Learn how to make white chocolate sauce that comes together in under 5 minutes with using 2 ingredients! The best Starbucks copycat recipe! White chocolate sauce is a wonderful addition to your pancakes, vanilla cakes, pies, or any pudding and with my recipe, you will learn how to adjust one base recipe to different textures and depths of flavors!
Coffee lovers might be looking for the copycat version of the famous Starbucks white chocolate mocha drink! Well, you can follow this easy recipe to make the copycat of Starbucks white chocolate sauce and use it in your coffee!
Jump to:
- 📖 What is White Chocolate Sauce made of
- 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
- 📝 Ingredient notes
- 📖 What white chocolate is the best to make chocolate sauce?
- 👩🍳 How to make this recipe
- ✨ Flavor variations
- 🎓 Expert tips
- ❓Recipe FAQs
- ✨ What can you put White Chocolate sauce on
- 🧁 More frosting and filling recipes
- White Chocolate Sauce (VIDEO)
📖 What is White Chocolate Sauce made of
There are different ways to make the sauce, but most of the recipes normally include white chocolate and milk or cream as their base ingredients. Some recipes add other ingredients to adjust the flavor, consistency, and texture.
Please note that the Fontana white chocolate sauce is basically only sugar, condensed milk, and aromas, while this recipe is a real white chocolate sauce with way better flavor!
Torani white chocolate sauce is made of sweetened condensed milk, nonfat milk, and cocoa butter, again, a much lower quality product than making your own white chocolate sauce from scratch.
You might wonder why make chocolate sauce from scratch? Because it´s only 2 ingredients, can be made in 5 minutes, healthier and tastes 100x better!
🌟 Why this is the best recipe
- It's rather easy– My white chocolate sauce is really really a beginner-friendly recipe
- It's quick– The total time to make this recipe is under 5 minutes including preparation. It´s literally quicker than buying it
- It only uses a few ingredients- You can make a delicious chocolate sauce with easy-to-find ingredients! This recipe proves it!
- It's using the right technique – Some chocolate sauce recipes include cooking the chocolate on the stove, which is not the most appropriate way to prepare a chocolate sauce. This recipe uses a better way to melt chocolate, and it helps you achieve the best result!
- It's so delicious- I never compromise on taste when it comes to sweet treats! This is seriously the best white chocolate sauce without additives. You will find instructions on what chocolate to use and how to get the most flavor out of the sauce
📝 Ingredient notes
- White chocolate: Use high-quality white chocolate callets or white chocolate bars cut into smaller chunks. The quality of the chocolate greatly affects the taste. I am using a Belgian brand called Callebaut which makes this recipe a Belgian white chocolate sauce! To learn more about white chocolate, read my white chocolate baking guide.
- Heavy cream: Also known as whipping cream, heavy cream is a dairy product that has 36%-40% fat content. For this recipe, I use the 36% version of heavy cream.
- Milk: Milk is another option that provides thinner white chocolate sauce. Use high fat (3%) milk for the best taste
- Salt: A little amount of it to balance the taste.
- Vanilla (optional): Feel free to flavor the sauce with some pure vanilla extract
🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post
📖 What white chocolate is the best to make chocolate sauce?
It's important to only use high-quality white chocolate, such as Valrhona, Callebaut, or potentially Lindt, to make this recipe.
The difference between good-quality and low-quality chocolate is its cocoa butter content. Cocoa butter contributes to that "melt-in-your-mouth" sensation. Good chocolate contains a good amount of cocoa butter.
The better the chocolate, the higher the cocoa butter content, and the smoother it melts which translates into a delicious silky sensation that you feel when eating high-quality chocolate.
👩🍳 How to make this recipe
Crafting a homemade white chocolate syrup is super easy! There are different kinds of white chocolate sauces and this recipe provides you with three different version to make it. You can choose the one that suits you best!
1. Step-by-step process
- First of all, make sure to measure all the ingredients
- Add the white chocolate callets or finely chopped white chocolate to a bowl and semi-melt in the microwave. No need to fully melt it
- Add the heavy cream or milk into a pot/saucepan
- Heat cream or milk until simmering
- Before it gets boiled, remove it from the stove and carefully pour it over the semi-melted white chocolate
- Add a pinch of salt
- Let it sit for a minute and grab a rubber spatula or hand blender to stir until the chocolate is fully melted and the mixture is well-combined.
