Chocolate Chips (ingredient, sugar, baking, cookies) - Recipes - City-Data Forum

oregonwoodsmoke · 10-14-2022, 01:34 PM

What are you all using for chocolate chips?

I have always used the Tollhouse brand for cookies and brownies, but Costco has been out of them. I don't know if it is permanent or if they are only going to sell the Kirkland brand from now on.

A couple of trips to Costco didn't produce any Tollhouse chips so I bought the Kirkland, the one with the higher cocoa content. They are OK-ish. Flavor is OK but they have a bit of an odd aftertaste. I haven't tried baking with them yet. They might turn out fine in chocolate chip cookies

The restaurant supply has Ghirardelli 100% cacao disks on sale so I bought a bag of those, hoping they can be used like baking chocolate. The chips were also on sale, so I bought semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips.

I sure hope I like Ghirardelli chocolate, because I have a lot of it and I've just spent a lot of money on chocolate to cook with.

Heidi60 · 10-14-2022, 01:40 PM

Ghirardelli is a great brand.

America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Country did a chocolate review and they were highly rated.

nuts2uiam · 10-14-2022, 02:06 PM

Ghirardelli is fabulous chocolate, in fact it is owned by the Lindt chocolate company. Have you never heard of Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco?

Heidi60 · 10-14-2022, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

Ghirardelli is fabulous chocolate, in fact it is owned by the Lindt chocolate company. Have you never heard of Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco?

It used to be a fun place to visit before the crime rate rose so much...heartbreaking.

rrah · 10-15-2022, 08:42 AM

The disks are typically used for candy making. I've used Ghiradelli dark chocolate disks for making truffles. They were fantastic.

I typically use Tollhouse chips, but I have used Ghiradelli dark chocolate. The cookies were great.

pikabike · 10-15-2022, 10:07 AM

I use the other “G” chocolate chips. 72%, with coconut sugar as the sweetener. I won’t buy any unless the first ingredient is NOT a sugar.

tasmtairy · 10-15-2022, 10:23 AM

My Dad gets the Tollhouse chips at Sam's, huge bag. He's 93, bakes, wants chocolate chips in everything, lol.

oregonwoodsmoke · 10-15-2022, 10:40 AM

The Ghirardelli tastes fine. I still need to see how they bake, but they should be excellent. They have that nice smooth texture which means the cocoa fat is in there and they should melt well..

I can't buy any more of the dark chocolate disks because they taste so good. I want to take them by the fistful and eat them like candy. I'm going to take rrah's advice and use them for candy making. I make a mean turtle and that dark chocolate would be perfect. I buy 10 pound blocks of Callebaut chocolate for candy making, but I'll add the dark chocolate disks to the line up.

I didn't taste the 100% cacao wafers. I've already learned my lesson about trying to eat baking chocolate. If the other varieties are good, I am going to assume that the 100% cacao is also good.

It's a relief that it is good. I've got a 5 pound bag of each variety and it would be an unhappy thing if I discovered I don't like it.

steiconi · 10-15-2022, 11:21 AM

And please, "Ghirardelli" is pronounced "GEAR-AR-DE-LEE" with a hard G. Not "jear"-anything.

One rite of passage when I was a kid was the big kids would give the little kids baking chocolate and laugh their heads off at the horrible faces. Also, the big kids would tell the littles that the cookie jar next to nonna's stove was full of sugar (it was salt), and something about Crisco--whipped cream? I forget the deal with that.

Parnassia · 10-15-2022, 11:35 AM

In college I remember a mom-pop grocery store that carried thick irregular slabs of Ghirardelli chocolate and some other groceries no one else ever offered. It was sold by the pound. A couple of friends and I would make cross town pilgrimages to the place on a regular basis. It was quite a bus ride, so a person who actually owned a car could count on being bribed most generously.