Homemade Cinnamon Baking Chips Recipe
Do you love cinnamon muffins, scones, cookies, and more? You have to try this simple Homemade Cinnamon Baking Chips Recipe. THEY ARE AMAZING!
Do you know when you get one of those snickerdoodle or cinnamon swirl muffins and it has that little pocket of cinnamony goodness inside? That is caused by these Cinnamon Baking Chips….who knew? I certainly didn’t. I mean I guess I just took for granted that the cinnamon fairy waved her wand and made my muffin that much more special. This easy Homemade Cinnamon Baking Chips Recipe will have you wanting to bake all of the cinnamon treats.
Ingredients
To make these tasty homemade cinnamon chips you need
- sugar
- ground cinnamon
- vegetable shortening
- light corn syrup
- vanilla extract
You will also need a baking sheet, mixing bowl, parchment paper and an oven.
How to Make Cinnamon Chips
In a medium-sized bowl mix together the ingredients. I used my hands to make sure the mixture was good and incorporated together.
Pat out the cinnamon-sugary batter on a parchment-lined pan and pop in the oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. The side effect is your house will smell like a cinnamon sugar heaven. There are worse things…trust me.
After the disc cools use your hands or a knife to break it into chips. Mix them into muffins, pancakes, cookies, and so much more. We have used them in these Easy Pancake Bites and in the BEST Mini Snickerdoodle Muffins. YUM!
Gluten-Free & Vegan
Not everyone thinks about how hard it is to find gluten free or vegan baking ingredients. These tasty tidbits are both. Another reason I love these Cinnamon Baking Chips!
Other Flavors
While these Baking Chips are the best, I encourage you to get creative with other flavors. Try using Pumpkin Pie Spice in place of the cinnamon to make some delicious fall baking chips.
Tips
Are they supposed to be hard? These will have a softer texture. They will not be rock hard. That is ok. You want them to kind of “melt” into your baked goods.
Buy cinnamon in bulk. Once you know how to make these baking chips, you will want to have them on hand all of the time. I love to purchase my cinnamon in bulk from Amazon. Not only do I enjoy it for these baking chips, but I use it to make my own Chai Tea Spice Mix and these adorable Cinnamon Applesauce ornaments at Christmas Time.
Other fats. No vegetable shortening? No problem. You can use palm oil or coconut oil in place of the shortening, even lard.
Uses
I use these in so many recipes, especially during the fall and winter months. You can toss them in muffins, cookies, pancakes, and more. Here are a few of my favorites.
Storage
Store these in an airtight container in your refrigerator until you are ready to use them. I have kept them for a couple of months successfully, but to be honest, they usually don’t last that long.
Make these in bulk and freeze! Make multiple batches of cinnamon chips. Cut them up and spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and pop them in the freezer. Once the chips are frozen place them in a freezer bag and back in the freezer. Remove and use them in any baked goods as needed.
I have found though that once you realize how good they are in all of your baked goods, they won’t be around long.
Homemade Cinnamon Baking Chips
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200F. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spray liberally with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, combine the granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, shortening, light corn syrup and vanilla extract. Mix with fork until the mixture is uniform and crumbly. Spread on parchment lined baking sheet, flattening with your hands and shaping into a rough square about 1/4 inch or so thick. Bake until mixture is melted and somewhat bubbly, about 30 minutes.
- Cool completely, and then cut into small pieces.
- Makes approximately 2 cups
Notes
Originally posted in 2015 updated in 2019.
These look ingenious! Can’t wait to try them out, was always frustrated that the store bought aren’t vegan. A couple of questions; how well do these melt if at all, and how long do they keep?
They melt very nicely, leaving perfect pockets of cinnamon goodness in your baked goods.
These are awesome in muffins and scones. It is a great recipe and I always make extra, seal in an air tight container and refrigerate the extra so they are handy when I am baking. I have kept them in the fridge for 6 months and they were still great. So easy, and best of all, I know what is in them! Thanks for the recipe
Hi is there anything I could use instead of vegetable shortening? Could I use butter or vegetable oil or coconut oil?
Thanks
Hi Cyndi,
You can totally use coconut oil or butter. 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE!! I know this is an older review so not sure if this will even go anywhere or be read by anyone! But WOW! Such a saving grace when you can’t find cinnamon chips! I also live in Canada (Toronto) so of course no Hershey‘s cinnamon chippits here! But I do vacation in Florida frequently and cross-border by car to Buffalo all the time and lately I’ve been having a very difficult time finding the cinnamon chips! So… This recipe is AWESOME and a lifesaver! They are perfect! And YES… The house smelled beyond sinful and incredible while baking! I found a copycat recipe for Cobbs cinnamon scones and OMG… These were perfect! Thank you for this. Everyone stay safe and healthy!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! So many recipes seem to call for cinnamon chips that I have been wanting to try but up here in Canada for whatever reason cinnamon chips are nearly impossible to find! I could easily do a cross border shopping trip but that seems a bit extreme for one item lol. Now I can bake anything I want, and cinnamon is a huge favorite of mine. And with Christmas just around the corner (boy did that sneak up fast!) I have a feeling I’ll be making a few batches of this to do my baking with! 🙂
I live in Canada also and had only found Hershey’s cinnamon chips in the US many years ago. Used the last of them not long ago, even though they were expired. Have searched on many visits for years, to no avail. Happy to find this recipe?
