Our Favorite Chocolate Chips for All Your Baking (or Snacking) Needs
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Jack Bishop challenges Julia to a tasting of dark chocolate chips.
Buy our winning dark chocolate chips: amzn.to/3719AcD
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I love how Julia sometimes deviates from the tasting panel’s/audience’s rankings. It just goes to show how food is mostly personal preference. I appreciate the fact that her palette and preferences are her own.
I think she reflects the average American. That is, those who grew up with a regular diet more than an international exposed one.
We do not know the tasters. They may be off the street with no palate, or they may be chit chatting with each other, or that guy could be influencing them. I used to watch on TV the show and learned so much and now it seems it isn’t accurate anymore. Something changed.
Love these. My 13 year old grandson loves that we share them because he loves to cook and bake. I like that he is learning science and math play a crucial part of cooking and baking.
Job interview at ATK: Yes, I would like to be an expert taster for chocolate, please. // Interviewer: Sorry, we're doing frozen broccoli today. 😫
dkatzism
Awww 🥺I’m so sorry!
Works for me...
That would be just my luck☹
😂😂😂😂
I find the Nestle chips we grew up on to be grainy or sandy in texture perhaps because of the higher sugar level. I like both Ghirardelli and Guittard but perfer the Guittard.
Douglas Frank Yes!!!
They changed the Nestle recipe years ago
I agree... thought something was wrong with them, they were so gritty, I threw them away and changed my favs to anything but Nestle chips.
@@susanchase7880 I'm not sure, but I believe that the recipe changed around when Nestle was bought out. Unfortunately it seems that anytime a company changes ownership products are usually tweaked in order to increase profits. Rarely do consumers benefit.
@@jasonking4146 Nestle was not bought out, they are the largest food&beverage company in the world, headquartered in Switzerland.
I have been a Ghirardelli morsels fan for a while now and I absolutely love using them for ganache to dress up cakes and to add to homemade chocolate marshmallows. Their Intense Dark Chocolate line is amazing.
I agree
I now live in Switzerland and use a mixture of dark and milk Swiss chocolate to make my gourmet chocolate chunk cookies. they are HEAVENLY. I cut the chocolate into irregular sized chunks--yum! I'm bringing some bars to America when I visit so that I can bake some for friends and family---they are going to love them and HATE me!
Do they sell that specific chocolate you bake with here in America? 😋
I've been to Switzerland twice and they have the best desserts I've ever had in my life and I've been to many countries. I brought home chocolate from there!
@@rudyvel When I was in middle school, my French teacher came home from Switzerland with an entire suitcase full of chocolate. It was just Nestle she brought us, but it was way better than the Nestle we get here. It was very good.
@@marcilk7534 what a great memory! I bought home some chocolate to give to my coworkers but unfortunately, it melted. I couldn't give it to them but it still tasted good!
Chocolate in Switzerland is the best.
Absolutely enjoy these bits with Jack and Julia! Thank you bunches :-)
Giuttard are my favs. This company also supplies See’s Candy with some of the chocolate used See’s chocolates.
Agreed! My husband is a truck driver. He used to pick up from Guittard in Fairfield, CA. They always have him a bag of chips too bring home.
Giuttatd is the absolute best chips in my book... also as are See's candy. Prefer See's over any other candy in the world. It melts in your mouth like no other. Godiva no thank you... Swiss chocolate no thank you... Belgian no thank you. See's is it! If I'm going to spend calories I only want the best. Thanks Mary See ❤
Jack is terrific, love these taste tests...
The Ghiradelli 60% is my absolute favorite for baking!
Love these taste test. Thanks
I'm one of those apparent weirdos who loves dark chocolate on its own, but much prefer semisweet in cookies. Probably engrained having grown up with it, but something just feels off whenever I use the Ghirardelli dark in cookies that I haven't been able to get past 😂
I use semisweet in cookies, but i will melt down the 60% Ghirardelli chips using a double boiler method and dip butter cookies in it.
Love this show!
I keep 60% Ghirardelli chips in my pantry at all times, with the occasional Nestle 62%. Both are good.
Yep. I think the Ghiradelli is the best chip going.
I agree
My favorite quickie dessert/snack: graham crackers, spread with chunky peanut butter and topped with chocolate chips. Yummm!
I'm going to try it 😋seems delicious
@@mahareslan641 Totally is, sweet and salty, creamy and crunchy.
