Do Chocolate Chips Melt When Baked?

[Shel_B]

Sweetie commented to me the other day that the chocolate chips in her brownie mix didn't melt when baked.  I have a very vague recollection of reading somewhere (King Arthur catalogue?) that chocolate chips are made so that they don't melt, that they retain their shape in cookies, etc.  Is this correct (can't find the info in any of the KA catalogues I have here)?  I was thinking that it might just have been the chips in the particular mix she used.  Is it true for all chocolate chips, or just some chips?  What about white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and other flavors?  Thanks!

Edited February 2, 2017 by Shel_B (log)

[Tri2Cook]

They generally tend to hold their shape when baked. If you mess with them fresh out of the oven, you'll find that they are indeed melted. But they hold their shape and when they cool it will appear as if they never melted. If you're saying they were hard and not at all melted straight out of the oven, they may be brown and chocolate flavored but they weren't chocolate.

[chromedome]

"Compound" chips, like the "chocolatey" coating on candy bars, often replace the cocoa butter with cheaper fats; some of those can help the chips hold their shape. 

 

As it happens, @Kerry Beal talks a bit about compound chocolate on her site.

[Shel_B]

15 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

They generally tend to hold their shape when baked. If you mess with them fresh out of the oven, you'll find that they are indeed melted. But they hold their shape and when they cool it will appear as if they never melted. If you're saying they were hard and not at all melted straight out of the oven, they may be brown and chocolate flavored but they weren't chocolate.

 

I'm not saying that, just essentially repeating what was told to me.  Since the chips hold their shape, and my SO was expecting them to melt into a gooey mass, it's easy to understand why she felt that they didn't melt, or get soft.  Thanks for your input.

[Tri2Cook]

Who originally said it and why it was thought they were unmelted doesn't really matter. My point was that chocolate chips are formulated to hold their shape in baked goods but they do indeed melt. And the magic in real chocolate chips isn't via special ingredients, it's via a lower cocoa butter content. Lower cocoa butter content = increased viscosity = less tendency to flow. Combine that with it being cradled by and somewhat insulated by the batter or dough or whatever and they keep their shape. As chromedome said, compound coatings (which covers your butterscotch chips and peanut butter chips) contain fats other than cocoa butter and can easily be formulated to stand up to some heat from baking without running everywhere.