Will these melt again when baked inside of breads/cookies/muffins etc or will they be a crunchy chip?
They melt again to create a little pocket of cinnamon inside of your baked goods. SO SO GOOD! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this I couldn’t find any this year. Can’t wait to try this
These are fantastic. I make them all the time!
Made these today. The house smells delicious! Thanks so much for posting this!
I can’t stand cinnamon so I made some with cardamom. Wonderful. I also made some with gingerbread spices and molasses for my daughter. Thanks for your tips!
What a great idea! Cardamom chips would be great in anything with apples.
Terrific! I can’t find cinnamon baking chips locally and 20 oz is $11.95 from King Arthur flour I was thrilled to find your recipe.
Thank you for posting. I can’t wait to try this in my favorite scone recipe
Genius! I can’t wait to try! Thank you!
thanks so much for this, my local store has the best cinnamon scones and when I asked what the cinnamon pieces were, she said they were shaved cinnamon chips which aren’t available locally! Can’t wait to get these in the oven!
It is SO difficult to find cinnamon chips, so this came in handy! These came out fantastic! Very easy to make. They do spread out a bit if they are at the edge of a cookie, but if you push them back into the cookie with a spatula right after pulling them out of the oven, you can’t even tell!
I was excited to make these tonight when I found the recipe as I’m running out of my supply of Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips which I had found in the States. (I live in Canada and they’re not sold here). Unfortunately, they turned out chewy and grainy. They don’t melt in your mouth like Hershey’s do. I followed the recipe exactly, so not sure why they didn’t turn out right.
Ali, the post doesn’t claim that these are like Hershey’s at all. They are cinnamon baking chips that can be mixed into baked goods to create little pockets of cinnamon sugar. The chips themselves are a bit grainy since they are made with granulated sugar. While they are delicious, they aren’t for just eating on their own. Now, if you made a muffin or a banana bread and mixed these in, I think you would be pleasantly surprised with the results.
Thanks for responding. Do you think they could be used successfully in the cinnamon oatmeal raisin cookie recipe found on the Hershey cinnamon chips bag? I’m specifically wondering if the graininess and chewiness are eliminated during the baking process.
Was able to try these in my banana bread today, and you were right! They melted into little pockets of cinnamon throughout. The graininess was all gone! I was so pleased how well they worked out!
Amazing. Now I see why folks buy cinnamon in bulk!
I am SO happy to find your recipe. It’s in the oven now and you’re right, the house smells delicious! I’m about to make cinnamon chip scones for hubby & couldn’t find the chips in store so I’m smiling in your general direction for saving the day:)
These are absolutely De-lish!!! I have a snickerdoodle bread recipe that calls for Hershey cinnamon chips and none of our stores carry them. I’m so glad I found your recipe they make the bread taste amazing! I made 8 loaves this weekend! I was wondering, could you use cocoa powder instead of cinnamon to make chocolate chips??
Wow did these make the house smell awesome but they were great in cinnamon chip scones. It very hard to grind cinnamon chips for some reason now I do not have to go to a million stores in hopes to find them when I get craving!!!!
Thank you for this recipe. I have tried to find cinnamon chips for months to no avail and buying them online was pricey. Can’t wait to use them in my coffee cake recipe which I will be making for breakfast tomorrow. Thanks again
I’ve had cinnamon chip pancakes at the restaurant and loved them. Since I like homemade this was perfect in my pancakes. I’m going to try them in other things too. Thanks sharing the recipe
King Arthur Flour has a recipe for an “easy cinnamon bread” on its website, but I didn’t want to go from store to store in search of chips. This recipe was so easy, and the bread turned out perfectly. I will definitely take your advice to make multiple batches.
Wow! I have been waiting to find cinnamon chips in the store for a year wanting to try a Snickerdoodle Bread recipe. I found this recipe when I was looking for a substitution for cinnamon chips. I will never buy the real thing! This recipe was delicious. Mine was a bit like taffy because I only had vegetable oil but it still melted into pockets of cinnamon as described. Thank you! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I baked mine for 40 minutes and they never bubbled. I put the sheet of cookies in a food processor and pulsed a couple of times. They were phenomenal! I love them and have printed this recipe so I can use it again and again!
I baked mine just as the recipe said except I used butter instead of shortening. They turned out amazing.
These have way more flavor than store bought. I used them in a cinnamon bundt coffee cake adding these put it over the top… I gave recipe to another they made snicker doodle cookies she said they were the best yet…Never buy them again..
Turned out great, I have not tried them yet in something, I think I’m going to make scones. I think I’m going to try and make a creamier chip by melting a white chocolate baking bar and add cinnamon or cinnamon oil, then spread it out, and when it hardens just chop it up
Thank you for this recipe. I live in Wyoming and cannot find cinnamon chips here either.
I mixed mine up using a pastry blender and I found it easier on my hands (arthritis). I’m going to use them in granola bars, but I can see using them in other baked goods in the near future.