What Are Milk chocolate morsels and How Can I Use Them?

Here's everything worth knowing about milk chocolate morsels and how to pick them, what they are, how to store them, and what to use instead, plus 28 recipes to cook tonight.

What are milk chocolate morsels?

Milk chocolate morsels are chocolate chips, plain and simple. "Morsel" is just a brand word for a chip, and milk chocolate morsels are the sweeter, creamier cousin of the standard semisweet chocolate chips. If a recipe calls for one, a bag of the other works.

They are little teardrops of milk chocolate with extra stabilizer mixed in. That stabilizer is the whole point of a chip: it helps the morsel hold its shape through the heat of a cookie instead of melting flat.

Milk versus semisweet is a sweetness choice. Milk morsels are milder and sweeter, so they suit kids' cookies and snack mixes, while semisweet stands up better in a rich, dark dough.

Using Them

The easiest use is the obvious one: fold a cup or so into a cookie or muffin batter at the very end, after the flour. Stir just enough to spread them, since overmixing toughens the crumb.

They run through cookies like Mom's Chocolate Chip & Pecan Cookies and quick breads like this Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread.

Morsels also melt down for coating and no-bake bars, where they bind cereal and nuts as in a batch of White Trash party mix. Melt gently in the microwave in 20-second bursts at half power, stirring between each, and stop while a few lumps remain so the heat finishes them.

Because milk morsels carry milk solids, they scorch faster than dark chips. Lower heat, more stirring.

Pairing and Mistakes

Milk chocolate loves peanut, caramel, banana, and toasted oats. A pinch of salt in the dough keeps all that sweetness from going flat.

The mistake people make is expecting morsels to melt into a smooth, pourable coating like a bar. The added stabilizer that keeps a chip standing in a cookie also keeps melted chips a touch thick and matte. For a glossy dip or a thin glaze, melt a real bar instead.

The other slip is dumping them into hot batter or onto a warm cake. They slump and smear. Let the batter or the cake cool first.

Substitutes

Semisweet or dark chips swap in cup for cup; the cookie just turns less sweet and more chocolatey. Many bakers prefer that trade.

Chopped milk chocolate bar works too, and actually melts smoother since it has no chip stabilizer, though the pieces will be more uneven and melt a little more in the oven. Chocolate chunks give bigger pools of melt for the same reason.

Mini chips are fine when you want the chocolate spread more evenly through a delicate batter.

Buying and Storing

A standard bag is 12 ounces, which is about 2 cups, the amount most chip cookie recipes are built around. Buy by that bag rather than by weight in your head and the math usually works out.

Store morsels cool and dry in a sealed bag or jar, around 65°F (18°C), away from anything strongly scented, since cocoa butter picks up odors. Skip the fridge, where damp air dulls them with sugar bloom.

That pale film you sometimes see on old chips is bloom, harmless and bake-able, not spoilage. Sealed milk morsels hold their flavor for about a year before the milk solids start to taste stale.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Food group: Milk chocolate morsels are a member of the Sweets US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

牛奶巧克力的点点滴滴

British (UK) term

Milk chocolate morsels

en français

morceaux de chocolat au lait

en español

bocados de chocolate con leche

How much do milk chocolate morsels weigh?

Related

Sweets

Recipes using milk chocolate morsels

There are 28 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Mom's Chocolate Chip & Pecan Cookies

Mom's chocolate chip pecan cookies use shortening instead of butter for thicker, chewier cookies that hold their shape, packed with semi-sweet chocolate morsels and toasted pecans throughout.

Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread

Chocolate chip banana nut bread blends mashed ripe bananas with buttermilk into a tender quick bread loaded with mini chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Two loaves from one bowl, perfect for freezing.

Original Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

The original Toll House chocolate chip cookies, the recipe that started it all: creamed butter and two sugars, vanilla, and chocolate morsels baked into a classic chewy-edged cookie. Add nuts if you like.

Marble Squares Ala Brigitte Sealing

Marble squares swirl cream cheese filling through a tender chocolate sheet cake batter, topped with chocolate chips. Makes a big jelly-roll pan for a crowd, baked in 30 minutes.

Choco-Almond Confections

Chocolate almond confections, a no-bake holiday rum ball cousin made with crushed vanilla wafers, melted chocolate, toasted almonds, and a splash of orange Curacao. The kind of homemade candy that keeps for weeks.

Chocolate Turele Cheesecake

Chocolate turtle cheesecake: vanilla wafer crust layered with caramel and toasted pecans, topped with creamy cheesecake and milk chocolate. Every turtle candy flavor in cake form.

