Making your own - questions

It's that time of year to start cranking up the machine. I'm not a very experienced ice cream maker, but have fun experimenting.

One thing I've found is that not everything freezes well.

I remember my first batch of blueberry. The recipe did not say anything about mashing the berries before adding them, and the result was a nice ice cream filled with teeth-breaking, frozen, icy blueberries. The only way to deal with them was to let them sit on your tongue and thaw before you tried to chew! OK, so I've modified the recipe - be sure to mash those blueberries, or better yet, cook them down a bit with some sugar, then add.

But what about chocolate chips? Those little rocks have almost no flavor because they're frozen. Is there a way to add morsels of chocolate so that they'll be somewhat soft and flavorful? How do the ice cream manufacturers do it?