How many cups of chocolate chips in a bag? We break it down for you.

Okay, here’s my blog post about figuring out how many cups of chocolate chips are in a bag:

So, the other day, I needed to make a double batch of my grandma’s famous chocolate chip cookies. The recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips per batch, so I figured, easy peasy, I need 4 cups total. But then I got to thinking… do I have enough chocolate chips? I had one unopened bag and a partially used one. I really didn’t want to have to go to the store again.

The Experiment Begins

First, I grabbed the unopened bag. It was a standard 12-ounce bag of Nestle Toll House chocolate chips (my go-to, don’t judge!). I looked all over the bag, front and back, and found the nutrition label. It lists out a serving size of 1 tablespoon and about 21 servings. I mean it doesn’t really say the cup measurement, does it?

Time for some kitchen science! I grabbed my trusty measuring cups and started scooping. I wanted to be precise, so I leveled off each cup with a knife. No heaping mounds here!

• First cup: Filled it up, no problem.
• Second cup: Still plenty of chips left.
• Third cup: Whoa, the bag is getting pretty empty.

By the time I got to the third cup, it was clear that the bag was NOT going to give me a full fourth cup. I carefully scooped out what I could, and it ended up being just a little bit over 3/4 of a cup.

I also tried to calculate with the nutrition fact. 1 cup has 16 tablespoons, so it had around 21 tablespoons, so it should be around 1 and 1/4 cups. I don’t know why it had that much difference. I guess it might cause by the different density.

The Results

So, there you have it. A 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips contains approximately 1 and 3/4 cups, and a standard 12-ounce bag of Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips contains more, approximately 3 cups.

I ended up using the rest of the partially opened bag and had enough for my double batch of cookies. Crisis averted! But next time, I’m definitely buying two bags, just to be safe.

Hope this helps someone else avoid a mid-baking emergency! Happy baking, everyone!