Making Homemade Chocolate Chips…In Detail
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I posted about making homemade chocolate chips a long time ago. Since that time, 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. The words 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 Chocolate Chip Brownies.
Here again is the recipe:
Homemade Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat (you can use white sugar if you want)
1 cup coconut oil or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (homemade vanilla extract if you have it!)
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:
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!
You like how the ceiling fan is reflecting in the chocolate?
I’m just trying to show off my terrible photography skills.
Place your pan into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours so that the chocolate can harden. 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).
Just a note: These chocolate chips taste wonderful in Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, but keep in mind that they are very pure and therefore tend to melt and get runny while baking. Chocolate Chip Cookies with homemade chocolate chips taste wonderful, but might look a little bit funny. No matter, ugly cookies taste good too. :) I recommend eating these chocolate chips plain, mixed with peanuts or in trail mix, in Chocolate Chip Brownies or in Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.
And now, I do believe I need to use my freshly made chocolate chips to bake brownies. After I eat some green beans and broccoli of course…
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How much does this make? 1 cup?
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Laura Reply:
February 19th, 2012 at 6:26 am
I’d say this makes more like two cups of chips.
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My friend over at Motherhood on a Dime just recently posted this blog: http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/living/make-your-own-chocolate-bars-or-chocolate-chips-3-ingredients/
Thought you’d enjoy trying another recipe that was noted as being very yummy even by itself!
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Laura Reply:
February 28th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Good to know, thanks!
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I wonder if this would work for those chex muddy buddies/puppy chow snacks instead of chocolate chips. I am looking for gf/cf treats for my autistic son and this chocolate looks great! Will for sure be trying it! Thanks!
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Has anyone experimented doing this with Xylitol? Curious to know … Looks good.
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I was wondering how to make this “dark” chocolate? just decrease the sugar and increase the chocolate? thanks for all the recipes and advice! I’m going to try your applesauce bread tomorrow.
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Laura Reply:
March 13th, 2012 at 6:25 am
Sure, that would do it!
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I was wondering what coconut oil you use for this recipe?
I am so excited to find someone who has recipes for me to try out, using healthier ingredients. Our farm takes our products to a Farmers Market and I always bake. This year I want to use more coconut oils, coconut flours, honey and or maple syrup in my baked goods this year. Since our farm already raises animals on pasture, without drugs, ect. it is nice to also offer some healthier baked goods as well. I know they will cost more to sell, but it will be worth it! ;)
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Laura Reply:
March 21st, 2012 at 6:22 am
I usually use virgin coconut oil, which gives these a nice but subtle coconut flavor. You could also use expeller pressed though.
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I also forgot to ask, do you prefer butter or coconut oil?
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Laura Reply:
March 21st, 2012 at 6:21 am
Coconut oil works better for consistency on these, but I prefer to use butter for a milk chocolate taste – so I guess the answer is, Both! Just depends on what flavor I’m going for. :)
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I tried making this with maple sugar and butter. Everything went fine until it cooled. The butter and chocolate separated, so that I ended up with a layer of hard butter on the top, and a layer of soft chocolate on the bottom…
Next time I will try using coconut oil.
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It’s in the fridge as I type. You are sooooooo right! I couldn’t stop sampling the mixture. I like SWEET chocolate so I added powdered sugar after removing from heat. Then I lined the pan with ALMONDS before pouring the hot chocolate. cannot wait!
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Just found this recipe and I can’t wait to try it (and to check out the rest of your site)! I do have a question though: Could you use a mix of coconut oil and butter (like a half and half mix)? Hubby likes subtle coconut flavor, and I know a whole cup of it will be too much for him. Have you ever tried it this way? Thanks!
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Laura Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Sure, that’s a good idea. Or, you could try using expeller pressed coconut oil, which doesn’t taste like coconuts at all! http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/coconut-oil-why-it-is-good-for-you-and-where-to-buy-it
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but how can i get those little choco chips with a round flat base and a peak??
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Is there any substitute for the parchment paper?
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Laura Reply:
May 3rd, 2012 at 11:34 am
Waxed paper should work.
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Daniel Ross Reply:
May 3rd, 2012 at 1:08 pm
I had to use margarine. I just put it in the refrigerator,
fingers crossed! xD
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Laura,
I hope you see this – it might be worth a post update if you test and agree. Emulsification is the key to getting it all to stay together, and boy, did I fail at it. Then I realized this is more or less the same recipe as GNOWFGLINS yummy coconut bark (http://www.cravingfresh.com/2012/01/smart-sweets-winner-plus-peppermint.html), and it uses the food processor to emulsify. You don’t even have to heat everything if you use honey, so you don’t worry about the sucanat dissolving or not. Soooo…I recommend trying a food processor, and you might even like it with slightly less cocoa and sweetener; I thought it rather too “dark” almost bitter, but maybe that’s because all my sucanat wouldn’t dissolve and then my honey separated out on the second go-round… ;)
Anyway – hope this helps! :) Katie
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