What’s the difference between white/dark/milk chocolate?
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Chocolate comes from cocoa beans which are roasted and then ground, separating the fats (cocoa butter) from the solids (which provide almost all of the “chocolate” flavor). The chocolate is then recombined – along with additional ingredients – in different proportions to produce different end products.
White chocolate is the cocoa butter combined with sugar and milk solids (sometimes vanilla is added).
Dark chocolate is the solids combined with some cocoa butter and often other fats (helping to control the melting point) and sugar. No milk/milk solids are added. The percentage numbers you see on some chocolate bars reflect the percentage, by weight, of chocolate solids in the finished product.
Milk chocolate is about the same as dark chocolate, with milk and/or milk solids added.
For baking, you may also see “bakers” or “unsweetened” chocolate, which is dark chocolate without any sugar (so you can control the sweetness in your finished product) or cocoa powder (the powdered form of the chocolate solids).
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