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Why Is Devil’s Food Cake One Of The Greatest Chocolate Cakes?

On May 19th we celebrate National Devil’s Food Cake Day, perhaps our favorite type of chocolate layer cake.

This tasty article shares:

> How is Devil’s Food Cake different from other chocolate cakes?

> The history of Devil’s Food Cake.

> The top 12 iconic chocolate cakes from the U.S. and Europe.

Plus, links to:

> The history of cake and a photo glossary parade of cakes.

> The 55 cake holidays in the U.S.A.
 
 
WHAT MAKES DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE DIFFERENT

A specific combination of characteristics give Devil’s Food Cake (photos #1 and #2) its specialness.

  • Chocolate intensity: Devil’s Food has a more intense chocolate flavor than other chocolate layer cakes, often achieved by using both cocoa powder and melted chocolate, or by adding coffee which enhances the chocolate flavors.
  • Moisture: It contains more fat than conventional chocolate layer cakes, usually from additional butter and/or egg yolks, which contribute to its signature moistness and richness.
  • Texture: Devil’s Food typically uses a combination of baking soda (leavening) and acidic ingredients (buttermilk, sour cream) that creates more carbon dioxide during baking. This creates a lighter texture.
  • Balance: The cake isn’t too rich. Rather, it has both airiness from the carbon dioxide and a subtle tanginess from the acidic ingredients that balance the sweetness.
  •  
    So from whence did this magnificent chocolate cake arrive? And is it related to Angel Cake?
     
     
    THE HISTORY OF DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE

    Angel Food Cake had been around for three decades when Devil’s Food Cake debuted at the turn of the 20th century. It was developed as a richer, more indulgent chocolate cake and named as a contrast to the lovely but lean Angel Food Cake.

    The contrasting names reflect their opposite characteristics.

  • Angel Food Cake is “heavenly”: light (airy), white (color), and fat-free (lean).
  • Devil’s Food Cake is “sinful”: buttery (rich), dark (color), and chocolaty (indulgent).
  •  
    The first printed reference to Devil’s Food Cake is a recipe that appeared in Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book, published in 1902.

    The cake was created during a time when cocoa powder was becoming more accessible to average American households, thanks to improved processing methods developed in the late 19th century (the history of cocoa powder).

    Cocoa powder imparts a more intense and concentrated chocolate flavor than chocolate, often leading to a richer and darker cake. It also influences the texture, delivering a moister and more tender crumb.

    Mrs. Rorer’s recipe used chocolate and had a less intense chocolate flavor than cocoa-powder-centric modern versions, but it established the name and concept.

    She also used boiled icing (photo #11 and footnote*), rather than the chocolate frosting and ganache that have since replaced it.

    The name itself seems to have been deliberately created (presumably by Mrs. Rorer) as a counterpoint to the already popular Angel Food Cake, which had been around since the 1870s.

    Food historians have uncovered pre-1902 recipes for chocolate cakes with similar ingredients, but they weren’t specifically called Devil’s Food Cake.

    Around the same time as the cookbook was published, Devil’s Food recipes began appearing in women’s magazines and community cookbooks across America.

    Within a couple of years (1905-1906), the cake had gained significant traction. By the 1920s, it was firmly established in the repertoire of American cakes.
     
     
    The Earliest Devil’s Food Recipes

    Original recipes often used melted chocolate rather than cocoa powder.

  • Many early versions included coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor—a technique that continues in chocolate cakes.
  • The recipes also used baking soda, activated by buttermilk or sour milk, creating a distinctive reddish hue (our mother did this, making a recipe called Red Devil’s Food Cake that frankly is a more devilish hue than cakes made without it).
  • Early recipes were less sweet than modern versions, which highlighted the complex flavors of the chocolate. With the varieties of single origin chocolate available today, chocolate connoisseurs are encouraged to try this.
  •  
     
    Devil’s Food Cake Evolves

    Over the decades, home economists at companies like General Mills and Pillsbury refined recipes to work reliably with their flours and other ingredients to generate consumer excitement.

    Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake Mix was introduced in 1956, helping to standardize what Americans expected Devil’s Food Cake to taste like—and making it easy to bake one any time.

    Devil’s Food became a popular birthday cake choice (it certainly was ours!), and a featured dessert at restaurants across America.

    It became a classic American dessert.
     
     
    Devil’s Food In The 21st Century

    Recipes have adapted to different dietary interests: gluten-free versions using almond flour, alternative sweeteners, plant-based egg substitutes, and alternative fats instead of butter (avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil).

    Connoisseurs have sought more complex chocolate flavors, using single-origin cacao and higher-percentage cacaco chocolate. Some bakers add miso or tahini can for an umami hit that complements the chocolate flavor profile.