Fruit & Chocolate Dream Squares

Fruit and chocolate dream squares with a buttery shortbread crust, raspberry jam, milk chocolate chips, and a pecan streusel topping. Layered bar cookies baked until golden and crumbly.

Chocolate Fruit Crispies

No-bake chocolate rice crispy squares with dried apricots and raisins. Milk chocolate and marshmallows hold it all together. Makes 96 bite-sized treats for snacking, lunchboxes, or bake sales.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake

A ridiculously easy chocolate cherry cake made with just cake mix, cherry pie filling, and almond extract. Holes poked in the warm cake let a boiled milk chocolate frosting sink in for poke-cake bliss with Black Forest flair.

Premier White Sugar Cookies

Premier white sugar cookies with melted white chocolate baked right into the dough, then glazed with more. A tender, rollable sugar cookie made for decorating.

Chocolate-Caramel Nut Cake

Semi-homemade chocolate cake with a gooey caramel, roasted peanut, and milk chocolate chip layer baked right into the center. Starts with a box mix and six ingredients. Tastes like a giant chocolate turtle bar in cake form.

Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

Chocolate and caramel give this thumbprint cookie from Kathy T. Preston of Milwaukee a different twist.

Milk Chocolate Praline

Milk chocolate pralines with pecans, made from a simple sugar syrup with corn syrup and vinegar. These no-bake candies set up fast with a glossy chocolate shell and crunchy nuts.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

Chocolate raspberry truffles: milk chocolate ganache spiked with raspberry jam, rolled into bite-size balls and dipped in white chocolate. Four dozen no-bake confections for gifts or holiday tins.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

Chocolate raspberry truffles: milk chocolate ganache spiked with raspberry jam, rolled into bite-size balls and dipped in white chocolate. Four dozen no-bake confections for gifts or holiday tins.

Decadent Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake

Marbled pumpkin cheesecake swirls chocolate-pumpkin batter over plain pumpkin filling on a graham crust scattered with chocolate morsels. A Thanksgiving showstopper that earns its place at the dessert table.

Indoor S'Mores

No-bake indoor s'mores bars made with Golden Grahams cereal, melted milk chocolate, corn syrup, and mini marshmallows. A campfire treat without the campfire.

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Chocolate pecan pie bars with a buttery shortbread crust and a gooey corn syrup filling loaded with chopped pecans and chocolate morsels. All the flavor of pecan pie, no pie dish needed.

Hazelnut Cappucino Torte

Hazelnut cappuccino torte folds toasted hazelnuts into a Kahlua-spiked dark and milk chocolate batter, bakes flourless-style with a soft center, and finishes with mocha whipped cream. Restaurant-grade dessert.

White Chip Orange Dream Cookies

White chocolate orange dream cookies are buttery drop cookies studded with white chips and brightened with fresh orange zest. Makes 2 dozen creamsicle-flavored cookies.

Candy Shop Pizza

Giant chocolate chip cookie baked in a pizza pan, smothered in melted chocolate and peanut butter, then piled high with fresh fruit and chopped candy bars. The ultimate dessert pizza for parties.

Chex & Chocolate Party Mix

Crunchy caramel-coated Corn Chex mixed with toasted coconut, peanuts, milk chocolate morsels, and raisins. An addictive sweet-salty party snack mix that disappears fast.

Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Cookies

Chocolate raspberry Linzer cookies sandwich cinnamon-almond shortbread with melted chocolate and raspberry jam. Powdered-sugar tops with a window peek of berry filling.

Deluxe Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies

Deluxe chocolate chunk walnut cookies with semi-sweet chunks and milk chocolate morsels in a chewy brown sugar dough. Bakery-style thick cookies with two kinds of chocolate.

Chocolate-Amaretto Cheesecake

Chocolate amaretto cheesecake with a chocolate wafer crust and a lightened filling that blends cream cheese with cottage cheese, cocoa, almond liqueur and chocolate morsels. A small 7-inch springform pan dessert.

Cathedral Window Cookies - No Bake

No-bake chocolate cookies with colorful marshmallows that look like stained glass windows when sliced. Rolled in chopped nuts and chilled until firm. Kids go wild for these.

White Trash

Crunchy Golden Grahams cereal coated in melted chocolate and peanut butter, tossed with pecans and golden raisins, then dusted in powdered sugar. A no-bake snack mix that vanishes at every holiday party.

All 28 recipes