Chocolate Chips Melting in Cookies

Asked by Mejojo. Answered on 23rd May 2013

Full question

Hi Nigella Team, I often make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe from 'Kitchen' and they are delicious. However no matter what I do, the cookies never turn out like Nigella's - the chocolate morsels always melt. I have tried refrigerating the dough, before baking, and baking the cookies from frozen. Perhaps Nigella uses a particular type of chocolate? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Our answer

Chocolate chip cookies are accredited, as an accidental discovery, to Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House inn in Massachusetts in 1930. She added chopped chocolate chunks to cookie dough with the idea that the chocolate would melt into the dough mixture as it cooked. Instead the chocolate chunks retained their definition and could still be seen in the baked cookies.

It is probably worth mentioning that chocolate chips in any cookies will soften and melt slightly as the cookies bake, however they tend to not change shape or mix with the dough as to an extent they are insulated by the cookie dough as it bakes around the chocolate chips.

Many people like to eat chocolate chip cookies when they are still warm as they like the sensation of the warm, slightly soft chocolate. However if you let the cookies cool completely then you will find that the chocolate chips firm up again. It also helps to make sure that your oven is properly preheated before the cookies go in to bake, as this will ensure that the cookie dough bakes quickly and will help to preserve the shape of the chocolate chips.

We have baked the cookies with a variety of makes of chocolate chips without problem and so don't have any specific reccomendations. However if you are worried then some American chocolate chips for cookies are made with a slightly lower content of cocoa butter and so can hold their shape slightly better. You could try the Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels, these are available in supermarkets and grocery stores in the US though elsewhere you may need to use a US food website.