Squares Replacing Chips

• If you're in the middle of baking cookies and realize you've run out of semisweet chocolate chips, that box of semisweet baking chocolate at the back of your pantry can save you a trip to the store. If your recipe calls for a full bag of chocolate chips, that's an easy substitution. They're typically packaged in 12-ounce bags, so you'll need to chop up 12 squares of baking chocolate. Each 1 cup of chocolate chips weighs 6 ounces, and can be replaced with six squares of chocolate.

Chips Replacing Squares

• If you find yourself unexpectedly without baking chocolate while whipping up a cake or batch of brownies, chocolate chips can step up and act as your emergency replacement. If you have a kitchen scale, simply use it to measure out an equivalent weight of chocolate chips. They're a direct 1-to-1 replacement, with no fuss or bother. If you don't have a scale, use 1/3 cup of chocolate chips to replace each square of chocolate called for in your recipe.

Chips to Other Chocolate Types

• Exchanging semisweet chocolate chips for semisweet baking chocolate is easy, because they're essentially the same. If you need to use chocolate chips to replace other types of baking chocolate, you might need to fine-tune your recipe a bit. Bittersweet chocolate is similar to semisweet chocolate, but has less sugar. If your recipe calls for 2 ounces, you can reduce the sugar by up to 1 teaspoon or add 1 teaspoon of instant coffee to the batter to darken its flavor. If your recipe calls for 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, cut back your sugar by a 1/4 cup. Unsweetened chocolate contains less fat than chocolate chips, so in the same recipe you'd also reduce the recipe's butter or shortening by 1 tablespoon.

Compound Chips and Couverture

• Chocolate chips aren't all created equal. Semisweet chocolate chips include both cocoa and cocoa butter, along with sugar and emulsifiers such as lecithin. Low-cost chocolate chips and candymaker's "dipping wafers" often replace the costly cocoa butter with less expensive fats, and add artificial flavorings to mask a lower cocoa content. These chips make an adequate cookie, but they're a poor substitute for baking chocolate and shouldn't be used. Couverture is the opposite: A high-grade chocolate for professionals that's sometimes sold in pellets similar to chocolate chips. These make excellent cakes, fudge or brownies, but don't hold their shape as well as chocolate chips when they're used in cookies.