Blond chocolate

Chocolat blond

What it is

In 2004 Frederic Bau left white chocolate in a bain-marie during a demonstration and came back to something the colour of shortbread; Valrhona spent eight years making the accident repeatable and launched Dulcey in 2012. What happened was a Maillard reaction in a product with no cocoa solids at all - the browning is entirely milk.

In the kitchen

Treat it as white chocolate, only cooler - melt no higher than 45C, temper down to 26-27C and work at 28C. Its already-caramelised milk sugars catch fast, so build ganache at 35C and no hotter.

Goes with

Hazelnut Passion fruit Butter Fleur de sel de Guérande Coffee Banana

Same species

Cocoa mass Cacao pulp Cocoa butter Cocoa bean husk Cocoa nibs Dutch-process cocoa powder

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