On Friday a bunch of my classmates went to a plated dessert demo here in Chicago...which I am still kicking myself very very hard for missing.

One of the things the chef showed them how to do, and WHY DIDN'T I EVER THINK OF THIS BEFORE, is "roast" (aka caramelize) white chocolate.

Basically you take a bunch of good-quality white chocolate and put it in the oven on a sheet pan covered with parchment... 250 degrees or so. Check and stir it often (every 5-10 minutes) and as the chocolate melts and continues to cook the sugar and milk sugars in there will caramelize and turn a nice golden brown.


hastily-snapped pic of the chocolate in the oven

Then when it's done you can use it wherever you would use white chocolate... temper it and use it for candies, make a ganache, etc. It tastes like a very sweet caramel, maybe a little much by itself but I bet you could find some tasty things to pair it with to tone down the sweetness. David Lebovitz has a fabulous blog post about making it, if you want more in-depth explanation.