    Flavor enhancements have turned the traditional hint of coffee into pronounced espresso; or added spices (cardamom, chile, cinnamon) or finishing salt (sea salt, smoked salt).

    Alcohol has been worked into recipes, from spirits (Bourbon, rum, Tequila) to liqueur (Amaretto, Grand Marnier, Kahlúa), to red wine.

    Some replace the traditional chocolate filling with trending flavors like lavender, matcha, and salted caramel—and even mousse and black cherry (shades of Mousse Cake and Black Forest Cake!).

    Similarly, the chocolate frosting has been replaced with other flavors. (Personally, we replaced the chocolate frosting with shiny chocolate ganache or glaze a decade ago.)

    Finally, there’s the fun of added crunch. But that’s food for another article.

     
     
    THE ICONIC CHOCOLATE CAKES

    What are the must-try chocolate cakes in addition to Devil’s Food Cake?

    For this selection, the cake itself has to be chocolate, not a yellow cake with chocolate filling/icing such as Dobos(h) Torte, Opera Cake, and Smith Island Cake.

    American Classics

  • Chocolate Cheesecake: Chocolate variations of cheesecake began appearing in the 1930s, first swirls and then cocoa-infused fillings. A 1949 issue of Better Homes & Gardens contains a chocolate cheesecake recipe made with cocoa and cream cheese, baked in a graham cracker crust, like today’s popular versions (photo #3).
  • German Chocolate Cake: This is a lighter-in-flavor chocolate cake with coconut-pecan frosting (photo #4). “German” is not its origin; Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate was created by in Massachusetts by Sam German.
  • Mississippi Mud Cake: A rich, dense chocolate cake topped with mini marshmallows and chocolate frosting (photo #5).
  • Red Velvet Cake: Only lightly chocolate-flavored from cocoa, its distinctive red color originally came from beets (photo #6). Most recipes now use red food color. Cream cheese is the frosting of choice.
  • Texas Sheet Cake: A “short” chocolate cake baked (about 2″ high) baked in a sheet pan, it’s topped with warm poured chocolate frosting, and often garnished with pecans.
  •  
    European Classics

  • Black Forest Cake (Germany): Layers of chocolate sponge filled whipped cream dotted with Kirsch-marinated cherries, usually with a white frosting garnished with shaved chocolate and more cherries on top (photo #7).
  • Chocolate Génoise (France): This light and airy French-style sponge cake is used to create layer cakes. It’s often soaked in flavored syrups or liqueurs, and frosted with buttercream.
  • Chocolate Guinness Cake (U.K.): Popularized by British food writer Nigella Lawson, this rich, moist chocolate cake is made with Guinness stout. The beer adds moisture, depth of flavor, and a slight malty, almost coffee-like taste to the cake. It’s often frosted with cream cheese or chocolate ganache.
  • Chocolate Lava Cake (France†): Typically individual-size chocolate cakes baked in a ramekin with a molten chocolate center that “erupts” when cut into (photo #8).
  • Chocolate Mousse Cake (France): A chocolate cake layer is topped with dark, milk, and/or white chocolate mousse, delivering lots of rich chocolate flavor and the contrast of dense cake with airy mousse.
  • Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (Greek-inspired): This chocolate cake uses olive oil instead of butter, which makes it moister.
  • Flourless Chocolate Cake (Middle European): This dense, fudgy cake is made without flour, often substituting ground nuts flour (photo #9 and footnote‡). It evolved from traditional European tortes. Sachertorte (created in 1832) uses very little flour and is considered a precursor.
  • Sachertorte (Austria): This famous Viennese chocolate cake has an apricot jam filling and dark chocolate glaze (photo #10).
  •  
     
    __________

    *Boiled icing, also called boiled frosting or Italian meringue, is a cake frosting made by slowly pouring hot sugar syrup over stiffly beaten egg whites. This creates a fluffy, silky, and stable frosting (photo #11). It’s also called 7-minute frosting due to its quick preparation time.

    > Here’s the recipe.

    > The difference between frosting, icing, and glaze.

    Is lava cake American or French? It’s complicated! The cake called lava cake, molten chocolate cake, or molten lava cake was introduced to America by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the famous French-American chef who claims to have invented it in 1987 at his New York City restaurant JoJo. He explained that he accidentally undercooked some chocolate sponge cakes, and when he cut into them, they had a liquid center. He refined his “mistake” into a wildly popular international hit.

    However, in 1981 Michel Bras, another world-famous French chef whose restaurant Laguiole in southern France has received three Michelin stars since 1999, had created a similar dessert in 1981 called coulant au chocolat (“flowing chocolate). It featured a ganache center that would melt when the cake was heated.

    Jacques Torres, the renowned French pastry chef, maintains that the lava cake is simply a new presentation of fondant au chocolat, a classic French dessert that has existed for much longer.