Great information - thank you!
I mix half bittersweet with half semi-sweent. Makes really good cookies.
I used to have a home-based baking business, and made my chocolate chip cookies with a mixture of Nestlé mini semi-sweet chips, Ghirardelli milk chocolate, and dark chocolate chips. I'm personally a dark chocolate fan, but the balance of the 3 different kinds of chocolates worked well in cookies (at least, my customers approved.) And of course, I used the Cook's Illustrated chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Genius! I have tried up to 60% cocoa and still thought it was a little too sweet, but 80% I felt would be too bitter. I’ll try your tip!
Love all the taste tests and results! Thank you!
Was glad to see this. I just bought Ghiradelli 69% cacao chips bittersweet for another recipe and did not think they would taste good in chocolate chip cookies like the usual (Nestlé semisweet). Now I will try the cookies with the bittersweet.
Guittard I think are the best American made chocolate chips. Somehow they’ve been squeezed out of their previous retail space and are harder to find. They (like Ghirardelli) are a California company and have been around for a long while. Also, Hershey semi-sweet chocolate chips were the only chips I could find on a grocery store shelf (at one point in 1983) that didn’t include vanillin (an artificial flavor). The Hershey semi-sweet were excellent.
An awful lot of years ago I ran my own chocolate chip taste test that involved several different tasting "media", including adding them to vanilla ice cream, putting them in banana walnut cookies, melting them in sourdough bread, and straight snacking from the bag, along with a few more I can't recall off the top of my head. The winner, straight across the board, was Guittard's Bittersweet Onyx Wafers. They excelled in EVERYthing. I buy them occasionally through the King Arthur flour folks, but I must usually be content with bags of Guittard regular dark chocolate chips purchased (when available) at Big Lots.
I like the token head of celery in the background.
Bet you didn't see that fly on the blender.
YAY!! I feel validated with my choice of chocolate chips!
Guittard are my favorite to work with. I bake cookies all the time. Taste amazing and baks beautifully
In Canada we have something called Chipts semi sweet chocolate chips probably very similar to the Nestlé classic toll house chips I really still love those for nostalgic reasons they remind me of my grandmothers chocolate chip cookies all the newer fancier ones on the market just don’t cut it
I only like Hershey's Special Dark, it taste just like their special dark bars, and I buy the chips to snack on, and use for oatmeal cookies.
Thank you!
Grew up on Ghirardelli but recently switched to Guittard because I find it smoother and easier to work with. I also like the rich flavor.
My favourite is Dark Ghirardelli, I just wish they were more of a traditional chip than a little chunky mound.
I'm glad to know that my favorite chocolate chip is also the best one, according to the tasters and atk.
Hi! I love to watch these taste tests. I like Nestle's because it's what I grew up with. I've never tried anything else, though so my mind might change if I did.
Gittard, by far, tastes best in cookies. There’s a reason that it tastes the way it does… you should try Gittard.
This is so true, it’s all I’ll use!
Thanks for the tip.
I love Lily's. Their keto baking chips are yum!
Guittard 63% herd package) are my favorite but the “best” here are my second favorite. I often buy the 60% if Target is out of the Guittard.
Guittard chocolate is made in Milbrae, near So. San Francisco, their product is used by See's Candies to coat the outside of their chocolates. The whole are smells intensely of chocolate for miles around the area. They make my favorite chocolate. They also have a milk chocolate chip that is fabulous and very large. Yummy!
Ghirardelli are my favorite but I'm a classic girl at heart so I mix Nestle semi sweet with Ghirardelli milk chocolate for my cookies ❤️
Janice Shanks Can I have one?
Thanks, what great fun ! I'm with Jack about the sugar content RMH/Ohio.
I make a lot of French Chocolate, so always looking to try difference chocolates to see who they change the flavor.
I already use the "winner". They melt so nicely to cover my caramels and pecan turtles.
Please cover the melting of butterscotch chips, and how their recipe has changed?
I use dark chocolate chips too. They are my family’s and my neighbors’ favorite. We do a lot of cookie sharing where I live.
I've always used Nestles for my fudge but it doesnt completely melt like it used to (more wax?) so I've switched to ghirardelli. Costs more but smooth fudge!
Please! When did you notice this change? I use the Nestle too.
