Chocolate chip facts for kids
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
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| Type | Chocolate |
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| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients | Chocolate, sugar |
Chocolate chips are small, sweet pieces of chocolate. People use them in many yummy desserts. You'll often find them in chocolate chip cookies and muffins. They are also sometimes added to trail mix or pancakes for a sweet treat. Chocolate chips usually have a round, flat-bottomed teardrop shape. They come in different sizes, from tiny to large. Most are smaller than 1 centimeter. You can also find them as small square or rectangular chocolate chunks.
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How Chocolate Chips Were Invented
Chocolate chips are super important for making chocolate chip cookies. These famous cookies were first made in 1937. A woman named Ruth Graves Wakefield invented them. She owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. Ruth added small pieces of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to her cookie recipe.
Her cookies became a huge success! In 1939, Ruth made a deal with Nestlé. She let them print her cookie recipe on their chocolate bar wrappers. In return, Nestlé gave her a lifetime supply of chocolate. At first, Nestlé even included a small tool to chop the chocolate bars. By 1941, Nestlé and other companies started selling chocolate already cut into chip or "morsel" shapes. The famous Nestlé brand Toll House cookies are named after Ruth's inn.
Different Kinds of Chocolate Chips
Originally, chocolate chips were only made from semi-sweet chocolate. But today, you can find many different flavors! Some popular types include:
- Bittersweet chocolate chips
- Peanut butter chips
- Butterscotch chips
- Mint chocolate chips
- White chocolate chips
- Dark chocolate chips
- Milk chocolate chips
- White and dark swirled chocolate chips
What Are Chocolate Chips Used For?
Chocolate chips are used in many delicious foods. You can bake them into cookies, pancakes, waffles, cakes, pudding, muffins, crêpes, and pies. They are also great in hot chocolate and different kinds of pastry. Many store-bought foods also contain chocolate chips. These include granola bars, ice cream, and trail mix.
You can also melt chocolate chips to use in sauces or other recipes. Chocolate chips melt best when heated slowly. The melting process usually starts around 32°C (90°F). For best results, keep the temperature between 40°C and 45°C (104°F and 113°F). Be careful not to overheat them! Milk and white chocolate should not go above 46°C (115°F). Dark chocolate should not go above 49°C (120°F). If they get too hot, the chocolate can burn.
Sometimes, melted chocolate chips are not the best choice for recipes that need melted baking chocolate. This is because most chocolate chips are made to keep their shape when baked. So, they have less cocoa butter than baking chocolate. This can make them a bit harder to work with when melted.
Where Can You Find Chocolate Chips?
Today, chocolate chips are very popular for baking, especially in the United States. The chocolate chip cookie is seen as a classic American dessert. Chocolate chips are also widely available in Australia and Canada. You can find them in Europe and other parts of the world too, though sometimes less commonly. Big companies like Nestlé and The Hershey Company are some of the main producers of chocolate chips.
See also
In Spanish: Chispas de chocolate para niños
