Chop Your Chocolate For An Elevated Cookie Experience

For many dessert lovers, nothing hits the spot more than a plate of warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies. What other desserts fuel our desire to eat uncooked batter or dough just as much as the final product? Besides the basic instructions of combining room-temperature butter with a special mixture of sugar, eggs, flour, leavening agents, and vanilla, what sets a good batch of chocolate-laden cookies apart from the rest of the pack comes down to the extra ingredients. A good batch of chocolate chip cookies is often determined in part by the type of chocolate mixed into the batter, the amount used, and how exactly this chocolate variety of choice is incorporated into that buttery, vanilla-kissed dough.

The majority of cookie lovers are more than likely turning to a trusted bag of chocolate chips to get the job done every time their sweet tooth calls. However, if you love a bit of chocolate in every cookie bite, you might want to consider chopping your chocolate when mixing up your next batch of homemade cookies. Not only are you opening yourself up to more complex cookie bites melded with different-sized pieces of chocolate, but you also have more variety when choosing a bar of chocolate over a standard bag of semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate chips. 

Now that you know some of the benefits of using chopped chocolate for your next round of cookies, just how, exactly, do you incorporate this type of confection into a simple batch of cookie dough?

Adding chopped chocolate to your next round of cookies couldn't be easier. Even though some professionals might insist that you should use a sifter when baking with cut chocolate, others might proclaim those tiny shards of chocolate mixed with larger chunks are what makes chopped chocolate cookies a more pleasant and surprising experience. You'll never know what proportion of chocolate you'll get in each flavorful bite.

To swap in chopped chocolate for chocolate chips, choose a bar or two of your favorite chocolate but aim to keep your selected variety simple and refined. Choose chocolate bars with varying degrees of cocoa, but leave out the extra flavors, such as mint, almond, and raspberry. You want the exemplary chocolate flavor of these bars to stand out. 

Cut your chocolate bar on a cutting board with a serrated knife, but try not to move your hand back and forth as you normally would with a serrated utensil. The individual points on a serrated knife help break your chocolate bar into more distinct pieces with just a few simple cuts. Your next batch of chocolate chip cookies will be evenly loaded with various-sized chocolate bits in no time.

Even though swapping in your favorite chocolate bars for traditional semisweet chips is fairly simple, there are a few extra factors you may want to keep in mind before making the jump. First, make sure your bars of chocolate are at room temperature before chopping. The cold air from your refrigerator can lead to water buildup in and around your chocolate, which has the potential to alter its internal structure in the baking process. 

You'll also want to make sure you measure those chopped pieces of chocolate before blindly swapping them into your next bowl of cookie dough. Because pouring chocolate chips into a measuring cup is slightly easier than measuring large chunks and tiny shards, utilize your kitchen scale if you have one to make sure you're using the suggested amount of chocolate.

The last element to consider is taste. If you've been using semisweet chips most of your life, you probably haven't thought too much about how the flavor of chocolate impacts the final result. Now that you have more options at your fingertips, keep in mind that the right kind of chocolate can either hinder or complement that perfectly sweet cookie dough base. Either choose a chocolate bar you're familiar with, or follow one of the pro tips for making the best chocolate chip cookies with a few different kinds of chocolate. By replacing chocolate chips with chopped chocolate, you're well on your way to making a delicious batch of cookies.