    Fondant au chocolat (“chocolate fondant”) dates to the 1950s or earlier. It’s a dense, moist chocolate cake with a soft, almost fudge-like interior—though not necessarily molten.

    The word fondant in French means melting or melt-in-the-mouth, but this refers to the soft texture and not a runny center.

    But outside of France, some restaurants and recipes misuse the term to describe lava cakes.

    Regardless of who deserves credit for the original invention, lava cake became extremely popular in the 1990s and early 2000s, spreading from high-end restaurants to chain restaurants and even frozen food sections of grocery stores. Today, it’s considered a classic chocolate dessert worldwide.

    As of this writing, all three chefs are still hard at work. Maybe a Zoom call to talk it out? The Nibble will be happy to moderate.

    Alternatives to flour in flourless cake: Ground nuts are most common, but otheringredients can provide the structure in flourless cakes, starting with additional chocolate (or cocoa powder) and eggs (very rich!) or whipped egg whites (for the most classic result). Small amounts of arrowroot or cornstarch can also stabilize the cake’s texture.

    Ground seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower) can replace ground nuts, as can desiccated coconut or coconut flour. Chickpea flour or black bean purée create dense, fudgy textures.

    Additional options include breadcrumbs, ground dried dates or other dried fruits, ground rolled oats, and seed butters (pumpkin, sesame/tahini, sunflower).

     

    Devil's Food Cake
    [1] We celebrated by baking this Devil Food’s Cake recipe from Ashley, the Baker By Nature extraordinaire. We deemed it “as good as Mom’s (photos #1, #2, and #3 © Baker By Nature).

    A Slice Of Devil's Food Cake
    [2] Yes, it’s rich. Pour yourself a glass of milk!

    Slice Of Chocolate Cheesecake
    [3] Also try Ashley’s chocolate cheesecake. Here’s the recipe.

    German Chocolate Cake
    [4] German Chocolate Cake is made with a special kind of chocolate invented at Baker’s Chocolate Company by Sam German in 1852. It has more sugar than semi-sweet chocolate, and the goal was to simplify baking by providing the chocolate and sugar in one. The German Chocolate Cake recipe didn’t appear until 1957, submitted to the Dallas Morning News by a Mrs. George Clay. (photo © Kraft).

    Slices Of Mississippi Mud Cake
    [5] Mississippi Mud Cake is a fudgy chocolate cake that’s baked, topped with mini marshmallows, and then baked again to help them adhere. A generous dose of chocolate frosting is poured over to coat the marshmallows. Here’s the recipe. Not to be confused with Missippi Mud Pie, a chocolate cookie crust layered with brownie and chocolate mousse or custard, served with whipped cream or ice cream(photo © Tastes Better From Scratch).

    A Slice Of Red Velvet Cake
    [6] Red velvet cake has been around since the start of the 20th century, but it didn’t become a national craze until 1989, when the groom’s cake in the film “Steel Magnolias” was red velvet—and shaped like an armadillo! (photo © King Arthur Baking)

    Black Forest Cake
    [7] Black Forest Cake, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in its original German, incorporates the Morello cherries and brandy made from them (Kirsch) from the Black Forest region of Germany. Here’s the recipe (photo © Kitchen Stories).

    Chocolate Lava Cake
    [8] Chocolate Lava Cake, with the “lava flow” (photo © Stock Cake).

    Flourless Chocolate Cake
    [9] Flourless Chocolate Cake, dense, delicious, and gluten-free (photo © Harry & David).

    A Slice Of Sacher Torte Chocolate Cake
    [10] Sachertorte, the toast of Vienna. Here’s the recipe (photo © Jernej Kitchen).

    Angel Cake With Boiled Icing
    [11] Boiled icing, also called Italian meringue and 7-minute frosting. Here’s the recipe (photo © Sweet and Savoury).

     

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    Chopped Salad Sandwich Recipes & History For National Salad Month

    May is National Salad Month, and if you haven’t yet tried a chopped salad sandwich, this is the time!

    How would our culture evolve at seemingly warp speed if not for TikTok? One of the foods that has viraled into our lives is the chopped salad sandwich, which appeared a couple of years ago and quickly became a thing.

    Just as with a conventional chopped salad, each bite delivers a delightful blend of flavors and textures.

    You don’t have to start with a conventional salad—say, a Chef Salad or a Greek Salad.

    If you prefer, you can take many popular sandwich fillings—BLT, club, falafel, ham and cheese, hoagie, po’ boy, Reuben, turkey and Swiss—add enough veggies, chop the ingredients, and bind with your favorite dressing.
     
     
    THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS AN EXTRA-FINE DICE

    Dressing serves as the binding agent, but if you use a thin dressing (e.g. vinaigrette instead of mayo), you need a stronger bread.