Nestle is junk, they use plasticizers in food. So just more fake and processed food in our lives.
Sorry. just saw this. Its been a few years since I've noticed nestles not melting completely. Dont make fudge often cause I love it too much!
its gotten to this: i eat them out of a bag while in bed... before i sleep.
jmaico phillipe my Ex husband warned my new husband about my secret stash lol.
jmaico phillipe
I like to play “Doctor”, l tell myself to take two (teaspoons) and call myself in the morning. 😂🤣😂
I actually eat them in my sleep. Nothing like waking up in the morning with chocolate smeared on your sheets
Marry me!
Chocolate too late keeps me awake! Very sensitive to caffiene.
I agree hands down Ghirardelli 60% chocolate is the best chocolate for baking it just adds the right amount of chocolaty flavour and you don’t need to use too much sugar in your recipes because you get the right balance of sugar from the chocolate However unfortunately we no longer can get them in Canada : (
That was great info. Love your show.
Guittard are the only milk chocolate chips that I will ever use. They are hands down the best tasting and they are so easy to work with. Crumbl cookie also uses them.
When I buy 3 bags of chocolate chips, I always say I'm doing a lot of baking. Haha 😜
Excellent new info
Hello ladies I’ve been watching for years and you guys are great.
You need someone that actually enjoys dark chocolate to have the correct result. Guittard 72% aroma one is by far the best.
Boe Dillard dark chocolate makes me explode
I agree!
I agree.
I personally absolutely prefer dark chocolate but there is no “correct” answer is there? That was her preference.
@@wilhelmina8843 The taste of real dark chocolate varies by where the pods were grown and the roast, so yes there are winners and losers.
When I want to make fudge, prefer to make it with a premium dark chocolate 🍫, and mix it with butterscotch or toffee! I prefer Giradelli of Guttard!
I used to love chocolate, but then I discovered that chocolate (and sunflower seeds) are more likely to cause acne breakouts for folks than other foods, and I they certainly do for me. So now I eat a lot of dark, leafy greens to quell the desire for chocolate, and eat black strap molasses or maple syrup with walnuts for a sweet treat. The best!
Guittard and almonds my kind of mood
I grew up with the Nestle semi-sweet, but lately they smell and taste totally different to me...I love Guittard for their full flavor as well as the fact they are allergy friendly to peanut allergic folks in most morsels as well as Ghirardelli and Nestle have peanut warnings on some of their morsel types (especially seasonal) and white chocolate chips...
The BEST bar chocolate for baking is Dorina Za Jelo i Kuhanje Cokolada!! It's a polish dark chocolate which amazed me because it's creamy tasting like a milk chocolate. It makes THE BEST ganache, truffles, whatever recipe calls for a "baking bar" you definitely HAVE TO TRY IT!! Luckily there's a local deli that carries it but I wouldn't hesitate to order it online if it wasn't available locally. Make a cake with Droste cocoa powder & Dorina chocolate as the ganache frosting/icing an people will be asking you for the recipe!
Which chocolate chip is best for making fudge?
I like darker chocolate, I have made lots of cookies with the higher percentage chips. Then I went back and made some with the Nestlé semi sweet chips. And I don’t know if it’s just me but they were so much better! So maybe I’m a classic like Julia!
Ambrosia semisweet chocolate chips...wonderful.
Up here in Canada we have President's Choice Decadent Chocolate chips ! Which are my favourite !
I have a bag of those Ghirardelli chips in my pantry right now! So good
Terrific video and great information. Thank you!
Anyone interested in giving the Ghirardelli a try before purchasing, head over to a Jimmy John's and get their cookie.
It contains all three of their chips, dark, milk, and white.
Though I must admit the white are off puttingly hard, I assume from excess starches in them.
For cookies - Tollhouse or Hershey every time! For general cooking Callebaut. 😎
I have made chocolate chip cookies. The Nestle 60% cacao is my favorite and is a lot less expensive than Ghirardelli.
When I eat chocolate chip cookies I am looking for old fashioned comfort.
When I want a great piece of chocolate them I'll pay premium price for great taste.
I follow an old chocolate chip cookie recipe from ATK that says the shape of those 60% ghirardelli chips does make a difference, they are preferred because they kind of melt into a flat layer of chocolate in the cookie
Our favorite is Guittard Extra Dark. Best Flavor in our book.
