Chocolate chip cookies are one of life's greatest, simplest pleasures. As straightforward as they are, however, they're equally easy to screw up. There's one practically universal mistake that too many people make, and if you want a better cookie, you'd better listen up: Stop using chocolate chips. Use chopped chocolate instead.

No chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie? Of course this sounds counterintuitive, but stay with us. Chocolate chips are designed to retain their shape when baked. They might melt a little, but they're not going to spread out into the dough. As David Tamarkin of Epicurious puts it, "the chips retain their pointy edges through the baking process, sticking out of a cookie's top like circling sharks."

Not only that, but the chips' uniformity makes for one boring cookie. With roughly chopped chocolate, on the other hand, your cookies will be dynamic — each bite will taste different. And unlike chips, roughly chopped chocolate will expand into the cookie perfectly.

Finally, there might be a lot more than just chocolate hiding in your little chips. As Alison Roman of Bon Appetit points out, "Often times, chocolate chips are a little waxy because they have other ingredients like vanilla and soy in them." Skip the chips to avoid unnecessary additives.

From: www.huffingtonpost.com