What Are White chocolate chips and How Can I Use Them?

White chocolate chips is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store them, what to substitute, and 49 recipes to get you started.

Key Points

Ivory baking morsels of cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids, with no cocoa solids at all.
Many supermarket chips swap cocoa butter for vegetable fat; check the label for the real thing.
Fold into cookies and bars, or melt for a pale drizzle, fudge, and coatings.
Melt gently under about 110°F (43°C); white chocolate scorches and seizes far faster than dark.
Chopped real white chocolate is the best substitute and melts noticeably smoother than budget chips.

What are white chocolate chips?

White chocolate chips are small, ivory-colored baking morsels made from cocoa butter and sugar and milk solids, with vanilla for flavor. They carry no cocoa solids at all, which is why they are pale and taste sweet and creamy rather than chocolatey.

Many supermarket chips are not true white chocolate. To cut cost, makers often swap the cocoa butter for cheaper vegetable fats, and the label reads white baking chips or white confectionery chips. They still melt and bake fine, but the flavor is flatter and waxier than the real thing.

Like other baking chips, they are designed to hold their shape in a hot oven, so they stay as distinct morsels in a cookie rather than spreading.

How to Use White Chocolate Chips

The obvious home is the cookie. Folded into a dough, they bring sweet creaminess that plays against tart and bitter add-ins, which is the whole idea behind White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies and Hershey's White Chip Chocolate Cookies, where they sit in a dark cocoa dough.

They also stud bark and fudge and squares. Maple Walnut Fudge and White Chocolate Chip Krispie Squares both lean on the chips for sweetness and a soft set.

Melted, they make a pale drizzle or a coating. White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake swirls melted chips through the batter for color and richness against the tart berry.

Melting and Common Mistakes

The number one rule with white chocolate is gentle heat. It scorches and seizes far more easily than dark chocolate because the milk solids and sugar burn at a lower temperature.

Melt the chips slowly. Use a double boiler or short 20-second bursts in the microwave at half power, stirring between each. Pull them off the heat while a few lumps remain, so the residual warmth finishes the job. Aim to keep them under about 110°F (43°C).

Overheated white chocolate turns grainy and dull and stiff, and there is no real fixing it once it seizes. Keep water out of the bowl too, since even a drop of moisture will make smooth chips clump.

White Chips Versus Real White Chocolate

For eating and most baking, the chips are fine. But when you want a silky melt, a smooth ganache, or a genuinely creamy flavor, real white chocolate, the kind listing cocoa butter high on the ingredients, melts and tastes noticeably better.

The cheap vegetable-fat chips never flow as smoothly when melted, so for dipping or a glossy coating, spring for a chopped bar of real white chocolate instead of the budget morsels.

Substitutes

In a cookie or bar, chopped white chocolate bar is the best swap and an upgrade in flavor. White candy melts or almond bark stand in for coating and dipping, since they are built to melt smooth, though they taste sweeter and more generic.

If you have none, milk chocolate chips change the color and flavor but bring the same sweet, creamy character to a cookie. There is no true match for the pale look, so swap with that in mind.

Buying and Storing

Check the label before you buy. If cocoa butter sits near the top of the ingredients it is real white chocolate; if you see palm or vegetable oil first, it is a confectionery chip. Both bake, but the real version melts and tastes better.

Store the chips in a cool, dry, airtight spot away from heat and strong odors, which they readily absorb. They keep for many months, though white chocolate goes rancid sooner than dark because of its higher dairy content.

A pale gray bloom on the surface is just cocoa butter or fat that has migrated in warm storage. It looks off but is harmless, and the chips melt and bake normally.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 cup chips (170g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 916Calories from Fat 490

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 54.6g 84%

Saturated Fat 33.0g 165%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 23mg 8%

Sodium 153mg 6%

Total Carbohydrate 100.7g 34%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars 100.4

Protein 10.0g

Vitamin A 1% Vitamin C 1%

Calcium 34% • Iron 2%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find white chocolate chips: White chocolate chips are usually found in the baking supplies section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

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

In Chinese: 白巧克力片
British (UK) term: White chocolate chips
en français: pépites de chocolat blanc
en español: chips de chocolate blanco

How much do white chocolate chips weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 cup chips	170 grams
1 bar (3 oz)	85 grams

Sweets

Butterscotch chips 89 Caramels (candy squares) 101 Chocolate unsweetened 769 Chocolate chips 694 Chocolate, semi-sweet 994 Mini chocolate chips 76 Chocolate chips (semi-sweet) 635 Chocolate, bittersweet 123 Chocolate curls 28 Chocolate 384

Recipes using white chocolate chips

There are 49 recipes that contain this ingredient.

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