    The viral sandwiches are on hero rolls, but we prefer ours on crusty baguette or rustic loaves (for crunch), focaccia or naan (for sturdiness).

    While we enjoy pita pockets, be had to search for thicker ones so the dressing different drip through.

    > The history of the chopped salad is below.

    > The history of salad.

    > The history of the sandwich.

    > The different types of sandwiches: a photo glossary.

    > The 25+ sandwich holidays.

    > The 40+ salad holidays.
     
     
    WHAT WE’VE MADE SO FAR

    It’s easy to turn your favorite salad into a chopped salad sandwich. Finely dice your favorite ingredients—largely veggies and proteins, but nuts and fruits (dried or fresh) and other crunch (e.g. Chinese noodles) work, too.

    Thus far, we’ve turned these salads into chopped salad sandwiches (we use a mezzaluna rocker, photo #8):

  • Asian Chicken Salad
  • Cobb Salad or Chef Salad (see the differences below)
  • Greek Salad
  • Salmon Caesar Salad
  • Falafel Salad—chopping the balls of falafel instead of placing them whole inside the pita is an improvement, adding falafel flavor to each bite.
  • Next up we’re planning a Mexican chicken salad with tomatoes, bean, corn, and tortilla strips, using the Cheesecake Factory’s recipe.
     
    Allow us to note that all of the traditional “salad” sandwiches—chicken salad, crab salad, egg salad, shrimp salad, tuna salad—can be chopified by adding more vegetables—the ones you’d receive if you ordered the salad on a platter instead of a sandwich.

    You can invent your own chopped salad sandwich too, and that’s the fun of it. We had the remnants of a Mediterranean dinner in the fridge, so created our own Mediterranean chopped salad sandwich with:

  • Proteins: lamb, graviera (a sheep’s milk cheese).
  • Veggies: fennel, fresh basil, pickled red onions, purple cauliflower, radicchio.
  • Fruits: figs, Halkidiki and Kalamata olives†, pepperoncini.
  • Dressing: yogurt, EVOO, pomegranate balsamic vinegar.
  • Bread: ciabatta.
  •  
     
    THE HISTORY OF THE CHOPPED SALAD

    The ancient Romans made a forerunner of the modern chopped salad called acetaria (their word for salad, derived from acetum, Latin for vinegar). An assortment of raw vegetables were cut into small pieces and dressed with vinegar, oil, and herbs.
     
     
    The Modern Chopped Salad: Born In The U.S.A.

    The modern chopped salad began to appear in the early 20th century. Beginning in the 1920s, versions of the Italian Antipasto Salad (photo #4) began to appear on menus of Italian-American restaurants in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, cities with large Italian immigrant populations.

    Taking the ingredients off the antipasto platter, as it were, the Antipasto Salad was (and is) a mix of cured meats, cheeses, and vegetables, all cut into bite-sized pieces and dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

    But it was a Beverly Hills restaurateur who created the dish that engendered the spread of chopped salads nationwide, helping to establish chopped salad as a restaurant staple.

    It was created by Jean Leon (né Lluís Ferreny Anguera), the founder of La Scala restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. The eponymous La Scala Salad (photo #5) was on the menu when he opened the original La Scala restaurant in 1956 (it’s still there, in a different location).

    Leon had emmigrated from Aragon, Spain. His restaurant quickly became famous among Hollywood celebrities and elites, and the La Scala chopped salad became one of his signature dishes.

    It was its own version of the antipasto salad, featuring finely diced lettuce, salami, mozzarella cheese, and garbanzo beans (chickpeas) with a distinctive vinaigrette dressing.

    It was chopped so finely that it could be eaten with a spoon, which was part of its appeal: It allowed celebrities to eat salad neatly without worrying about being photographed with lettuce hanging from their mouths.

    The salad was widely copied in restaurants across the country and is considered one of the pioneering versions of the modern chopped salad.

    The Cobb salad, debuting in 1937, certainly is a chopped salad (photo #7) although it was never marketed in those terms. Still, it contributed to the format’s popularity with its aesthetic appeal of rows of finely diced ingredients.

    By the 1980s and 1990s, chopped salads had become increasingly popular in American restaurants, particularly in delis and Italian-American establishments.

    The early 2000s saw a major boom in chopped salad chains like Chopt and Sweetgreen, which made customizable chopped salads. Thusly, the chopped salad became lunch staple.

    What’s next? With today’s global cuisine influences and the availability of specialty ingredients, there’s no stopping the opportunity to create vibrant variations.
     