Would love to see you guys do this with allergy friendly chocolate chips!
I looked at the ingredients on a few brands of chocolate chips last year and was not pleased. I'm hoping the manufacturers will refine further. 😬
I enjoy that you're uploading the episodes in segments now. I feel like a long form video will cause me to retain information from just one particular segment instead of the whole. 🤔
Seems like you're getting better numbers, too. 🙂
I've never done a side by side but I like Guittard. And I'm quite fond of Amy Guittard. 👍
Tosh T Yes! The best!!
Tosh T I am having a difficult time tracking Guittard chocolate chips down. Cannot find them in retail space in Kansas. I used to get the large milk chocolate chips & mini semi-sweet chips in bulk from natural foods distributor Blooming Prairie years ago but they dropped them (and then BP was bought out by UNFI). Only possibility is a super premium price through a local chocolate shop.
@@helenjohnson7583 Whole Foods has the whole selection at least during normal times.
I agree, Guittard is so good. I think it threw their tasters because it's a traditional French process chocolate called Couverture Chocolate and not what people expect from a typical american chocolate chip.
@@helenjohnson7583 I ordered them on amazon, but for some bars or other chocolate products, almost everything Williams-Sonoma makes with chocolate uses Guittard Chocolate, from baking mixes, hot cocoa, to regular chocolate bars. 1) because it's great chocolate, and 2) because they're both originated and headquartered in San Francisco. WS loves to source from SF based businesses when it can (used to work for them)
Am also a fan of Guittard. It is indeed the best in cookies. For bar chocolate, have you included Trader Joe’s Belgian dark that come in 13 oz bars? The 60% dark and the 70% baking chocolate are my go-tos for baking bars, especially for Italian recipes. Excellent tobacco and leather notes in my torta caper se.
Here in Canada, the President's Choice semi-sweets choc. chips by Loblaws, are the best I've tried at an affordable price point.
Kirkland pretty good
With the flavor profiles, this is making me wonder if mixing the brands would have any interesting effects.
I find all levels & sizes of chocolate chips at/by ALDI's to be exceptionally good too, and you can't beat the price either.
I love Guittard. I now need to have chocolate without milk in it so Ghiradelli and Nestle is out for me whereas Guittard uses no dairy in their dark and semi sweet chips. (Though not technically dairy-free because they're made on the same equipment as the milk chocolate -- but I can deal with possible traces.) Also they don't have soy. They use sunflower lecithin instead.
Guittard also tastes better to me than the other brands, too. I love the dark chocolate chips the best But I do sometimes like to mix the dark chocolate with semi-sweet chips in cookies - gives a great mix of dark & sweet. The only problem is then it leaves us with two open bags of the remaining chips which don't last till the next batch of cookies.
Also Guittard baking chocolate is the best -- by far.
When making fudge out of chocolate chips, I found Ghirardelli to be the worst one for melting., even though I was using Milk Chocolate. The melting quality of Ghirardelli was more like dark chocolate, whereas Hershey's melts the best, but I don't care for the sour milk aftertaste of it, so I always end up using Nestle.
I agree with the Ghiradelli choice, but my wife (who does the shopping) always buys Nestle. I think I should do my own shopping...
For chips I like Nestles Simply Delicious. No emulsifiers to give that waxy feel in your mouth.
See’s candies has excellent chocolate chips ! My favorite 😉. Wish they were in supermarkets
I grew up on Nestle Toll House semi sweet in cookies ~but~ ever since I tried the Nestle Milk Chocolate chips in my cookies I haven't been able to go back to semi sweet. I really think I'm a super taster, I can't handle anything bitter at all.
I cannot eat milk chocolate chips. My mother used those for my father when she made choc chip cookies for him and I coukd not eat them.
I'm a super taster too. I hate dark chocolate but although I don't like to eat semi sweet chips I don't mind them in the cookies. I don't think I've ever used milk chocolate chips. Definitely have to try that. Thanks!
I just wanna know what chocolate chips does Subway use in its classic chocolate chip cookies. They are so silky and melt easily.
Those Guittard chips are amazing. So chocolatety and creamy. Their semi sweet and bittersweet ones are both wonderful, and Whole Foods carries them.
I'd like you to compare Nestle's with the two varieties of Kirkland chips from Costco.
If the Costco chocolate chip bag is yellow and brown chances are those chips are made by Nestle.
