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National Chocolate Chip Day

Food · May 15

A day for chocolate chips, the small baking morsels that hold their shape in the oven and turn up in cookies, pancakes, muffins and trail mix.

National Chocolate Chip Day falls on Saturday, May 15, 2027. That is 200 days away.

Chocolate chips are small drops of chocolate, usually flat on the bottom and pointed on top, made to be stirred into batter and dough. Unlike a chopped bar, they are designed to keep much of their shape in the oven, so a baked cookie still shows little islands of chocolate instead of one brown swirl.

The cookie is the famous use, but the chips travel well. They sink into pancake batter, dot banana bread, melt into a skillet of warm brownies and ride along in trail mix with peanuts and raisins. A handful eaten straight from the bag also counts, and plenty of people treat it that way.

There is more choice in the baking aisle than the classic semisweet. Milk chocolate chips are softer and sweeter. Dark ones are more bitter. Mini chips spread chocolate more evenly through a muffin, while large chunks make pockets that stay gooey. White chips are made with cocoa butter rather than cocoa solids, which is why they taste of vanilla and cream more than chocolate.

If the day ends with a bowl of cookie dough, bake it before eating. Raw dough contains uncooked flour and often raw egg, and both can carry bacteria. Store-bought dough labeled safe to eat raw is the exception.

One trick for muffins and loaves: toss the chips in a spoonful of flour before folding them in, and fewer of them sink to the bottom of the pan.

Ways to celebrate

• Bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies and share some with a neighbor.
• Try mini chips in your next pancake batter.
• Compare semisweet, milk and dark chips in a small taste test.
• Mix chips into homemade trail mix with nuts and dried fruit.

Dates

Categories: Food days