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Baking Chocolate Reviews
Updated December 2007
We located several reviews that identify the best dark chocolate and chocolate chips for cooking and baking, covered in this report. If you're looking for opinions on boxed candy, please see our companion report on chocolate . Cook's Illustrated provides the most recent and best dark chocolate review. Cook's is the only publication that tests baking chocolate three ways: by baking brownies with it, by melting it down for chocolate pots de crème and by eating it plain. Editors sample 12 brands and varieties of chocolate, offering a helpful discussion of how sourcing, roasting and processing affect the taste of the finished chocolate. Although their top-rated chocolate contained the least amount of fat, editors at Cook's Illustrated say that no one ingredient is responsible for the quality of a chocolate bar. Rather it's the combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar that determines how the finished chocolate will taste. Cook's also has great older reviews of unsweetened chocolate and chocolate chips. Consumer Reports tests 15 chocolate bars, but some of the bars contain added ingredients such as cocoa nibs, and each bar is only consumed in one form: raw. We wish the magazine had tasted each chocolate in desserts, since other experts say that performance in baking can vary. Prevention magazine selects eight of its favorite chocolate bars, some of which contain cranberries, almonds and even rosehips -- an ingredient you don't want in a brownie or chocolate sauce. We also read the results
of a Food & Wine chefs' poll and a brownie bake-off at SeriousEats.com,
which pitted a fancy semisweet chocolate against a cheap mass-market bar.
A review conducted by National Public Radio includes a few bars in its taste
test of more than 25 chocolate products, although much of the report is devoted
to Valentine's confections. Taste testers at the L.A. Times tried 23 dark-chocolate
bars raw, but didn't use any of the bars in baking. Finally, we read detailed
reviews of individual, unflavored chocolate bars from pastry professionals
and chocolate lovers at Seventypercent.com, a site for enthusiasts that bans
chocolates containing artificial flavors and additives. This is a particularly
good place to find chocolate for nibbling, but it's less helpful where baking
chocolate is concerned. Expert reviewers downgrade
chocolate for lacking flavor, having a chalky or gritty texture, or for having
an unpleasant aftertaste. In tests,
Newman's Own Organic Sweet Dark Chocolate
(*est. $3.25 for 2.8 ounces)
often earns poor marks for grittiness and weak
flavor. Cook's Illustrated calls Hershey's baking bar "dull" and
Nestlé Chocolatier Premium Baking Chocolate Bittersweet (*est. $4 for 8 ounces) "dry" and "grainy." Testers
picked out "off" flavors in brownies made with the Nestlé bar. Supermarket
staple Baker's (*est. $2 for 8 ounces) unsweetened chocolate bar has little
flavor and a mealy texture, according to Cook's Illustrated's review panel.
Its bittersweet baking bar, too, is deemed chalky. Although it can be baked
into brownies and cakes with acceptable results, Baker's Bittersweet should
not be eaten plain. Reviewers say that, like
unsweetened chocolate, most chocolate chips are of lower quality than bar
chocolate. Too often, they are cloyingly sweet or offensively waxy, and in
tests, they sometimes melt into sludgy heaps. This is because they contain
less cocoa butter, which is expensive, and more sugar. Tasters panned Hershey's
Semi-Sweet (*est. $2.25 for a 12-ounce bag) and Special Dark (*est. $2.25
for a 12-ounce bag) for their immoderate sweetness and bland flavor. Tasters
complained that Baker's chocolate chips (*est. $2.50 for a 12-ounce bag) were
like "sugar cubes with a chalky shortening quality." Although Mrs.
Fields stakes its reputation on its chocolate chip cookies, testers downgraded
its chocolate chips (*est. $3 for a 12-ounce bag) for having an oddly nutty
flavor and too much sugar. Guittard Classic Semi-Sweet
Chocolate Chips (*est. $2.80 for 12 ounces) and even
Nestlé Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks
(*est. $2.50 for 11.5 ounces)
score
better in chocolate-chip reviews.
... Continued
Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
Callebaut dark chocolate stands out for its complex flavor, creamy texture, and balance of sweet and bitter flavors. In comparison tests it slightly edges out Ghirardelli, which has an excellent blend of flavors and a rich, glossy consistency. We included Valrhona Manjari in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers because it has a complex flavor profile and is frequently cited as a "classic" by pastry chefs. Scharffen Berger is more expensive than supermarket unsweetened chocolate bars, but experts say it is worth the extra cost. Guittard Classic Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips don't hold their shape in baking like most chocolate chips, but taste so good that experts don't mind. Advertisement
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© 2008. ConsumerSearch, Inc. A service from 
, a part of The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
ConsumerSearch and ConsumerSearch.com are registered trademarks of ConsumerSearch, Inc. Other trademarks or service marks on this site are the property of their respective owners. ConsumerSearch is not sponsored by any source reviewed, and we accept no consideration or payment for including, excluding, or ranking any reviews, products or services in our reports.
* Pricing information is approximate as of the time this report was written and is based on observed market selling prices and/or list prices. Actual selling prices may differ.
