Chocolate chip
|
Semi-sweet chocolate chips | |
| Type | Chocolate |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients | Chocolate, sugar |
 Cookbook: Chocolate chip  Media: Chocolate chip | |
Chocolate chips are small chunks of sweetened chocolate, which are used as an ingredient in a number of desserts (notably chocolate chip cookies and muffins), in trail mix and less commonly in some breakfast foods such as pancakes. They are often sold in a round, flat-bottomed teardrop shape. Another variety of chocolate chips has rectangular or square chocolate chunks. They are available in numerous sizes from "large" to "miniature", but are usually less than 10 millimetres (0.39 in) in diameter.
Origin
Chocolate chips were created with the invention of chocolate chip cookies in 1937 when Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe. (The Nestlé brand Toll House cookies is named for the inn.) The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield reached an agreement in 1939 with Nestlé to add her recipe to the chocolate bar's packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate. Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars. In 1941, Nestlé and at least one of its competitors started selling the chocolate in "chip" (or "morsel") form.[1]
Types
Originally, chocolate chips were made of semi-sweet chocolate, but today there are many flavors. These include bittersweet, peanut butter, butterscotch, mint chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white and dark swirled chips.
Uses
Chocolate chips can be used in cookies, pancakes, waffles, cakes, pudding, muffins, crêpes, pies, hot chocolate, and various pastries. They are also found in many other retail food products such as granola bars, ice cream, and trail mix.
Baking and melting
Chocolate chips can also be melted and used in sauces and other recipes. The chips melt best at temperatures between 104 and 113 °F (40 and 45 °C). The melting process starts at 90 °F (32 °C), when the cocoa butter starts melting in the chips. The cooking temperature must never exceed 115 °F (46 °C) for milk chocolate and white chocolate, or 120 °F (49 °C) for dark chocolate, or the chocolate will burn.
Although convenient, melted chocolate chips are not always recommended as a substitute for baking chocolate. Because most chocolate chips are designed to retain their shape when baking, they contain less cocoa butter than baking chocolate, and so can be more difficult to work with melted.
Availability
Chocolate chips are popular as a baking ingredient in the United States. The chocolate chip cookie is a quintessential American dessert. Chocolate chips are also widely available in Australia, Canada, and less commonly in Europe and other parts of the world. Nestlé and The Hershey Company are among the top producers of chocolate chips.
References
- ↑ Chocolate Chip Cookies: Chip versus Morsel, The earliest references in published recipes and ads to the chip or morsel appear in the spring of 1941. Newspaper advertisements and published recipes from 1940 and earlier all refer to cutting up chocolate squares only.
External links
- History of Toll House from NestleCafe.com
