The Best Store-Bought Baking Chocolate For Your Next Project

Whether you're making brownies, chocolate chip cookies, or a molten lava cake, baking chocolate is, perhaps, your most pivotal ingredient. The chocolate iteration tends to have a lower sugar content than snacking chocolate, and ranges in form, from cacao nibs to cocoa butter to bars of semi-sweet chocolate. No two brands are the same and impart different flavors and textures to your baked goods. The next you're baking something that calls for chocolate, opt for Ghirardelli — the number one store brand in Tasting Table's ranking of grocery baking chocolates.  

Ghirardelli's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Premium Baking Chips ranked as the list's best based on their high level of quality, convenience to bake with, and, of course, flavor. Ghirardelli uses less milk than other semi-sweet brands and you can taste the difference. The flavor of the chocolate really shines through; the chips come across as neither cheap nor overly sweet but, instead, maintain a nice balance that's well-suited to any and all baking needs. They likewise melt easily, so they're great when incorporated into baked goods that require liquid chocolate, rather than just chocolate chips. 

Chocolate chip cookies are just the start of Ghirardelli's potential. Recipes that benefit from semi-sweet baking chips range from pies to blondies to cannoli filling, so you'll always be able to find a use for your Ghirardelli chips. Even if a recipe doesn't explicitly call for semi-sweet chips, you can always find a way to work them in. Ghirardelli, for instance, uses bittersweet chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies but suggests swapping them out for other varieties, if you so choose. That means you can use semi-sweet chocolate chips in virtually any recipe. Just know that they'll come across as sweeter than their bittersweet counterparts, with 50% to 60% cacao. 

Oh, and if you don't have any Ghirardelli semi-sweet baking chips on hand? Try baking with the brand's other forms of chocolate, such as Ghirardelli squares. Like the brand's chocolate chips, assorted squares crop up on Amazon — and you can repurpose your favorite flavors throughout your favorite baked goods.