Giada De Laurentiis' Tip For Perfectly Sized Chocolate Chunks

Have you ever wondered why your homemade chocolate chip cookies, although always delicious, never quite turn out the same as a professional baker's batch? When it comes to creating the ultimate chocolate chip cookie, there are myriad pro-baker hacks and tricks to improve them: browning the butter, using different types of flour, refrigerating the dough overnight, even tapping your sheet pan on the counter after baking. But one of the simplest expert tips is actually the easiest to overlook — using chunks of chocolate rather than the eponymous chocolate chips. Just think: How many deluxe chocolate chip cookies have you purchased at bakeries that actually include the familiar pantry staple? Probably not many.

We get it. Reaching for a readily available bag of chocolate chips is much easier than chopping up your own chocolate chunks. Baking chocolate can be unwieldy and hard to cut, and no one wants to worry about cleanup when there are cookies to eat. But celebrity chef and cookie enthusiast Giada De Laurentiis casually dropped some chocolate chunk wisdom when she shared a recipe for chocolate chunk oatmeal cranberry cookies on TikTok. "It's easier to cut a chocolate bar with a serrated knife," she says.

You might be picturing her sawing through a chocolate bar like bread, but you should actually cut straight down. The bar will cut easily where you want it to with a shockingly clean edge. Plus, the teeth of the knife provide some gripping friction so your chocolate pieces won't go sailing off into the sunset. With a serrated knife in hand, you'll be better equipped to bake aesthetic chocolate chunk cookies that are utterly shareable.

Even if you have a serrated knife handy, you might be wondering why chocolate chunks are worth the extra effort. First, you have much more control over the quality of your chocolate and access to higher-quality goods. Julia Child's favorite brand of chocolate, Scharffen Berger, for instance, comes in a semi-sweet bar that's hard to beat in terms of formulation and ingredient sourcing. More so than any of the other ingredients, the chocolate you use gives your cookies a chance to stand out.

Second, chopping up a chocolate bar allows you to introduce more variety to your sweets. You can cut large chunks to create deep pools of chocolate that you'll always be happy to discover, then dice up some smaller pieces for textural variety. Go ahead and add the chocolate flakes and small shards left over on your cutting board, too — they'll add another hint of chocolate flavor, plus a delightful speckled look to your dough.

Our last tip? Set aside a handful of chocolate chunks when adding them to your dough, then dot the top of each cookie with a few chunks before baking. Your chocolate chunk cookies will look picture perfect and pastry-case ready.