The Best Chocolate For Chocolate Chip Cookies (2024)

What Is The Best Chocolate For Chocolate Chip Cookies?

I tested different kinds of chocolate to find the best chocolate for chocolate chip cookie recipes! Chocolate is the most important part of any chocolate chip cookie recipe; your choice can affect the flavor, texture, and even appearance of your cookies.

In this post, I explore different flavors of chocolate (dark versus milk versus white chocolate), shapes of chocolate (chips versus chunks versus chopped chocolate from a bar versus fèves), and rank some of the most popular chocolate chip types. And here’s what I found:

@hummingbirdhigh the best chocolate for #chocolatechipcookies! #bakingtiktok #baking101 ♬ The Great British Bake Off – Tom Howe

But let’s dig in:

Dark, Milk, and White Chocolate In Cookies

You can customize any chocolate chip cookie recipe by using different kinds of chocolate. Here’s the pros and cons of each variety:

Why You Should Use Dark Chocolate In Chocolate Chip Cookies

Use a dark chocolate that contains between 60% to 80% cacao for a classic chocolate chip cookie. The bittersweet flavor of the dark chocolate balances out the sugars in the cookie dough, resulting in a well-balanced, traditional chocolate chip cookie.

The Case For Using Milk Chocolate In Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you have a sweet tooth, use a milk chocolate that contains between 35% to 45% cacao. Milk chocolate is sweeter in flavor than dark chocolate, and will result in a much sweeter cookie. If you want to temper the sweetness of the milk chocolate, use half milk chocolate and half dark chocolate.

The Case For Using White Chocolate In Chocolate Chip Cookies

White chocolate doesn’t have any cocoa, and is the sweetest of the three chocolates. Although you can use it in any chocolate chip cookie recipe, the resulting cookies will likely be too sweet. I suggest pairing it with other flavorful ingredients like cocoa powder, warming spices, coffee and/or tea, or nuts to help balance the cookie.

Check out the following recipes for inspiration:

• Dulcey White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
• Matcha White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
• Triple Chocolate Cookies
• White Chocolate and Espresso Bean Cookies

What about unsweetened chocolate?

Unsweetened chocolate is 100% cacao chocolate, with no added sugar. Folks like to use unsweetened chocolate in baking because it can give baked goods a very intense chocolatey flavor. However, on its own, it can be quite bitter.

If you don’t have much of a sweet tooth, you can use unsweetened chocolate in your chocolate chip cookies. However, I don’t recommend it for most people. Even with a sweet cookie dough base, you’ll likely end up with chocolate chip cookies that aren’t as sweet as you want them to be.

Chocolate Chips, Chunks, Bars, and Fèves In Cookies

It turns out that the shape of your chocolate is just as important as the flavor you choose. Generally, you can use the following types of chocolate in cookies:

• chocolate chips
• chocolate chunks
• chopped chocolate from a baking bar
• chocolate fèves

What are chocolate fèves? Are they the same thing as chocolate baking discs and wafers?

Chocolate fèves are a fancy pastry school term for a flat, bean-shaped disc of chocolate.When baked in a cookie recipe, thefèves don’t hold their shape (similar to how chocolate chips typically do) and instead melt into puddles. These puddles give your cookies thin layers of chocolate throughout every bite.The most prominent maker of chocolatefèves is one of my favorite chocolate makers,Valrhona Chocolate.

Unfortunately, as much as I love Valrhona chocolate, their chocolate fèves can be hard to find at your average grocery store. I typically buy Valrhona products online atAmazon,King Arthur Baking Company, orValrhona’s online store. But if you don’t want to buy online, rest assured that other chocolate makers make similar products. Notably,Guittard Chocolate Companymakeschocolate wafers. These wafers are similar to fèves, but more circular in shape. I’ve seen Guittard chocolate wafers at selectSafeway,Target, andWhole Foodsstores.

What other chocolate do you recommend besides fèves?

If you can’t findfèves, I also recommendGuittard Chocolate Wafers(which are more readily available in most major supermarkets). If you’re on a budget, I recommend chopping up aTrader Joe’s Pound Plus barorGhirradellibaking chocolate barsinstead of chocolate chips. Either finely chop or roughly chop up the chocolate and use it in the chocolate chip cookie recipe of your choice!

Do I really need to use chopped chocolate or fèves? Can I just use chocolate chips?

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this post, it’s this: don’t skimp on chocolate!Most grocery store brands—even the ones that offer products specifically made for baking—contain all sorts of additives like paraffin wax and palm oil. These ingredients compromise the flavor and texture of your results. I’ve stopped using chocolate chips in 90% of my recipes, and my baked goods have tasted so much better as a result.

The Case For Using Chocolate Chips and Chunks

I admit there are still lots of times in which it’s appropriate to use chocolate chips and chunks! I like to use chocolate chips and/or chunks when I’m craving a puffier chocolate chip cookie that tastes homemade, with distinct bites of small chocolate here and there.

Here are other instances where I like to use chocolate chips:

• When I’m making a cookie recipe that I want to taste homemade and/or nostalgic and evocative of tastes and flavors from my childhood (like these recipes for My Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Recipe and Small Batch Magic Cookie Bars).
• When I’m making a recipe for a baked good like cakes or muffins, with softer textures that need a contrasting bite or crunch (like in these recipes for Momof*cku Milk Bar Chocolate Chip Cake and Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins).
• When I’m making a recipe that calls for using chocolate as a topping (like in these recipes for My Best Fudgy Brownies Recipe and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread).

@hummingbirdhigh chips vs chunks vs bars vs fèves!!! #chocolatechipcookies #baking #bakingtiktok ♬ The Great British Bake Off – Tom Howe

The Best Chocolate Chips For Any Baking Recipe

Not all chocolate chips are created equal. Some contain more cacao solids and/or artificial additives that negatively affect the taste of the chocolate.

I tested four popular brands and found my favorite variety in the TikTok video below. Although there are more chocolate chip brands and types available, I chose chocolate chip brands that listed their cacao percentages on the packages to start with:

@hummingbirdhigh taste testing all the best chocolate chips so you don’t have to! #chocolatechipcookies #easyrecipes #lifeadvice #cookinghacks #baking ♬ Patisserie Skills – Tom Howe

The TL/DR of the video:

• Ghirardelli Bittersweet 60% Cacao Chocolate Chips. These chocolate chips actually melted pretty similarly to chopped chocolate bars and/or fèves, and tasted great. They are shaped flatter and wider than other chocolate chips, resulting in flatter cookies that spread generously in the oven. They are the chocolate chips I usually stock in my pantry as they are readily available in most major grocery stores.
• Guittard 63% Extra Dark Chocolate Chips. I liked the way these chocolate chips tasted on their own. In my opinion, they tasted best and I would happily snack on them forever. But didn’t like how they baked in my chocolate chip cookie recipe. They melt at all and maintained their shape throughout the baking process, leading to extra puffy and chunky textured cookies.
• Nestle Toll House 53% Chocolate Morsels. Of all the chips I tried, these had the worst flavor and texture. They tasted the least chocolatey and had a weird, waxy shine and feel. Their only advantage is that they cooled quickly, allowing you to store the cookies faster.
• Trader Joe’s 72% Cacao Chocolate Chips. I was super impressed with these chocolate chips. Similar to Ghirardelli, they tasted great and melted like chopped chocolate and/or fèves. Similar to Ghirardelli, they are flatter and wider than the other chocolate chips on this list. Their only disadvantage is that you can only buy them at Trader Joe’s.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes on Hummingbird High