While looking for a topic for today’s article I googled daily holidays. May 15th has several national holidays; straw hat day, give someone flowers day, nylon stockings day, and chocolate chip day. I don’t wear straw hats or nylon stockings and cut flowers just die, so let’s talk about chocolate chips. National chocolate chip day is not to be confused with national chocolate chip cookie day which is in August.
Chocolate morsels can be incorporated into about any dessert, inside and out. Thank goodness! I would be lost without these little gems. God knows, I’d be in severe depression if there were only a few chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookie! I know…you would be lost too! Probably depressed, right along with me… Ok…so we agree…we don’t even like thinking about it! Americans consume 7 billion chocolate chip cookies annually—and not just top seller Chips Ahoy! and the many packaged cookie competitors. Chocolate chip cookies also represent nearly half of all homemade cookies baked in the U.S.
A little history about chocolate chips or morsels. In 1937, Ruth Graves Wakefield owner of the Tollhouse Inn in Whitman Massachusetts was making chocolate cookies and ran out of baker’s chocolate. So, she chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added it to her cookie dough, expecting the chocolate to melt, but instead, the chocolate remained in gooey chunks. The cookies were a huge success and in 1939 Wakefield signed an agreement with Nestle to add her recipe to the chocolate bar’s packaging. In exchange for the recipe, Wakefield received a lifetime supply of chocolate. The Nestle brand Toll House cookies were named for the Inn.
Nestle initially included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars, too. Starting in 1941, Nestle and other competitors started selling the chocolate in chip or morsel form. For the first time, bakers began making chocolate chip cookies without chopping up the chocolate bar first.
Chocolate chips originally came in semi-sweet. Later, chocolate producers began offering bittersweet, semi-sweet, mint, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white and dark swirled. Today, baking chips also come in a variety of other flavors such as peanut butter, toffee, cherry, cinnamon, cream cheese, butterscotch, lemon, peppermint, and caramel. Just search on Amazon.
Well, one thing to do is remember that National Chocolate Chip Day isn’t just about cookies, it’s about all the things you can include chocolate chips in! Pancakes, muffins, pudding, ice cream, granola bars, pies, these are just a few of the wonderful creations you can add them to. I’ll be honest though, my favorite way to enjoy chocolate chips? Right out of the bag.
Chocolate chip bread
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tablespoons butter softened
2/3 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chocolate chips I prefer minis
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl using your mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in vanilla. Mix well. Add half the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir until just combined. Add half the buttermilk and stir until just combined. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Do not over mix, you just want to make sure the dry and wet ingredients are combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into a 9×5 loaf pan that has been coated with non-stick spray. Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack. Remove from pan and enjoy!
Chocolate chip cookie dough dip
1 8 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup toffee bits
Using a mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add sugars and vanilla and blend again until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits until well combined. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve with graham crackers, animal crackers, pretzels or apple wedges.
Homemade baking chips
Any flavor you desire is possible by changing the extract and food coloring; for instance, you can use lemon extract to make lemon chips. This recipe allows you to have as many flavored morsels as there are extracts for a fraction of the cost.
Ingredients
⅔ cup white chocolate morsels
¼ teaspoon raspberry extract (or lemon, cinnamon, mint, etc)
4 drops red food coloring (or yellow, green, you get the idea)
Directions
Melt white chocolate in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring after each melting, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in raspberry extract and red food coloring until evenly blended. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place melted chocolate mixture in a resealable plastic bag and snip off a corner; pipe onto the parchment paper in the shape of chips. Refrigerate chips until firm, about 5 minutes. Store in a resealable plastic bag.