- The chocolate sauce is ready! You can use it immediately or wait for it until it reaches room temperature. You can also place it in the fridge
By following those five simple steps, you can enjoy the creamy white chocolate sauce in under 5 minutes. However, you can adjust the ingredient ratio to suit your needs. Here are 3 ideas to try:
- Using a 1:1 ratio of white chocolate and heavy cream - If you're using 1 cup of white chocolate chips, you will need 1 cup of heavy cream. You can try this ratio when you want a white chocolate ganache. It comes in a liquid form when it's hot. But when it gets cold or at room temperature, it gets thicker
- Using a 1:2 ratio of white chocolate and heavy cream - Adjust the ingredients to this ratio when you want a thinner white chocolate sauce vs. the previous ganache version. It's runny when it's hot and it gets slightly thicker (looks like a regular sauce) when it's cold
- Using a 1:1 ratio of white chocolate and whole milk - It's the thinnest version of these three. Surely, it can be very runny when it's hot, and it's still runny when it's cold
💡 Top Tip: The ratio of ingredients affects the consistency and texture of the white chocolate sauce. Therefore, pick your favorite version first and adjust the ingredient before making the recipe!
2. Further important considerations to make your sauce perfect
As you can see above, there are different variations for different usages. Besides the texture, remember that a white chocolate sauce also has other qualities such as richness, sweetness, and calories.
Ask yourself, what are the main thing that you're looking for in a white chocolate sauce? Take a look at this summary:
| The ingredient | The result if you add more of it | The result if you reduce it |
| Liquid | Thinner texture | Thicker texture |
| Fat content | Thicker texture | Thinner texture |
| Liquid | Less sweet in taste | Sweeter in taste |
| Fat content | Richer taste | Less rich in taste |
White chocolate contributes to sweetness and calories. If you add more of it, you will get a sweeter sauce plus higher calories.
Heavy cream is the thick liquid in the recipe. It contributes to the richness and thickness. If you add more of it, you will get a richer taste and thicker texture.
Milk is the thin liquid in the recipe. It contributes to the thinness of the sauce. Besides, it has fewer calories than heavy cream. If you add more of it to the ratio, certainly the sauce will be thinner and lower in calories per gram.
Learn how to adjust the four characteristics of the white chocolate sauce:
The Texture
To adjust the texture or consistency of the chocolate sauce, simply adjust the amount of liquid in the ingredients. The more liquid you add, the thinner the sauce becomes.
Fat content also plays a big role here. If your liquid contains higher fat content (such as heavy cream), it'll result in a thicker sauce compared to the usage of whole milk.
Besides those two, the temperature is also a contributing factor to the texture of the chocolate sauce. The colder your sauce, the thicker it will be.
Chocolate will re-solidify when it meets a perfect cold temperature and the liquid content inside the sauce will also freeze, making the sauce really thick.
The Richness
There are two things that affect the richness of white chocolate sauce: the fat content and the temperature.
The higher fat contained in the liquid, the thicker the sauce will be. So, for example, if you want a richer sauce, use e heavy cream instead of milk.
Temperature also affects the richness. Enjoying your chocolate sauce at a cold temperature can bring out richer feels since the chocolate re-solidify at colder temperatures.
The Sweetness
The one factor that contributes to the sweetness of a chocolate sauce is the amount of chocolate.
The more chocolate you add the sweeter the sauce becomes.
The Calories
Chocolate sauce is so delicious but adds a significant calorie plus to your morning coffee.
If you want to reduce the calories in the sauce, try to add more liquid to the mixture and mainly milk, not cream.
💡 Top Tip: There are different variations you can get from this recipe. Find the one that suits your preference!
3. So which one is the best homemade white chocolate sauce
Too many options to choose from, eh? There isn't really one universal "BEST homemade chocolate sauce" because everyone has a unique taste.
To help you decide which one is your favorite chocolate sauce version in this recipe, try to answer these questions:
- Do you want to use the sauce warm or cold?
- Do you prefer a richer sauce or a lighter sauce?
- Do you want a sweet sauce or a less sweet sauce?
- Do you want the sauce to be lower in calories?
My favorite warm version is the one with a 1:1 ratio of white chocolate and heavy cream for its richness and strong white chocolate taste but it can get very thick as it cools and it is also quite high in calories. For the room temperature/cold version, I prefer the version that uses a 1:2 ratio of white chocolate and heavy cream.
I'm not a fan of the milk version because it's always very thin, and the chocolate taste isn't that great. However, this is a good option when you want a chocolate sauce with lower calories and/or very thin.
✨ Flavor variations
This DIY white chocolate sauce tastes delicious as is, but you can get creative and experiment with flavors!
Some flavor ideas:
Strawberry or raspberry: To achieve this flavor, replace 50% of the total liquid with strawberry or raspberry sauce.
Coffee: To get this flavor, replace the 25% of the total liquid with coffee
Cinnamon: To get this flavor, add ½ teaspoon of cinnamon powder to the mixture. The alternative way is by leaving a cinnamon stick in the liquid overnight before using.
Milk chocolate: To get this flavor, replace the white chocolate with milk chocolate. You may need to add more liquid to adjust the consistency.
