Making Homemade Chocolate Chips…In Detail
By
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…
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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Carrie McGarry Reply:
February 17th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Even in my organic chocolate chips they were made with soy
Thanks so much for this recipe Im going to try it tomorrow
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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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Sam Reply:
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:43 pm
http://thepalatepeacemaker.com/2010/05/16/peanut-butter-baking-chips/
I have not tried this recipe, but they look great!
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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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mariah Reply:
March 10th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
have you mentioned yet why agave might be unhealthy?
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Laura Reply:
March 12th, 2011 at 10:08 pm
I talked about it in this post: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/the-most-nutritious-sweeteners
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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Laura Reply:
September 11th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Someone else tried it with honey and reported that it worked pretty well.
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Wish I would have seen this recipe before I bough my chocolate chips at the store today lol. I got 1 bag for $2.88 at Wal-Mart and though “Wow that’s a lot for 1 bag” I wanted two but didn’t want to spend that much. Of course I won’t have time to make homemade chocolate chips in time to bake my chocolate chip cookies after work but I would have liked to saved money as I have all these ingredients at home already. Will try these next time.
Ps. I’m also assuming that we can use regular honey in place of the sucanat on most all recipes?
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Laura Reply:
September 11th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Yep!
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Okay, I’ve made these several times and they turned out great, but for some reason the last couple of batches have been…off. One was really bitter, the other just not very sweet. The only thing I can figure is that I changed the cocoa brand I’m using (first used Hershey’s cocoa powder, now using the Whole Foods brand 100% pure cacao powder). Would this make a difference?
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Laura Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Huh…that’s WEIRD. I suppose the different cocoa would make difference. I’ve never used the Whole Foods variety.
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Crystal Reply:
February 7th, 2011 at 11:43 am
From what I understand the cacao powder is much more bitter than cocoa. So you would have to increase your sweetener if you don’t care for the more bitter tasting chocolate, or use less cacao.
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Can I use this recipe to make cinnamon chips? I really want to make some “from scratch” cinnamon chips. Any ideas?
Thanks~
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Laura Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Ooh,that sounds SO good. I’ve never made cinnamon chips. I may have to give it a try!
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Can I use regular sugar and when making cookies etc, do you go by weight? Some pkgs say so many cups or ozs. Going by cups is hard isn’t it when you have larger chucks. Maybe I could use our little mincer cutter and keep a eye on size. Glad I found this because I din’t buy ch. chips the other day almost $3 for a small bag. Oh dear cocoa don’t have a date.
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Laura Reply:
October 11th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Yes, you can use regular sugar. I go by cups to measure usually.
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I’m so grateful for spatulas! If I could have crawled into the jar I would have! This was wonderful chocolate!!! Can’t wait to use the final result! Thanks Laura!
From one Husker fan (who relocated to Indiana) to another! ;)
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I love these chocolate chips, but always have a problem with the sucanat completely dissolving. Today we blended the sucanat in our coffee grinder into “powdered” sucanat and then followed the instructions just the same. No problems with the sucanat dissolving and the chips are smooth and creamy. Tastes great!
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EllaJac Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Nichole, thank you for this idea! I finally made a batch (gluten/dairy-free chips are SPENDY) for my daughter, and I would say my sucanat didn’t dissolve AT ALL. The sugar part is sweet, but the cocoa/oil on your tongue stays bitter. I was looking here to see if anyone had a solution. I will try this. Next time (unless I can put it all in the blender hardened? hmmm.. haha!)
Was considering trying something like I do for a quick glass of chocolate milk; I take my sucanat, cocoa, dash of vanilla, then put a little splash of hot tap water, just to dissolve things, before adding the milk. Tasty!
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I made these last night. I was very nervous, I have never made chocolate before, so I followed the recipe exacly. For some reason my butter and choclate separated, so I have a layer of hard butter on top of my choclate. Any idea what I may have done wrong?
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Laura Reply:
November 20th, 2010 at 8:52 am
No, I don’t think you did anything wrong. Mine often separate like that too as they chill, but when I break them into pieces, the pieces all have both layers so it works. I think when I use coconut oil instead of butter they don’t seem to separate as much. Not sure why butter likes to do that!
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I am addicted to your website, I am learning how to make all our foods with quality ingredients. And your site has been so helpful, thank you! My family LOVES chocolate milk (while it is raw milk, it is still Nestle powder we use), do you have a recipe for an all-nautral alternative?
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Laura Reply:
January 16th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
We make very tasty chocolate milk (I call them milkshakes, but they don’t have ice cream in them). It’s been on my list to share this idea forever…hopefully I’ll get around to it soon!!
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Crystal Reply:
February 7th, 2011 at 11:47 am
I’m ready for that recipe!!!! :O)
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I am so excited to try these. I have a question Do you ever use Agave instead of sugar? Its a liquid and all natural. I use it in my tea’s and stuff instead of sugar also good for diabetics(better than sugar)..Just wonder if u ever use this and how i could go about using it?
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Laura Reply:
February 6th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
I’ve not been absolutely sure on the health factor of agave, so I quit using it. I don’t think it would work for this recipe anyway because it is a liquid. You want the chocolate chips to firm up so they will break into chunks.
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Ashley Reply:
March 1st, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Hi Brandi, i just wanted to let you know about this article from
thehealthyhomeeconomist.com about agave. You might be interested.
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2009/08/agave-nectar-latest-health-food-scam/
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could you use some cocoa butter in the recipe to (maybe) help them keep their shape in cookies? I know cocoa butter isn’t something everyone has access to, but I’m a soaper and I usually have some hanging around the house…might have to sub some for the butter/coconut oil :)
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Laura Reply:
February 6th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Wouldn’t hurt to try!
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thank you thank you!
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These look wonderful. Do you think that you could pipe this liquid into candy molds – thinking valentine hearts – or would it not be the right texture? Thanks!
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Laura Reply:
February 17th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Well, sorry I’m too late answering this for Valentine’s Day, but I think it might work. If you use butter, they might be too squishy, but I think coconut oil would work!
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Thanks, Laura.
I did end up making it. It was delicious but the butter separated from the chocolate in the mold, and the sucanat didn’t disolve. Next time, I may use a grinder to make the sucanat finer and try the coconut oil. Thank you!
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Hey there! I just tried this recipe and it came out fantastic! I did play with your recipe just a bit, I substituted brown sugar for the sucanat as I really have no way of getting any rapadora or sucanat. I was scared to see how it would come out but it worked really well, the chocolate is all smooth and tastes really awesome. Thanks for putting this recipe up, it was the only simple one I could find! :)
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Ha ha, i just made this an hour ago. It’s in the fridge cooling. As i was reading another recipe, i realized i completely forgot to add vanilla to it!! lol
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Thank you for posting this recipe! I tried it twice and each time, the butter seperated to the top. I was wondering if I used too mach butter?
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Laura Reply:
March 12th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
No, that happens when I use butter too. It still tastes good and works, but it separates. I don’t have this problem when I use coconut oil. It stays mixed better!
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