Chocolate Chips

Chocolate chips are small rounds (1/8 to 1/2 inch) (.6 to 1.25 cm) of semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate that contain less cocoa butter than other chocolates. They are made to withstand moderate oven heat so they retain their texture and shape in cookies, muffins, and other baked desserts without appearing to melt (even though the cocoa butter has melted). It is not a good idea to use chocolate chips in recipes than call for melted chocolate as the chocolate chips when melted become  chocolate that is thick, muddy and grainy that is very difficult to use. This is because of the smaller amount of cocoa butter (25-30%) in the chocolate chips.  

Primarily used in the making of cookies and brownies.

Note: It is often asked "Why do chocolate chips not melt in the oven?". The answer is that they do, in fact, melt. It is just that chocolate chips retain their shape when melted. If you break apart a hot chocolate chip cookie, you will see that the chocolate chip has melted.

History of the Chocolate Chip Cookie: Ruth Wakefield is credited with inventing the first chocolate chip cookie. In 1930 at the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts she decided to cut up chunks of Nestl?s Semisweet Yellow Label Chocolate bar and add them to a rich butter cookie dough. The Nestl?company discovered her delicious cookie and made a deal for the rights to her recipe. Subsequently by 1939 Nestl?had invented chocolate morsels (first chocolate chip) and packaged them in a Yellow Label bag and, upon buying the Toll House name, printed Ruth Wakefield's recipe for "The Famous Toll House Cookie" on the back.