Dark chocolate: To get this flavor, replace the white chocolate with dark chocolate. You may need to add more liquid to achieve the desired consistency.
🎓 Expert tips
- Make sure to use high-quality white chocolate for the best taste
- If you decide to use the version which includes heavy cream, only use the one with 36% fat content.
- If you want a lower-calorie version of this recipe, use low fat milk
- Don't skip the salt. No matter what version of sauce you choose, a little amount of salt is important to balance the overall taste.
- You can get creative and modify the flavor of the chocolate sauce by adding or substituting one of the ingredients
- If you enjoy white chocolate desserts check these white chocolate covered strawberries, white chocolate matcha cookies, white chocolate raspberry tart, or peanut butter white chocolate recipes
❓Recipe FAQs
You can use it on almost every sweet treat! You can even use this white chocolate sauce for coffee drinks! Try to incorporate it into your mocha drink, just like Starbucks does. It's so delicious!
The white chocolate sauce used by Starbucks is branded after them. However, the white chocolate sauce is popularly believed to be made by Fontana. This white chocolate sauce tastes 100x better as it is made of pure ingredients such as white chocolate and cream.
This white chocolate syrup recipe is not vegan as it contains the dairy product. You can make vegan white chocolate sauce by using vegan white chocolate and vegan cream, however expect the taste and the texture slightly different
This white chocolate sauce recipe and the common white chocolate syrups out there are gluten-free because they don't contain wheat products.
Actually, you can. However, a white chocolate sauce made with condensed milk can be a bit too sweet
To thicken your white chocolate sauce, you can add more fat to it in the form of heavy cream or more chocolate. You can also refrigerate it so it gets a bit thicker.
If your white chocolate sauce is too thick, add more liquid eg. milk or cream, and stir well. The more liquid you add, the thinner it will be.
Store the white chocolate sauce in an airtight jar and keep it in the fridge for up to a week. You don't want to place it at room temperature as this product contains dairy and it can expire quickly.
There is really no need to freeze this white chocolate sauce as you can make it in 5 minutes when you need it. However, if you want to freeze it, place it into an airtight container.
✨ What can you put White Chocolate sauce on
- Chocolate mocha: Just like any other coffee syrup, you can add white chocolate sauce to your mocha! You can use either the hot version or cold version of this chocolate sauce at the bottom or on top of your mocha drink
- Waffles: Use the sauce on your waffle to make a nice breakfast
- Pancakes: Drizzle the sweet, creamy sauce on top of the soft pancakes
- Ice cream: Feel free to drizzle the cold version of this sauce on your ice cream
- Cake glaze: Decorate your chocolate or vanilla cake with this sauce
- Chocolate sandwich: Use this sauce as an extra topping
- Donut: Drizzle it on top of your donuts
- Fruit dip: White chocolate dipping sauce sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? You can serve this sauce with fresh strawberries for your family
- Cheesecake: Make a cheesecake and drizzle it with this sauce
- Popcorn: Drizzle it on top of your popcorn. It can be a fun twist to try
🧁 More frosting and filling recipes
Have you tried this recipe?
Please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe card and consider leaving a comment as well! I would love to hear about how your dessert turned out and your feedback also helps other Readers!
White Chocolate Sauce (VIDEO)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 100 g (½ cups) White chocolate eg. Callebaut, Valrhona, Lindt
- 200 g (¾ cups) Heavy Cream 36% fat cream
- Pinch of salt
- Vanilla extract
US customary cup measurement is an indicative figure only. Measure the ingredients with a digital scale by weight (gram). Baking is art but also science which requires precision and accuracy.
Instructions
- Place white chocolate chunks into a plastic bowl and semi-melt in the microwave
- Heat cream until simmering
- Pour hot cream over the semi-melted chocolate and add a pinch of salt
- Stir until the chocolate is fully melted and the mixture is well-combined
- Use it on pancake, waffles, cakes, cupcakes or in your coffee
- Store refrigerated for up to a week
Notes
- Make sure to use high-quality white chocolate for the best taste
- Use heavy cream with 36% fat content
- If using milk, the chocolate:milk ratio should be 1:1 meaning 100g chocolate (½ cups) and 100g milk (½ cup)
- Don't skip the salt. No matter what version of sauce you choose, a little amount of salt is important to balance the overall taste.
- Use more or less liquid (milk or cream) if you want to achieve a thinner or thicker sauce
- Remember, the sauce will thicken as it cools as chocolate solidifies at room temperature
- You can get creative and modify the flavor of the chocolate sauce by adding or substituting one of the ingredients
Nat
how much vanilla extract?
Katalin Nagy
As you wish eg. 1 teaspoon, it is not strictly necessary.