Making Homemade Chocolate Chips…In Detail
ByI posted about making homemade chocolate chips a long time ago. Since that time and especially within the past few weeks, I’ve received several emails asking for more help and detail about how this works. It seems that many of you who tried the recipe are having trouble getting everything to melt and dissolve and mix like it should.
In light of your chocolate chip frustration…I decided to do a more thorough tutorial about how I make chocolate chips. Chocolate and frustration should never be in the same sentence together. Ever.
You can use coconut oil or butter to make your chips. I used butter this time because I’m almost out of coconut oil. Butter doesn’t quite work as well as coconut oil. They tend to be softer with butter…but still oh so good. Especially when you put them in these.
Here again is the recipe:
Homemade Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat
1 cup coconut oil or butter
1 T. vanilla
Begin by placing the cocoa, sucanat and butter (or coconut oil) into a quart sized jar.
Fill a small saucepan with two or three inches of water. Place the jar into the saucepan/water. Turn the heat on medium/high to begin melting the butter.
Stir often. After five minutes, my mixture looked like this:
To take each picture, I pulled the jar out of the pan of water. The steam was fogging up my camera lense! I quickly put the jar back into the water to resume melting process. Just telling you that so you know that you don’t have to pull your jar out of the pan every five minutes. But you already knew that, right?
After ten minutes, my mixture looked like this:
It took a total of thirteen minutes for the butter to completely melt. I then pulled it out of the water, added the vanilla and stirred well.
The mixture in my jar looked and smelled SO GOOD that I wanted to drink it. But I didn’t. That would have made quite a mustache.
Pour the mixture into a 9×13 inch pan covered with parchment paper. Spread it as evenly as you can.
As you can hopefully tell from the following picture, I still have a little sucanat that refused to completely dissove. Can you see the bits of chunkyness? That’s been one of the questions I’ve received from several of you. But…the little bits of chunkyness don’t hurt anything. My chocolate chips tasted just fine!
Place your pan into the refrigerator. It takes a couple of hours for the chocolate to harden. Once it’s hardened, remove it from the parchment paper and break it into chunks. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container (unless you and your family eat them all first).
I hope this is helpful! It’s very fun to make your own chocolate chips and oh so very yummy!
And now…no matter how hot it is today…I may need to use my freshly made chocolate chips to bake brownies. After I eat some green beans and broccoli from my garden of course…
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Thanks for sharing this again! I recently read that many chocolate chips are GM, and I assumed that organic chocolate chips would be super expensive – this sounds like an easy and cost-effective alternative!
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blair Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 11:44 am
what does gm mean?
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Laura Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Genetically modified. :)
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Thank you! I’m so looking forward to trying this. Thanks for the detail so I know what to expect.
Love your blog!
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My daughter was just asking me last week if we could make our own chocolate chips! She is going to be thrilled to see a tutorial! thanks so much!
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Oh, I’ve wanted to make my own for a while now, this is great!
I was curious if they melted quickly once out of the fridge/freezer. I’m guessing if I used CO, it would melt faster, but butter maybe not.
Esp in your breakfast cookies. :) We love those!
Thanks for the great tutorial!
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Laura Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 8:56 am
I actually find that the chocolate chips made with butter melt faster once out of the fridge. I get them out just before I’m ready to add them to my cookies, etc.
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This is a great tutorial and I can’t wait to do this. I just have one question. What is sucanat and where in the grocery store might I find it? Thanks.
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Laura Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Sucanat is “dehydrated cane sugar juice” and is one of the healthiest forms of sugar you can find. I order mine through my health food coop. You can try looking at a health food store, or even in your grocery store in the health food section. OR…here’s a link where you can get it from Amazon: Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sucanat (Brown Sugar), 16-Ounce Pouches (Pack of 12)
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Brenda Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Thank you so much…I’ve seen it listed in a few recipes but hand no clue what it was. Now I know what to look for and thanks for the link to Amazon.
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I did have trouble with this. I think because I used raw sugar? Also I mixed the chocolate chunk into the breakfast cookies and had a terrible chocolate mess …the cookies tasted fine. (by the way I did chill the whole thing over night).
