If you run out of unsweetened baking chocolate, try this substitute: combine 3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder with 1 Tbsp. vegetable shortening for every ounce of chocolate.
Source: Woman's World magazine
By Ann Winberg from Loup City, NE
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Could anyone give me some suggestions please? I see so many recipes using chocolate chips and I get so frustrated, because I would love to try them out. However, I can't because where I live chocolate chips or drops are, for some obscure reason, horribly expensive.
Would anyone know if there is a substitute that I can use instead? I've tried smashing up a chocolate bar and the bits are too big, running it through a food processor just makes one big gunky mess. Help, please?
By cettina from Malta, Europe
Maybe you could use some kind of chocolate bar and crunch it up.
I'd get a plain Hershey bar and let it sit somewhere a bit warm for 15 minutes. Use a sharp knife, like a chef's knife to cut each square into 1/4's or smaller. Cut all the way through. Put in fridge and chill, and add at last minute to cookie dough. These will be softer than normal chips but I'll bet it will be good. Use as many bars as you think will work best for recipe, probably up to 3. Get them when on sale. Right now after Halloween would be a good time to load up on candy.
I'm going to get some honey coated peanuts at my bin store [Sprouts] next time and crunch them with my rolling pin and make peanut butter cookies with added crunch. Desperation is the mother of invention.
Here is an easy trick for using the thin Hershey bars; try sticking them in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes til they are really cold, then take it out and hold flat in the hand and slam it against the counter top then carefully open the paper. Any pieces that are still too big will be easy (and quick) to cut or break into pieces small enough to work as chips in your cookies.
We used to do this with a certain kind of taffy bar and Jolly Rancher bars when I was a kid to make them into mouth sized pieces (and sneak them into our mouths in schoo) lol!
Sugar cookies made with the sour Jolly Rancher bars broken this way are a real treat for kids who love the sour stuff. I never grew out of loving sour stuff. You can also break the Hershey bars into individual squares and then put one on top of each cookies as it comes out of the oven and it will melt and "frost" the top of the cookie.
M and Ms and also grate the chocolate bar as well could help also I have not had chocolate chips on hand and so I use chocolate powder. Works wonderfully :) Just a 1/4 of a cup of chocolate powder in the mix makes wonderful chocolate cookies :) Just chocolate baking powder.
Have you ever thought of using raisins or chopped dates? It would be healthier for you. You did say you have a chocolate bar, but it was thick, have you tried using a large knife to chop the bar into thin strips, while it is at room temperature? Then freeze those strips in a zip lock bag. After it freezes, use a meat tenderizer or hammer on the bag until all the pieces are smaller. Or, you could melt the candy bar in a double boiler or microwave, put it in an icing bag, create little dots with your icing bag and use them as chocolate chips.
Dark chocolate in the US is the same as plain chocolate in Europe. Cadbury makes a dark chocolate bar (how about Nestle"s) - maybe you could get them in Malta. Freeze them first, then grate or break into small pieces. We also make chocolate chunk cookies - which use larger pieces of chocolate and they are VERY good. Happy baking!
Joan from Chesterfield, Michigan
Buy a package of chocolate almond bark which is used as a dipping chocolate and normally on sale a Christmas time. Melt in microwave then pour out in thin layer on wax paper. Let it set then chop it.
Can Hershey's Kisses broken up be used in place of chocolate chips for recipes?
I don't see why not, but it would be an awful lot of trouble, I think. If you want to use them because they're milk chocolate rather than semi-sweet (which I prefer, myself), you can buy milk chocolate chips. I'd be interested in hearing why you want to do this! Do you happen to just have a lot of them & want to use in baking? If that's the case, go to this website for lots of recipes using kisses, or just google baking with Hershey kisses. Hope to hear from you!
www.huffingtonpost.com/
Yes. Use a tool like they use to chop salads and a bowl
Can I use chocolate Kisses instead of chocolate morsels if my recipe calls for chocolate morsels?
I would say yes, but you may want to chop them unless you plan to melt them for your recipe.
