Nestle Swirled Holiday Morsels, reviewed

I used food coloring to put a swirl into my candy cane cupcakes. Nestle clearly had the same idea when they came up with their Swirled Holiday Morsels – a.k.a. red, white and green white baking chips. Their chips have broader applications than my cupcakes do and are an interesting way to help us infuse a little color into our holiday baking.

The chips are the same white morsels that Nestle puts out in an uncolored form year-round. Technically, they’re “baking morsels” and not chocolate chips because they’re not made with cocoa butter at all. They’re quite creamy and have a good vanilla flavor to them. The red and green swirls actually go all the way through the chips and are not just painted onto the outside. This means that they’re not a great choice if you need to melt some white chocolate for a recipe, but it does mean that you’ll get a good, consistent color with them every time you bake. The chips hold their shape well and can be used in any recipe that calls for chocolate chips.

The only caveat with these is that you might have to warn some of your tasters that (a) the red and green colors are supposed to be there and (b) no, they shouldn’t expect these to taste like peppermint in spite of the fact that they’re popular candy cane colors, too.  Minor details for a bit of holiday fun.

Update: These chips are discontinued, but if you still want to make the delicious Swirled Holiday Morsel Cookies, I made a variation on the recipe that gives you the same red and green look without them! Recipe here.