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What is rapadura (or sucanat for that matter) and where do you puchase it?
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I’ve made these several times, and they are awesome! My evaporated cane juice doesn’t fully dissolve either, but I don’t mind the crunch in the chocolate chunks. I usually refrigerate the chocolate in the original melting container, and stir frequently. I try to catch it just before it sets up, give it a final stir, then pour it out onto the parchment paper. My theory is that the undissolved sugar will be suspended in the chocolate instead of sinking to the bottom. I’m not sure it’s worth the extra work though.
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Thank you so much for posting healthier “sweets” alternatives! I love your site and have told so many of my friends/family about it! I’m a young wife/mom and recently had a bit of a health scare, so now more than ever I’ve committed my health to God…I was harming my body with all the bad food I was eating! ..my first step was to cut out pop..SO hard..but I’m sticking with it! Thanks for posting healthier alternatives that are still yummy!!
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Could the butter mixture be melted in the microwave as opposed to the stove?
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Laura Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Hmm…I don’t know. I don’t use a microwave and while I’m sure the butter would melt in the microwave and everything would mix in…I don’t know if the consistency would be right.
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Paul Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
The issue with microwaving chocolate is tempurature regulation. The chocolate has a tendancy to burn, and the butter will pop and make a huge mess. If you can keep the chocolate from burning, and maybe put some sort of vented top on the container, (it would prevent the mess but might cause condensation, which could drip into the mix, possibly binding it up) it might work a bit faster.
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Hi! We love the chocolate chunks. It’s like a little Almond Joy! I also could not get the rapadura to melt, so now I don’t feel so bad. I tried using the chips in cookies, and they instantly melted and created one large, thin cookie on the pan. Has this happened to you? I followed your directions for cookies in your “What to do with the cocoa in your kitchen”. Would love to know of any solutions to this problem or if I’m the only one that has had it.
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Laura Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
You’re definitely not the only one who has had this trouble! Check out this post! http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/healthy-treat-for-today-whole-wheat-chocolate-chip-cookies
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Carmen Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I just made the chocolate chips. So, I haven’t tried them in cookies yet. But, have you tried refrigerating your cookie dough between batches. I have done this with other cookies and liked the way they turned out. But, don’t know if it will work in this case.
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lisa Reply:
June 18th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
I made the chips just for cookies & after doing all this it only makes
sense to me that these would melt & change the cookies to a thin mess.
It is mostly oil & it’s like adding all the ingredients into your cookie
mix. And I tried refrigerating the cookie dough but it was no match.
I used your “soaked” breakfast cookie recipe for my dough. I think
these would work best in something that doesn’t get cooked- ice cream?
on top of a cake? (or just eating them- ha!) Now I’m going to figure out what to use crumbled up cookies in…
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Good to know about the undissolved sugar. I will not be anxious about them next time. = )
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I made this yesterday to stir into homemade ice cream during the last bit of churning. It was delicious, one of my kids picked them all out to save for last!
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ok, thanks! If I try and make this using a microwave, I’ll be sure to let you know!
I don’t see why it would be any different, but who knows!
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Wow, I’ve got to try this!
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Have you ever experimented and tried to make peanut butter chips? I searched for a recipe for them online, but didn’t see any. If find one, or come up with one yourself, can you please post it? Thanks!
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Hey, when I’m making recipes that I really don’t want to be chunky from the raw sugar, I blend the demerara, sucanat, turbinado, whatever kind you use, in the blender until it’s powdered. I even made a lemon cake last week that I switched out for whole wheat flour and turbinado. It called for a powdered sugar glaze and I had success using the blended sugar for this. It was a teeny tiny bit grainy still, but if you were melting it in a recipe, I’m sure it would totally dissolve.
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This looks so easy and yummy. I’m going to make them today. A perfect rainy day project.
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yay! i have been trying to feed my family (me, 24: my husband, 26; and 2 sons, 18mos, and 3yrs) more healthy foods. In this quest my husband has been asking and asking me if there is an alternative to buying chocolate chips at the store.. i kept saying no, there isnt or that it would be too hard and i didnt want to try it. well, lo and behold… here it is and it looks EASY! thank you!
