Chips Ahoy

Parislights, in the My Inspiration post, asked:

my god daughter has started at Tufts and she is hopping to start a little cchip cookie business for her fellow students. She has had access to really delicious chocolate chips thanks to a local chocolatier in Normandy ( yeah…I know! France! He makes his own ! )

Hershey just doesn’t cut it for her. What do you suggest? Feel like making a cchip post ? – p’lights

Hershey’s or Baker’s or the more ubiquitous Nestle chips definitely don’t cut it. For delicious but still affordable chips, I switched years ago to Ghirardelli’s 60% bittersweet chips, which are about halfway between a chip and a disc. This photo of mine from 2010, one of about 600 rotating desktop backgrounds I have, shows the wider spread of chocolate you get from that shape:

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Click for HD size

The Ghirardelli site’s price seems rather high. I think Market Basket sells them for US$3.49, maybe even as low as $2.99, but as you know, they have the lowest prices around. In the Northeast US, these are in maybe one out of three supermarket chains.

You may recall that I switched allegiance to the salted chocolate chip cookie recipe published in the New York Times some years ago. It’s definitely the best I’ve tried, but you may also remember that I found through my own blind taste testing that their 24-36 hour “curing” step is unnecessary. Any perceived difference is imaginary – or perhaps the result of people unconsciously baking for a minute or two longer to produce a darker, more caramelised cookie, thereby fulfilling the aged dough fantasy.

Other than dropping their waiting period, which seems like cruel and unusual punishment given my testing, my only change to their recipe is to add a boatload of pecans that have been toasted for ten minutes in a 300F oven – an overflowing cup worth for this recipe. After toasting, I break each half into four pieces so they’re on the chunky side and let them cool so they don’t melt the dough.

I was recently delighted to find that Costco sells two pounds of unsalted pecans for US$9.99, much cheaper than any other place I’ve found; others charge about double that. If you buy in that quantity but don’t use them at a fast clip, it’s best to freeze them to stop them going rancid. They thaw quickly.

5 thoughts on “Chips Ahoy

  1. parislights says:

    ooo you are wondrous !

    Okay Market Basket and CostCo ! Ill send word to our team ! Dont you need a membership thingy for CostCo?

    Ghiradelli semisweet i didnt like but bittersweet seems like it would be just perfect!

    Thanks lalo!

  2. lalmon says:

    Yup, the bittersweet turns the kids’ chocolate chip cookie into one of adult stature. You usually need a membership to shop at Costco, but you could also have a Costco member friend buy you a Costco cash card. However, if she does want to add pecans – a wise move! – the annual membership fee of $55 would be paid for by the savings on just five two-pound bags of pecans.

  3. parislights says:

    thanks much!

    L

  4. parislights says:

    haven’t heard anything from the c chip maker. Second hand info tho. her room has become a hub of activity. door is always open. So maybe just maybe she has figured out the oven and sourcing her Ghirardelli chips from the nearby Market Basket. i’m hoping so.

    -p

  5. lalmon says:

    FYI, I just verified today that Market Basket sells the bittersweet chips for US$2.99 – 37% under list price.

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