Fifty pounds of chocolate chips!

May 3, 2007 9:34 AM

What should two poor college kids do with 50lbs of chocolate chips?

My roommate and I ordered cookies from Insomnia Cookies (www.insomniacookies.com) and it turns out we were the 5000th order so they decided that we won FIFTY POUNDS of chocolate chips!

OMG.

What are we going to do with it all? How do we ensure that it doesn't melt? (We live in an apartment off campus so we have a real fridge and all, but we certainly don't have space for that much chocolate)

Ideas?

posted by ThirstyEar2 to food & drink (60 comments total)

Bake sale? You could make a lot of fudge.
posted by Robert Angelo at 9:39 AM on May 3, 2007

Get a cooler, and some ice packs. Store til needed.

Distribute to friends.

Bake cookies for charity.
posted by canine epigram at 9:40 AM on May 3, 2007

I was going to say bake sale for charity also. But if you don't want to do the baking yourself, offer the chips to the community service groups on your campus so that they could run a bake sale for their group instead.
posted by liberalintellect at 9:44 AM on May 3, 2007

Unless your mom is diabetic, make her something for Mother's Day.
posted by almostmanda at 9:48 AM on May 3, 2007

Build an anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of a nude Alan Greenspan?
posted by morallybass at 9:49 AM on May 3, 2007 [11 favorites]

Make bags of chocolate covered pretzels - would probably store easily. Makes great gifts too.
posted by kdern at 9:50 AM on May 3, 2007

Chocolate fondue party!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:52 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ganache/truffles takes a lot of chocolate. But cream is expensive and not sure how tasty it'd be w/ plain ol' chocolate chips. What kind are they? Brand and sweetness level?
posted by artifarce at 9:56 AM on May 3, 2007

Bake sale for charity? No, no, no how will these broke college kids affort the other ingredients?

Chocolate bikini wrestling for charity!
posted by yohko at 9:57 AM on May 3, 2007

Two words: Chocolate sombreros.
posted by dersins at 9:57 AM on May 3, 2007

Bake sale for charity? No, no, no how will these broke college kids affort the other ingredients?

I say bakesale for yourselves. Just take a hit and use whatever measly change you have to buy the rest of the ingredients, and sell the cookies in the dorms during finals (ie, asap). You'll more than make back what you spend on ingredients.
posted by jk252b at 9:59 AM on May 3, 2007

And seconding kdern's suggestion to dip all manner of salty foods & give as "fancy" gifts (if they don't get eaten first). And while I was googling if you'd have to add anything to the chips first for dipping purposes I found this lengthy answer on chowhound.
posted by artifarce at 10:00 AM on May 3, 2007

The responsible thing would be to donate it to a local soup kitchen type place.

That said, I'd probably try to recreate Michelangelo's David.
posted by Greg Nog at 10:00 AM on May 3, 2007

This FPP may have some ideas.
posted by danb at 10:05 AM on May 3, 2007

Build an anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of a nude Alan Greenspan?

Even better, a statue of Robert Heinlein. Or maybe Leonard Ayres or Milton Friedman, depending on your interest.
posted by The Michael The at 10:18 AM on May 3, 2007

Tell them you don't want it. There is nothing you can do with fifty pounds of chocolate chips that is worth the bother of dealing with fifty pounds of chocolate chips. The fact that it's free does not make it a good deal.
posted by kindall at 10:20 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Melt it all together to create a giant slab and then talk to the art department at your college and see if you can commission a few students to create a sculpture out of the chocolate. Sell the sculpture on eBay and split the proceeds with the art students. Keep the chocolate that was cut away from the sculpture, melt it into a slab, then create a mini-sculpture out of it to sell on eBay, too. Then use the remaining cut-away chocolate to make some very special cookies (to sell on eBay!).
posted by mezzanayne at 10:21 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Run a contest. Whoever proposes the cleverest use for 50# of chocolate gets the chocolate. That way you get the pleasure of knowing it's being used for something amusing, and none of the hassle of doing it yourself.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:28 AM on May 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

kindall is onto something. Ask if there is a cash equivalent, or request free cookies for a year in lieu of the chips.

If that doesn't work, hold a raffle and offer the chocolate chips as a prize.
posted by grateful at 10:31 AM on May 3, 2007

Well, we already have the chocolate chips, they're sitting in a box on our dining room table.
posted by ThirstyEar2 at 10:34 AM on May 3, 2007

This thread is useless without pictures.

Seriously. I'd love to see what 50 lbs. of chocolate chips looks like.

I vote for making stuff like fudge or cookies and selling it and using the profits to buy something fun.

Or, if you want to attain legendary status, go wherever the most students study during finals and start tossing out free bags of chips.
posted by MsMolly at 10:35 AM on May 3, 2007

OMG!! What a fantastic opportunity! This could be *really* fun with the right ideas and execution. Start making a list. What are some things you want/need...examples:
Money?
Party?
15-seconds of Fame?
Baked treats?