     
    Predecessor Sandwich Inspiration

    We don’t want to close without a shout-out to sandos that appeared long before chopped salad sandwiches (and long before the word sando, for that matter, which first appeared in print in the U.S. in 1965):

  • Bánh mì (Vietnam): All the veggies and meats of choice, but sliced instead of chopped.
  • Chopped cheese sandwich (New York City): chopped ground beef and onions with melted cheese, served on a hero roll.
  • Grinder/hero/hoagie/sub (U.S.): different layers of bold bold flavors, sliced.
  • Muffuletta (New Orleans): chopped olive salad atop layers of meats and cheeses.
  • Shawarma/döner kebab: veggies are wrapped in flatbread with shaved meat.
  •  
     
    ________________

    *The difference between Chef Salad and Cobb Salad: They have more similarities than differences. For starters, both include lettuce (usually iceberg or romaine), tomato, and hard-boiled eggs. The meats, cheeses, other veggies, and dressings differ. Both are plated with the other ingredients on top of the greens. Chef salad is sometimes tossed.

    > Meats: Chef has ham, turkey, and/or roast beef; Cobb has grilled/roasted chicken and bacon.

    > Cheese: Chef has Swiss or Cheddar), Cobb has blue cheese.

    > Other Veggies: Chef has cucumbers, Cobb has avocado.

    > Dressing: Chef has Thousand Island, Ranch, or vinaigrette; Cobb has blue cheese, Ranch, or vinaigrette.

    Yes, olives are fruits, not vegetables. They are the fruit of the olive tree. Not all fruits are sweet: Chiles are also fruits.
     
     

    CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

     

    Chopped Chicken Salad Sandwich
    [1] This Chopped Chicken Salad Sandwich has bacon and ranch dressing—a nice switch from mayo. Here’s the recipe (photo © Eat Like Erin).

    Italian Chopped Salad Sandwich
    [2] An Italian Chopped Salad Sandwich can be your version of a chopped hoagie Here’s the recipe (photo © Bellyful).

    Chopped Cuban Sandwich
    [3] A Chopped Cuban Sandwich. Here’s the recipe (photo © I Am Homesteader).

    Antipasto Salad Platter
    [4] One of the early chopped salads was the antipasto salad. Here’s a recipe (photo © DeLallo).

    La Scala Chopped Salad
    [5] Dating to 1956, the La Scala Salad from Los Angeles spread the popularity of chopped salads. Here’s the recipe (photo © Cucina By Elena).

    Classic Chef Salad
    [6] The classic Chef Salad. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Stay At Home Chef).

    Cobb Salad Platter
    [7] The classic Cobb Salad. Here’s the recipe (photo © Ain’t Too Proud to Meg).

    Chopped Salad
    [8] If you don’t use a mezzaluna, it’s an eye opener. Be sure to get one with a double blade (photo © Chef Master | Amazon).

     
     
     
      

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    Dandelion Gourmet Chocolate Chips & Chocolate Chips History

    A Bowl Of Chocolate Chips
    [1] A bowl of top-quality chocolate chips from Callebaut. See all the ways to use them here (photo © Coco Dolce).

    Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream
    [2a] Chocolate chip ice cream is one of our favorite ways to use chocolate chips, whether the ice cream is chocolate, coffee, cherry, mint, raspberry, or vanilla. Here’s the recipe for this mint chip ice cream (photo © McCormick).

    Blondies With Chocolate Chips
    [2b] Another of our favorite ways to enjoy chocolate chips: in blondies (photo © King Arthur Baking | Instagram).

    A Slice Of Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
    [3] It’s a definite yes to chocolate chip cheesecake (photo © Kelly Cline | iStock Photo).

    Pistachio Chocolate Chip Pound Cake In Bundt Form
    [4] Ditto for pistachio chocolate chip pound cake, in graceful Bundt form (photo © King Arthur Baking).

    Chocolate Chip Pancakes
    [5] It’s a classic: chocolate chip pancakes (photo ChatGPT).

    Peanut Butter, Banana & Chocolate Chip Sandwich
    [6] What makes a peanut butter and banana sandwich better? Chocolate chips (photo ChatGPT)!

    Tiramisu Parfait
    [7] Use chocolate chips to garnish any dessert. Here, it’s tiramisu pudding parfait (photo © Julia Hartbeck | Taste Of Home).

    Chocolate Chip Muffins
    [8] Chocolate makes muffins and scones that much more delicious (photo ChatGPT).

    A Bag Of Dandelion Chocolate Chips
    [9] Are these large pyramids chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or a hybrid category? An innovation from Dandelion Chocolate, we’ll give you the skinny below (photo © Rachel Askinisi | Business Insider).

    Bowls of Chocolate Chips & Chocolate Chunks
    [10] Chocolate chips vs. chocolate chunks. See which you should use depending on what you’re making (photo ChatGPT).

    Scoop Of White Chocolate Chips
    [11] White chocolate chips from Callebaut (photo Lake Champlain Chocolates).

