized white chocolate ganache, I would love to see how you use it so make sure to tag me @baranbakery on instagram!
As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
Hi, I hope you still see this after so long, first Thanks for the recipe, it seems so simple, and before trying (because I’ll try it) I’d like to know if I can use a silpat mat over the baking sheet or it works only when the chocolate is in direct contact with the metal?
I don’t know why, I don’t like to pour things directly on my baking sheet, not real reason behind that, thanks!
Hey! A silpat mat is fine too I just would rather not clean both lol cuz it’ll probably still get onto the baking pan a little when you’re spreading out and stuff. 🙂
Hi! Can the ganache be whipped after it hardens? If so, would it be stable enough to fill a cake with? Thank you!!
Hi Zara, I love your name, that’s my daughters name 🙂 you can def whip this into a ganache and I haven’t tried it but it should be stable enough to frost a cake, it might even be too stiff. If so, just add 1 Tbsp of room temperature cream to the mixture while you’re whipping it!
also that’s a brilliant idea, now im going to frost a cake with it too hahaha
Can this be used to frost a cake or piping on one
Made it this morning and it was perfect! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Yay, so glad you liked it Chrissy!!
Hi, newbie here! Its late, but will this recipe harden once cooled? Your liquid gold description has me intrigued and id love to drizzle this over some strawberries. I assume it would but I wanted to ask to be sure. Thank you in advance
Hi Christine,
The caramelized white chocolate is similar to caramel. When it’s hot it is liquid, room temperature is soft/thick liquid and cold is firm (not quite hard). Very similar to caramel sauce. However, this all depends on how much cream you add. Feel free to add a little extra cream to make it more liquidy.
I store in the fridge and when I use it, I just heat it up and drizzle it over everything.
Is the recipe correct? Where is the caramel?
Barbara, this recipe is for caramelized white chocolate ganache, which is roasted white chocolate with heavy cream.