Then go from there, find some way to incorporate one or all those goals into a developing idea. Then run with it!

I love this post and I really hope the hive cranks out some winning ideas here.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:35 AM on May 3, 2007

Also be sure to thank them for an incredibly pointless prize. If you are buying cookies from someone then the one thing that they can assume about you is that you don't bake your own cookies.
posted by frieze at 10:38 AM on May 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

Does your college have larger kitchens that students can rent? Mine did, and although a deposit was required upfront the cost of using them was almost free if you cleaned up afterwards.

You could have a big baking party, invite everyone to bring a different ingredient (2 dozen eggs, 10 pounds flour, 5 pounds sugar, 5 pounds brown sugar, several people can bring a pound of butter each, a big thing of vanilla, a thing of salt, baking powder, baking soda).

Split up into teams with different recipes, provide lots of booze (chocolate is good with wine, maybe shred some for choco-tinis too), and go!

At the end, whichever team makes the best food gets to take any unused chocolate home, and everybody divides up the un-eating yummies.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 10:53 AM on May 3, 2007

Let me just say that I love that there is a late-night cookie delivery service out there. Best idea ever.

I think you should have a fondue party.
posted by triggerfinger at 10:53 AM on May 3, 2007

you can't even ebay it, the shipping costs would be stupid.

according to this the value of 50 lbs could be as much as $250. The cost of ingredients required to do anything interesting with this much chocolate could be upwards of $1,000, not to mention the time.

You don't need to refrigerate these, just keep them in a cool, dry place until you figure out what to do with them. I would donate them to to a soup kitchen or some other kind of 501(c)3 organization and take the writeoff.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:03 AM on May 3, 2007

If you are at PSU, I will gladly eat some of your chocolate chips.
posted by Loto at 11:13 AM on May 3, 2007

Two words:

Melt. Wrestle.

(Two more: Photograph. Post.)
posted by RandlePatrickMcMurphy at 11:14 AM on May 3, 2007

The first thing you need to do is go out and buy 50 gallons of milk.
posted by Dizzy at 11:21 AM on May 3, 2007

have a huge "chocolate party" and invite tons of girls (who of course love chocolate!) have lots of booze and stuff and just fill huge bowls with the chips and dig in!
posted by Salvatorparadise at 11:29 AM on May 3, 2007

Donate to a local food bank.

And/or, instead of a bake sale, just re-bag handfuls of chocolate chips in small plastic baggies. Go to the library during finals and sell these little sugar-and-caffeine packets for, oh, fifty cents each.

And/or, melt several pounds in a stock pot over low heat with a couple pints of cream. Invite everyone you know to come over for the biggest chocolate fondue party ever. Price of admission: package of strawberries or pretzels or candied ginger other suitable dipping materials.
posted by Orinda at 11:31 AM on May 3, 2007

Dude. If I had such problems. If you have any friends living abroad, they will love you for approximately forever for shipping them some poundage. My friends overseas don't bitch about much, but get them talking about chocolate chip cookies and the lack of chips in otherwise civilized climes...whoah.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:41 AM on May 3, 2007

And/or, melt several pounds in a stock pot over low heat with a couple pints of cream. Invite everyone you know to come over for the biggest chocolate fondue party ever. Price of admission: package of strawberries or pretzels or candied ginger other suitable dipping materials.

Forget berries or ginger, 50 lbs of fondue is asking for watermelon slices and turkey legs!

Anyways, raffle! You can do one of those "how many chocolate chips in this cannister" type deals. Entry is a buck and the closest person gets half the entry fees, plus the chips. The other half can either go to you or some charity.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:41 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not that this helps with what to do with them, but chocolate chips are even more stable than regular chocolate. And regular chocolate shouldn't melt at room temperature. So, storage wise, put it in a reasonably well sealed container and throw it in a dry closet/cupboard/corner. Generally speaking, you shouldn't store chocolate in the refrigerator.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:53 AM on May 3, 2007

You (or the Art or Theatre Departments) might find inspiration from Karen Finley
posted by Robert Angelo at 12:00 PM on May 3, 2007

I agree with Kindall. A 50 pound sack of chips is a Phyrric prize. I'd probably save a pound or two and give the rest away. Lacking any takers, they'd end up in the dumpster.

Since many of your fellow MeFites seem interested in your chocolate haul, why don't you give them away here? Some pretzel dipping or fondue aficionado will undoubtedly pay for shipping.
posted by aladfar at 12:08 PM on May 3, 2007

OK, setting the record straight on the expense of cookie-baking. Amounts below are adapted from the basic Toll House recipe.