    Ruby Chocolate Chips
    [12] Ruby chocolate chips from Callebaut (photo Lake Champlain Chocolates).
    Valrhona Dulcey Baking Chips

    [13] Dulcey disks from Valrhona. Callebaut makes similar product, which they call Gold, and also a Caramel disk(photo © Valrhona).


    [14] The original Toll House Inn cookbook, still available (photo © Dover Publications).

     

    May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day. Not National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day—that’s August 4th.

    You can do many things with chocolate chips in addition to baking cookies. We have a bunch of suggestions for you.

    And we’re going to introduce you to a very special type of chocolate chip from Dandelion Chocolate (photos #9 and #15), and tell you the history of the chocolate chip, and the differernce between chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.

    First, a little Chocolate 101:
     
    > Chocolate terms: a photo glossary.

    > The history of chocolate.

    > The history of white chocolate (photo #11).

    >The history of ruby chocolate (photo #12).

    > The history of Dulcey (blonde) chocolate (photo #13).
     
     
    Dandelion Chocolate Chips
    [15] A specially engineered chocolate chip from Dandelion Chocolate. Read all about them below (photo © Dandelion Chocolate).
     
     
    SOME OF THE MANY WAYS TO USE CHOCOLATE CHIPS

    Chocolate chips are delightfully versatile. Here are just some ways to use them:

    Baking

  • Brownies, blondies, granola bars, and other bars: Fold into the batter (photo #2b).
  • Cakes: Mix into the batter, into the filling, or as a garnish atop the icing (photo #4).
  • Cheesecakes and cupcakes: Mix into the batter and/or use for garnishing (photo #3).
  • Cookies—not just the classic chocolate chip cookie, but variations like oatmeal chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate chip.
  • Inclusions in muffins (photo #8), scones, quick breads (banana bread, pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, etc.), bagels, breads, croissants, and breakfast pastries.
  •  
    Candy

  • Chocolate bark and bonbons: garnish (especially with mini chips) along with nuts, fruits, seeds, etc.
  • Coating and dipping: Melt chips to dip fruit, pretzels, or marshmallows.
  • Any chocolate candy, e.g. fudge and truffles: Mix into fudge, or melt the chips for the base.
  • Trail mix.
  •  
    Frozen Desserts

  • Ice cream: Stir into homemade or softened store-bought ice cream (photo #2a).
  • Ice cream sandwiches: Press into the sides of ice cream and other cookie sandwiches.
  • Frozen yogurt and ice pops: Mix in mini chips, especially into cherry, chocolate, coffee, and vanilla flavors.
  •  
    Breakfast

  • French toast: Make stuffed French toast with a cream cheese, mascarpone, or ricotta filling studded with chocolate chips.
  • Granola and other cold cereals: add in.
  • Oatmeal and other hot porridge: Stir in while hot for melted chocolate swirls, or use as a garnish.
  • Pancakes and waffles: Fold into the batter or sprinkle on top as a garnish (photo #5).
  • Smoothie bowl: Garnish the top.
  •  
    Beverages

  • Hot beverages: Melt chips into hot chocolate, add them to hot mocha or coffee, sprinkle atop a whipped cream garnish.
  • Milkshakes: Stir chips into a thick shake for bites of chocolate.
  •  
    More

  • Desserts: Melt into fondue, use as a garnish for any dessert, mix into ricotta for cannoli filling (you can just eat the filling), mix into mascarpone for a sinfully rich pudding (photo #7).
  • Sandwiches: peanut butter, banana, chocolate chips (photo #6); or a cream cheese or mascarpone sandwich with chocolate chips.
  • Chocolate fix: Eat a tablespoon of chips for a quick chocolate fix.
  • Cheese: Roll a goat cheese log in mini chips. Serve with graham crackers, wheatmeal (digestive), or other sweet biscuits.
  •  
     
    CHOCOLATE CHIPS VS. CHOCOLATE CHUNKS: THE DIFFERENCE

    Is there a difference to using chocolate chips versus chocolate chunks? Yes!

    Aside from shape, the main differences between chocolate chips and chocolate chunks come down to:

  • Melting: Chocolate chunks are larger and rectangular, so provide a larger pop of chocolate. However, unlike the teardrop-shaped chips which are designed to hold their shape when baking, the chunks may create pockets instead of holding their shape (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).
  • Ingredients: Chocolate chips contain stabilizers like soy lecithin or added emulsifiers. They may contain less cocoa butter so they keep their shape when baked—but this also gives them a waxier texture compared to higher-end chunks.
  • Quality: Chocolate chunks are often made of better quality couverture, with a higher cocoa butter content and fewer stabilizers. This gives them a better melt and flavor.
     