As far as I can tell, ATK has never tested a Costco product, which is my #1 complaint.
Costco chips in the red bag are amazingggg
Guittard milk chocolate is my favorite.
I wish they had reviewed ENJOY LIFE brand chocolate chips. They are free of allergens and used by people with common allergies. They are also lower in sugar than the others I’ve compared them to in the supermarket! It’s what I use.
Those are delicious.
I wish they had included the chunks. I understand their explanation for why they left it out, but the title says the taste test was also for snacking. Which chunks were best for snacking (i.e., not baking)?
This helped,thank you
Thanks great video. I don't really care what type they are long as I get to chocolate chip cookie
Ghiradelli is indeed very delicious
Hey, you all have a store-bought jam episode. How about a store-bought cookie episode?
No “Renaissance” of chocolate, obviously, but hopefully some good items can be found.
Any recommendations for choco chips that melts in cookies
OMG! She can’t stop eating them! 🤪
All can think of with chocolate chip cookies, is Phoebe from Friends. Nestleeeee Toooolhousaaaaa.
I have been buying the winner chocolate chips for 5 years!! love them. except when I have to hide them from my children ;-)
Jack really fired those shots at Nestle.
best part for me to hear? everything getting better overall even if more expensive.
upping the status quo is a positive thing as long as price doesn't go nuts and those prices feel a little bit high but not so high that i do a double take.
I'm very surprised that the Ghiradelli chips are the same as the bars. Does this mean I could use the chips when I need melted chocolate instead of buying the more expensive bars?
Also, I would love to see a review of the equipment you use in ATK. I am planning a new home kitchen, and am thinking about Wolf range. I'd love to see your review on all the equipment you actually use. I believe you used to have DCS ranges, did you make the change or Wolf pay more for the sponsorship?
I don’t think chocolate chips are tempered
Yes, the bittersweet chips work really well for melting. I use them all the time for dipping chocolate or ganache. The semi-sweet chips don’t work as well for dipping. You can use the easy seeding method to temper your chocolate.
I like them all!🙏🏽
Callebaut is another brand I enjoy...in fact I enjoy them too much!
Right hips?☺️🤭😊
Callebaut is my favorite chocolate. Never had chips though, just the cut blocks they sell at Whole Foods.
@@wendydarling5790
AMAZON has great prices on Callebaut chocolate and chocolate chips.🙏🏽..check them out first before buying retail.
🙋🏽♀️
I have never had their chips, but Callebaut is the best cooking chocolate ever! 😎
Callebaut is the only white chocolate I will eat. It has a mild vanilla flavor. Most are too sweet & taste far too strong of vanilla.
Taste is critical, but what about how the brands you tested affected the finished product? I'm not a professional baker but just learned that bake stable chocolate doesn't melt into flattened discs when baked but retains its shape, rendering a thicker cookie. Were the cookies different in appearance--some flatter, some fuller? Or do you know which brands in the supermarket are bake stable?
As a kid, I never understood why my mother would believe that she could buy those, use some of them, and store the rest in the refrigerator until she was ready to use them again
I have been known to buy bars of baking chocolate--100% cocoa--and eat them like other folks eat a candy bar. I am a yuge fan of dark chocolate. The darker, the better. You get a stronger chocolate flavor which who doesn't want that? And also less sugar, which is good if your trying to avoid getting diabetess.
I like Hershey chip because I was brought up with Hershey's cookies and chocolate do something with them
Nostalgia is a big reason I cook. I was brought up with the yellow bag, my mama was a wonderful baker. I remember her seeing store brand chips in my pantry snd she was appalled 😆 telling me to always buy the best lol. But now that I’m older and not on a shoe string budget I still find myself getting nestle when making Toll House cookies. But love Hershey’s for other recipes. Not that I’m a chocolate snob, I went to a Russell Stover factory before c-19 and saw brands I had a lower opinion of, Pangburns, a brand I see during Easter chocolate bunny season at say, Dollar General. They make them too. THEN, I found out they have a section in the back that sells out of season products, or “ugly” candy that doesn’t pass the visual quality test. We were able to make many more goodie bags at Easter last year for the residents at a local nursing home. They were happy, and one wise gal told me that beauty has nothing to do with quality...and she turned it into an adorable story about how she met her husband that was a “shaggy mess” 🥰
Hershey tastes like vomit.