50 pounds of chocolate chips will make about 65 batches of cookies, or 3900 cookies at 5 dozen per batch. 65 batches of cookies will require:

52 lbs flour @ $0.50/lb = $26
22 lbs sugar @ $1.00/lb = $22
24 lbs brown sugar @ $2.00/lb = $48
11 dozen eggs @$1.50/doz = $16.50
1 lb baking soda @ $1.00/lb = $1
1 lb salt @ $1.00/lb = $1
32 lbs butter @ $3.00/lb = $96
11 ounces vanilla @ $1.00/oz = $11
50 lbs chocolate chips = free!

Total: $221.50
posted by miagaille at 12:12 PM on May 3, 2007 [4 favorites]

I tend to agree with kindall. But my second instinct would probably be to approach a couple of my favorite restaurants/bakeries and see whether I could trade for a gift certificate.
posted by cribcage at 12:17 PM on May 3, 2007

No, fuck all these people. Ten bucks says no one who said "donate it to charity" has been in college for the last twenty years.

Here's what you do: You got facebook, right? You probably got, what, least a hundred friends? You create an event and invite every single one of them, "We've got 50lbs of chocolate chips and we're throwing a PARTY." Tell them to bring as many friends as they want.

Distribute bags all through the apartment (you could even rent a venue for this). Tell guests to indulge in as much as they want. Provide lots of alcohol and drugs, and I guarantee it will be the most memorable party your fine institution has ever seen
posted by borkingchikapa at 12:19 PM on May 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

yohko has already answered this question, any other answers are superfluous.

Chocolate Bikini Wrestling.

Invite me.
posted by ZackTM at 12:43 PM on May 3, 2007

I'm completely serious about the chocolate bikini wrestling. If you buy me an airline ticket I'll even compete.
posted by yohko at 12:57 PM on May 3, 2007

Make a list of your 50 closest friends: 1 pound each.
posted by RMD at 1:13 PM on May 3, 2007

they shouldn't melt at room temp. why not just eat 'em?
posted by gregoryc at 1:49 PM on May 3, 2007

We had a bakery. While it's possible your chocolate is indeed worth $250, it's probably more like $45. Regardless of what type you have and the quality of it, don't put it in the fridge. As someone said earlier, make sure it's reasonably well sealed and store in a cool, dark place, like a pantry. It'll last for a while.

The real question here is how good the chocolate is.

If it's decent chocolate (Hershey's, for example) ganache and truffles (also mentioned above) are excellent choices. You'll probably need to refrigerate the truffles. But what to do with them? Sell them, or if you have a friend who's an artist, offer to donate them to their next art opening. Maybe you can work something out and get a painting in trade. As for the ganache, use it for cupcake or cake frosting.

Chocolate dipped strawberries. Simply melt it in the microwave, dip strawberries and refrigerate. Tell your friends to bring champagne.

Another use is to melt a cup or so in the microwave, then paint it on the bottom of a graham cracker pie crust. Let cool until it hardens, then fill with ice cream and whatever you want (candy, nuts, peanut butter, etc) and freeze (ice cream pie) or put a custard in it and add bananas and whipped cream.

A note on microwave melting: don't do it too long on high or it'll burn. It'll depend on your microwave, but I'd suggest 45 sec on high for each cup of chips. You don't want it completely melted when you take them out. Stir and they'll all melt.

If you got the cheap, shitty, waxy, crappy chocolate chips you're pretty much screwed. About the only thing that stuff's good for is cookies for your enemies.
posted by Atom12 at 1:53 PM on May 3, 2007

Can I have five pounds?
I'll pay for postage!
posted by Dizzy at 2:19 PM on May 3, 2007

You could promote the hell out of this thing. Insomniac Cookies would probably even help. Throw a party, bake lots of cookies. Charge a cover. Hire a well-known band, bribe them with chocolate. Have contests. Biking wrestling. Donate some of the proceeds. Give back to the school and host it there. Come up with an awesome name for this. Here's a start.

Cocoachella
Cookie Monster Jam
Babes in Chocolateland
Chip off the Block Party
posted by iamkimiam at 2:27 PM on May 3, 2007

er, Biking = most definity should be BIKINI
posted by iamkimiam at 2:28 PM on May 3, 2007

Well, if it's decent chocolate, save a few bags for snacking. :D

And I like the contest idea. Except, instead of giving the entire 50lbs to the best entry, maybe ten pounds each to the best four entries. (There are probably a lot more people who'd like ten pounds of chocolate than there are who want fifty pounds. Also, then you have ten pounds left over to use on the most intriguing idea.)

Of course, if you can see yourself using up the whole batch over the next [amount of time it'll take to graduate] AND your apartment doesn't tend to get hot AND you can spare the storage space, just keep it. And then whenever you feel like having some chocolate, or baking cookies, or making chocolate-covered pretzels, it'll be right there.

