Salted caramel fans: this is the Crispearl for you. Each pearl is a crisped cereal centre in an 84% coating of Callebaut Gold, a white chocolate caramelised until it tastes of toffee, and the cereal inside is salted before it is enrobed, so the seasoning runs through the pearl instead of sitting on the outside of it.

At around 4mm it scatters and folds exactly like the dark, milk, white and ruby pearls, but the coating carries 35% sugar where the white carries 52.5%, and there is 2.86g of salt in every 100g against the white's 0.63g. Gold tastes of toffee, butter and salt rather than pure sweetness, which is why it balances a dessert that is already sugary sweet.

What Is Gold Chocolate?

Gold is Callebaut's caramelised white chocolate, and it is why these pearls are the colour of dulce de leche rather than of cocoa. The bag and the specification both describe it as "cereals coated with white chocolate with caramel". The colour and the toffee note come from caramelising the sugar and the milk powder, with caramel powder and caramelised sugar built into the recipe on top of that, and natural vanilla. You will see the same idea sold elsewhere as blonde chocolate. Nothing is coloured and nothing is artificially flavoured; the caramel taste and appearance come naturally.

How to Use Gold Salted Caramel Crispearls 

Handle them as you would the white, because the coating is a white chocolate base: fold in late, keep the mix below about 28C, and scatter them onto a glaze while it is still tacky so they set in place without a piped dot to hold them. At 30 to 40g a kilo folded through a mousse, a buttercream or a gelato you are adding salt to the mix as well as crunch, so taste it before you add more. As a garnish allow 5 to 10g a portion, where the salt is a minor note.

Troubleshooting

Thanks to the chocolate coating, these cereal balls maintain their crispiness and crunch even when used in chilled or creamy applications. High water content applications such as fruit purees will cause them to soften over time, so leave it until the last minute to add them.

If the pearls clump in storage they have been too warm. Keep the bag closed at 12 to 20C and away from anything strongly scented, since the cereal centre may pick up an aroma through the coating.

Pairings and Ideas

Gold suits banana, apple, pecan, date, coffee, brown butter and popcorn, and it is the one of the range to reach for when a dessert needs seasoning rather than more sugar.

• Scattered over a moulded egg with dates and pecans, as in our Gold, Date & Pecan Flat Egg
• Through the caramel layer of a bar, as in our Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate Bar
• Around the rim of a spiced white chocolate coffee, as in our Pumpkin Carriage White Chocolate Mocha
• Folded into a banoffee layer, or pressed into the tart base before the toffee goes in
• On a dark chocolate tart, where the salt cuts through the cocoa
• Stirred into a brown butter or miso caramel gelato at the end of the batch