    Why Bakers chose one over the other:

  • Cookies: chips have more structure, chunks are more gooey.
  • Brownies, blondies, and other bars: Chunks provide a better melt and flavor distribution.
  • Cakes and muffins: Chips offer less sinkage and more even flavor distribution.
  • Dipping or coating: Chunks melt evenly.
     
    Check the package label to see that you’re buying real chocolate chips. Imitation chocolate chips have vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter (and are less expensive).

    When you want the best:

  • The top brands of chocolate chunks are Callebaut, Guittard, and Valrhona. They also make chips.
  • Trader Joe’s High-End Private Label also has quality chocolate chunks, believed to be from Callebaut.
  • For a good semisweet chunk without soy lecithin, try Enjoy Life Mega Chocolate Chunks.
  • The best brands of chocolate chips include Callebaut, Guittard, Michel Cluizel, Scharffen Berger, Scharffen Berger, Trader Joe’s, and Valrhona, and an honorable mention to Ghirardelli.
  •  
    Except when we need a chips that isn’t made in chunk form (e.g. peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips—photo #11), we prefer chocolate chunks in cookies for a simple reason: more chocolate in each bite!
     
     
    PRODUCT FOCUS: DANDELION CHOCOLATE CHIPS

    If they look large in the photo (#9, #15) they are! At one-inch square, from Dandelion Chocolate of San Francisco, they weigh in at a substantial 3.5 grams each.

    In comparison, a single Nestlé chocolate morsel typically weighs about 1.4 grams/0.05 ounces. (The mini chocolate chips are smaller and their chocolate chunks are larger and weigh more per piece.)

    To appreciate what Dandelion has achieved. you have to brush up on is origin chocolate: the term used to specify chocolate made from beans from a single origin. In the case of Dandelion, those origins include Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Tanzania, and Uganda.

    Like all agricultural products, each displays the flavors of its terroir. Just like coffee beans, wine grapes, olive oil, etc.

    So do you prefer the cacao flavors of South America—fruity and floral—or the flavors of Africa—richer, darker flavors, with notes of cinnamon, fig, and berries? Check the options and decide.

    > Here’s what you need to know about single origin chocolate.
     
     
    Why Was A Special Pyramid/Diamond Shape Created?

    These custom-made pyramid chips were modeled after the hand-piped chips the Dandelion kitchen team would make for the giant cookies sold in their cafés.

    They used to use chocolate chunks, but one customer, a Tesla engineer named Remy Labesque thought he could come up with something better. In 2020, he shared his idea for a better shape that would function perfectly in a large cookie.

    He worked with Dandelion to create their signature chip: one inches square at the flat bottom, rising to a peak in the center, that reminds one of a pyramid or diamond.

    As you can see in photos #9, it’s quite different from the traditional teardrop-shaped chips/morsels. Labesque created a unique pyramid-like structure featuring two tapered edges and a flat bottom.

    Two of the bottom edges are thin and taper off while the other two are slightly thicker. The engineer explains that this is how the big chips are able to melt evenly. The design wasn’t an aesthetic choice, it was functional.

  • The flat bottom was engineered to melt more evenly on the tongue, providing a better tasting experience.
  • The sharp edges were designed to offer an initial intense flavor hit, while the thicker center provided a more substantial chocolate experience.
  •  
    Get Your Dandelion Chocolate Chips

    > Head to the company website and do a search, so you can see all five varieties.
     
     
    THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS

    Chocolate chips were invented by accident in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield, who owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.

    She was making Butter Drop Do cookies—a simple butter cookie recipe that dates to colonial times. She wanted to add chocolate.

    She cut a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into small pieces, expecting the pieces to melt in the oven and create chocolate cookies. Instead, the pieces retained their shape, creating the first chocolate chip cookies—or Toll House cookies, as she named them.

    The Toll House cookies became popular at the inn, and the recipe began to spread. She published it in a cookbook called “Toll House Tried and True Recipes” in 1936 (you can get a paperback version on Amazon-—photo #14).

    As the cookies gained popularity, sales of Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate bars increased significantly in the New England area.

    Recognizing the business opportunity, Nestlé approached Wakefield in 1939 to strike a deal. They purchased the rights to use her recipe and the Toll House name on their packaging. In exchange, Wakefield reportedly received:

  • A lifetime supply of Nestlé chocolate.
  • A consulting fee (some sources indicate it was a symbolic $1—she clearly didn’t consult a lawyer).
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    Nestlé’s Morsels Arrive

    After concluding the deal, Nestlé began producing chocolate chips specifically designed for baking, eliminating the need for consumers to chop chocolate bars themselves. In 1940, they introduced Nestlé Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels.