Instead of having one giant bake sale, you could have a normal-sized one now with just a batch or two(much smaller investment cost for the various ingredients), and another the next time you need some cash. You probably couldn't do it too often or people might get sick of it, but still.

Using miagaille's numbers, it'd be about $11 for the first batch (assuming you didn't have any of the ingredients--and of course, that's buying, for example, a pound of baking soda and not 1/50 of a pound. But then you'll have it for the next time). Five dozen cookies at fifty cents each is $30, so $19 profit.
posted by Many bubbles at 2:51 PM on May 3, 2007

By the power of Greyskull, CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN.
posted by spec80 at 3:00 PM on May 3, 2007

Donate to a homeless shelter.
posted by icollectpurses at 4:16 PM on May 3, 2007

Oh! And, if you're baking chocolate chip cookies, don't use the recommended number of chocolate chips. Use about 1.5-2 times as many (alternatively, as many as the dough will hold). This has three advantages: the cookies are more chocolate-y and more generous, you get more cookies for the same amount of flour, etc., and the chocolate gets used up faster.
posted by Many bubbles at 4:33 PM on May 3, 2007

Step 1: Melt the chocolate into bars
Step 2: Package bars into pretentious boxes and sell to Neiman Marcus for a ludicrous markup
Step 3: Bribe that dallasfood.org guy
Step 4: Profit!!!
posted by hindmost at 5:08 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

They actually don't need refrigeration (think of chocolate chips in the grovery store -- they just sit on the shelves). So don't worry, just keep them in (as they say) a "cool dry place" as opposed to right near your stove or something.

You can get months of fondue parties out of this. Excellent suggestion above: people bring stuff for dipping, you provide the chocolate.
posted by sparrows at 8:13 PM on May 3, 2007

I read an article once about a guy (or group of guys) in college who started a Milk and Cookies business. Friends in their dorm would place orders for Milk and Cookies, and they would deliver them, warm and freshly baked. Especially at night, before exams, etc.

Apparently this business spread like wildfire and they were soon delivering to the entire college and then to the entire city. I think they made a small fortune and this became their business after college.

I wish I knew the details, but that's how I remember it. Go for it! If I were in college with those guys I definitely would have given them business, it's one of those simple-but-brilliant ideas.

Or you could melt the chocolate chips slightly and shoot them at people through a straw. They would stick or at least leave a sticky brown stain. This would be very funny. It would stay funny for until you've exhausted your last chocolate chip.
posted by Alabaster at 8:57 PM on May 3, 2007

I would totally bring all my friends to a fondue party (especially if it's a nice dark chocolate, although with some alcohol involved, who really cares?).

Think of it: A different pot of fondue in every corner. Friends provide dipping treats. You could flavor each pot of fondue uniquely (cayanne, mint, almond, orange, Kahlua, ginger, cumin, hazelnuts, coffee, etc). Get some skewers, napkins, and some chafing dish fuels from the hardware store and you're all set.

(come to think of it, maybe I should throw a party like this myself....)
posted by chefscotticus at 11:09 PM on May 3, 2007

The potential here is off the charts. It's just staggering. The mind reels.

What we need here is the ability to transport lots of molten chocolate... possibly in thermoses? And then you're going to need a bunch of those compressed air cans so you can quickly cool the melted chocolate onto anything and everything on which it is being poured.

Now select some otherwise banal public objects that could use some glazing, for once. How about some campus garbage cans? There's something very post-modern about that. Maybe some park benches. Got any statues or sculptures standing around? Candy them up and see how many people you can talk into giving it a lick or three. Anybody you know have a really shitty car? Laminate that sucker in the parking lot while they're in class. If it's outdoors and it's warm, you could probably just leave the raw chips on it and let the sun do the rest. If anyone catches you in the act, just refer to it as your oeuvre and admonish them for suppressing the arts.

But most importantly, if you choose to undertake this way of life, you're going to need a superhero/villain outfit, and start referring to yourself as "The (Mad) Confectioner" or something of that nature. This may seem an unimportant detail, but you're in college, so you have to do this kind of thing right.
posted by krippledkonscious at 1:19 AM on May 4, 2007

How about a "guess how many chocolate chips" contest. $1 entry and the winner gets all the chocolate chips and a link to this thread to figure out what to do with them all.
posted by vagabond at 2:34 AM on May 4, 2007

I can't be the only one who's curious about what you decided to do with the chips. Update, please?
posted by vytae at 12:28 PM on May 16, 2007

Update please! Are there any chips left?
posted by iamkimiam at 11:43 PM on September 4, 2007

UPDATE:

We ended up making lots and lots of cookies over time. We also gave some away to our parents and friends. We've also melted the chips to make chocolate-covered pretzels. We bagged them eventually in separate zip lock baggies to make giving them away easier and preserve freshness. There are still couple bags left.
posted by ThirstyEar2 at 11:24 PM on February 23, 2008