Why You'll Want To Use A Sifter If Baking With Cut Chocolate

When you want to make something with chocolate, there are several ways to go. You can use chocolate chips, or you can buy a block of chocolate or a chocolate bar and chop it up. There are advantages to all of these chocolate types.

If you're making chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chips are the obvious choice. They are exactly the right size, they come in many different flavors, and they're easy to buy and store. But chips have less cocoa butter than a chocolate bar, so they're less creamy, and the mouthfeel isn't as wonderful, according to Martha Stewart. A block or bar of chocolate also offers a richer flavor and more variation in the cacao levels. You can also get bigger chunks of chocolate when you chop a block or bar. And chocolate bars often have other delicious ingredients, such as almonds or coconut or little crispies. (See how to chop chocolate in this video from America's Test Kitchen.)

But if you choose to chop chocolate to use in cookies, there's one step you should take for the best results. Here's why you'll want to use a sifter if you're baking with cut chocolate.

When you bit into a chocolate chunk cookie, you want big chunks of melty chocolate, not little bits of chocolate shavings. (Chopping your chocolate with a serrated knife will help you get those nice chunks, per Real Simple.) But trying to separate the chunks from the tiny shavings and dust can be maddening. That's where the sifter comes in.

"If you have to chop your chocolate into smaller pieces, always sift the chopped chocolate through a strainer to get rid of any small shavings that break off," Ryan Schmidtberger, executive chef at Hancock St. in New York City, told Food & Wine in 2022. "These little pieces can change the color of your cookie dough or batter. You can always save them for pancakes or hot chocolate."

You can use a regular sifter made for flour. Just plop the chocolate pieces into the sifter and rotate the handle; the tiny bits will filter out. You can also use a sieve or colander. Put the chocolate inside, then gently tap the sieve and shake it so the fine pieces fall out of the utensil.

Now that you have nice, big chunks of chocolate with no irritating shavings, what are you going to make?

When it's time to start baking, try making Taylor Swift's favorite chocolate chunk oatmeal cookie recipe to tuck into lunchboxes or a cookie jar. Or, chef Alex Guarnaschelli's chocolate chunk cookie recipe makes cookies that are rich and sweet. You could make chocolate chunk mocha cookies with coffee extract and walnuts. Dark chocolate chunk and dried cherry cookies add tart and chewy fruit to the classic cookie for a fabulous twist.

And if you're not ready to bake yet, you can store the chocolate pieces, tightly covered, in a cool, dry place for a few weeks. If you want to store it for a longer period, chop a bunch, sift it, then package the chunks tightly. Label it and freeze up to a year, per Can You Freeze This? You'll have rich chocolate chunks to use in cookies any time you want.