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Thanks this is a great for the chocolate lover!!! We are trying to avoid all hydrogenated oil, but the grandkids love chocolate chip cookies. I am also looking for a recipe to make peanut butter chips. I have looked extensively online & cannot find one. I was hoping you had tried your hand at making them! Please let me know if you have a recipe for peanut butter chips.
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Laura Reply:
March 25th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
I don’t have one, but it is on my (very long) list of recipes to play with! I’ll post it if I ever come up with a good one that works!
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I don’t know how everyone feels about honey, especially those with small children but I used honey when I “basically” made this recipe (except with the addition of some coarsely ground espresso beans) Next time I will cool and stir again before I put it in the freezer. We had some sweet spots and not so sweet spots but all broken up and hiding in the fridge, its a divine little treat.
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What a wonderful idea!! I was just about to spend $95 on a 25-pound bag of choc chips through a co-op, but now I’m going to make some!
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I just found this recipe and all the replies indicate that it is good….. I am just surprised that EVERYONE has Sucanat or whatever. I have never heard of it. Is there a substitute for it? I just tried to find out on Yahoo Answers, to no avail. Could you guys help? =-)
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Laura Reply:
April 20th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Sucanat is dehydrated cane sugar juice, one of the most nutritious forms of sugar. You can substitute brown sugar if you like. Here’s more about sucanat that I wrote: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/the-most-nutritious-sweeteners
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I got mine from azure standard for way cheap last month. Just look at azurestandard.com. It was like a buck a pound.
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Would it be possible to make this directly in the saucepan while stirring constantly? I have made frosting that way, and I wonder if it would help with dissolving the Sucanat. I’ll experiment.
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Hey everyone. If you did butter instead of coconut oil, would you melt it? And would this work:
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
1 T. vanilla
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Could you substitute the sweetener with agave? Could you get close to the same results?
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Laura Reply:
May 16th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I’ve never tried it with liquid sweetener, so I don’t know if it would work or not. BUT, my latest research shows me that agave isn’t the healthiest to consume. I’ve thought of trying it with maple syrup…not sure though. I feel like liquid sweeteners would make the chips have a hard time hardening up.
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Can this be made in a double boiler?
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Laura Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Yes, I don’t know why not!
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Hi!
I tried making these with coconut palm sugar because I cannot have cane sugar of any kind, and they were delicious! The only thing was that the sugar separated a little during cooling. I’ve been experimenting with my own sugar-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free chocolate chip recipe that I really like too: http://thepalatepeacemaker.com/2010/05/18/chocolate-chunks/
Thanks!
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I looked through the replies to this post and didn’t see anyone make this suggestion, but I saw on someone else’s blog an idea to solve the “sucanat crystals not dissolving” issue. Anyway, she suggested a food processor, but I tried putting the sucanat in my coffee grinder (which I use basically to grind flax – we’re not coffee drinkers) and it blended beautifully into tiny crystals which THEN dissolved to make a better chocolate chip!
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What is rapadura or sucanat? Is that a substitution for these if you can’t buy either of them?
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Laura Reply:
July 20th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Rapadura and sucanat are dehydrated cane sugar juice…one of the healthiest ways sugar cane can be processed. You can just use regular white or brown sugar as a substitute if you want!
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So glad I came across this through another post of yours! I had been wondering how I could afford to buy an organic chip and now I can make them myself! I know it doesn’t have the flavor of butter or coconut oil, but I wonder if organic palm shortening would work better in the recipe for keeping the chips from melting too readily, since the shortening’s melting point is about 97 degrees, whereas coconut oil is 76 degrees?
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Going to give it a go. I am always looking for ways to incorporate alkaline food into my diet – especially desserts and chocolate. Sucanat is mentioned on several pH charts as being alkaline. Going to try your chocolate recipe over coconut almond macaroons. . . Thanks
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Could this be made with agave or honey. It’s hard to come by anything else other then regular sugar in my nect of the woods.
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