    Nestlé’s decision to make chocolate chips in a teardrop or morsel shape rather than the pieces obtained from chopping a chocolate bar was driven by practical considerations:

  • Manufacturing efficiency: The teardrop shape could be more easily mass-produced in a consistent size using industrial equipment.
  • Melting properties: The teardrop shape, with its tapered end and rounded bottom, creates an optimal balance for chocolate chips in baking. They partially melt but maintain their general shape and distribution throughout the cookie.
  • Performance: The teardrop shape has a higher surface-to-volume ratio than simple cubes or rectangles, affecting how the chocolate interacts with dough and melts in the mouth when eating the baked product.
  • Brand identity: The special shape helped establish to establish chocolate morsels/chips as a specific ingredient.
  • Convenience: The consistent size and shape meant bakers could count on uniform distribution and reliable results in their recipes, unlike hand-chopped chocolate pieces which varied in size.
  •  
     
    The Evolution Of Chocolate Chips

    Chocolate chunks, as a distinct square or rectangular product, were first marketed to consumers in the early 1940s to avoid manual chopping.

    Chunks delivered a more substantial taste and a change from the uniformity of traditional chips. Within a decade or so, chocolate chunks had become a staple in baking aisles

    In the 1950s and 1960s, chocolate chips and chunks became a staple in American pantries.

    By the 1970s, Americans were chip-happy enough to market numerous options. Currently, you can find:

  • Chocolate chips: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, mint chocolate, semisweet chocolate (the original), white chocolate, and peanut butter (a mix of PB and milk chocolate), mini chips, jumbo chips, and chocolate chunks.
  • Flavors that don’t contain chocolate: butterscotch, caramel, funfetti.
  • Different limited edition and seasonal flavors from Nestlé and others: Bailey’s Irish Cream, maple, mint, pumpkin spice, salted caramel, s’mores.
  •  
    In fact, you can make any flavor of chip your heart desires. Here’s how.

    (Note: Always read the ingredients label. If it contains cocoa butter, it’s chocolate, even if there are no cocoa solids (e.g., white chocolate).

    Nestlé deliberately called their product morsels. Early recipes, including Wakefield’s original, often described the process as adding “chocolate broken into bits” or “pieces of chocolate.”

    (By the way, you can get her cookbook—see photo #14.)

    So who was first to call them “chocolate chips?”

    There is no aha! moment. The term emerged gradually in popular usage, likely developing organically among home bakers.

    By the mid-1940s, the term “chocolate chip cookies” was becoming commonplace in cookbooks and newspaper recipe columns. This suggests the term was already in the vernacular.

    By the 1950s, “chocolate chip cookies” was standard, regardless of whether Nestlé’s Morsels or another brand was used.

    The second decade of the 21st century saw the introduction of ruby chocolate (photo #12), created by Barry Callebaut in 2017. The pink-hued chocolate is made from specially processed ruby cocoa beans. It has a fruity, slightly tart flavor.

    Ruby is the first new chocolate category since white chocolate was introduced in the 1930s. (The first dark chocolate bar was introduced in 1847, and milk chocolate in 1875 or 1876.) Here’s more about ruby.

    Dulcey (photo #13 or blonde, chocolate came earlier, in 2012—an accident caused when a chocolatier left the heater on under white chocolate for too long.

    See the footnote† for why Dulcey/blonde/gold chocolate isn’t its own category.

    The new product produces caramel notes, and is so delicious that we wonder what’s next! In the interim, here’s more about Dulcey.

    It isn’t yet made in chips, but you can purchase the baking disks.

     
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    *Chocolate from Colombia and Ecuador often exhibits fruity, floral, and subtly sweet flavors, with a focus on Nacional/Arriba cacao beans. In contrast, Ugandan and Tanzanian chocolates tend to be more intense and full-bodied, with richer, darker flavors, including notes of cinnamon, fig, and berries.

    Why Ruby chocolate is a 4th category of chocolate but Dulcey isn’t a new category: For almost a century, three categories of chocolate have been recognized: dark, milk, and white chocolate. To be classified as a new category of chocolate, a product must be derived from cacao beans and contain cacao solids and/or cocoa butter and have naturally occurring color and flavor. Both Ruby and Dulcey do that.

    But Dulcey is essentially caramelized white chocolate, made by heating to develop the flavor. It is not a new bean or extraction method. Dulcey is like toasted white chocolate—delicious and unique, but not a new structure. Thus, it’s a flavor variation of white chocolate, not a new category.

    One might ask: Isn’t milk chocolate just dark chocolate with milk added—yet milk chocolate is its own category? No, milk chococolate i’s an entirely new structure, not a blend of finished dark chocolate with milk added. In fact, if you added milk to finished dark chocolate, it would seize—it’s chemically incompatible unless emulsified during conching and tempering. So, structurally and legally, milk chocolate is a distinct formulation, and its own category.
     
     

    CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

     
     
      

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