5 Reasons You Should Be Baking with Chocolate Bars

Fall brings the arrival of comfy wool sweaters, soul-soothing apple cider treats, and chilly nights cozied up by the fireplace. But most of all, it’s finally cool enough to turn the oven on and enjoy baking again!

With upheaval caused by a worldwide pandemic, we could all use a little more peace and comfort in our lives — whether it’s relaxing with a good book and a mug of rich, drinking chocolate or spending some quality time with the family baking a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. However you choose to indulge, take your chocolate recipes to the next level, and bake with chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips.

Benefits of chocolate bars vs. chocolate chips

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies

1.)    Use chocolate without stabilizers or paraffin

Do you know what’s in your typical bag of grocery store chocolate chips often contains paraffin wax and other stabilizers? While these ingredients make it so that the chocolate chips hold their shape after baking and last longer in your pantry, they often have a waxy taste and don’t melt properly. Lake Champlain Chocolates has strict quality standards and never adds paraffin or stabilizers to our chocolate bars. When you use gourmet chocolate bars in place of chocolate chips in your recipes, like in these chocolate chip espresso cookies, it will give your baked goods a soft, gooey, molten chocolate sensation that lasts longer than any chip.

Recipe: Salted Caramel Millionaire Bars

2.)    Opt for higher-quality chocolate

To make something truly extraordinary, like these salted caramel millionaire bars, you have to start with the right ingredients. Opt for using your favorite high-quality, organic chocolate bar over chocolate chips. At Lake Champlain Chocolates we offer a wide variety of organic chocolate bars that taste great and don’t contain GMOs, preservatives, or other artificial ingredients. Whether you prefer organic chocolate bars, fair trade chocolate, or want to support a company using business as a force for good, your choice will have a profound impact on social and environmental sustainability too!

Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

3.)    Customize the size of your chocolate chunks

Want to make your pumpkin chocolate chip bread out of this world? Use chocolate bars vs. chocolate chips. That way you can cut up the bar to any size you would like and customize the size of the chocolate chunks. You can go bold with big chunks of chocolate, add a hint of chocolate to every bite with small demure bits, or get the best of both worlds with a mixture of sizes. Whether your recipe calls for semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, choosing the right type of chocolate bar is easy. How you proceed from there is your personal preference.

Recipe: Ultimate Carrot Cake

4.)    Mix up your chocolate flavors

Chocolate chunks (no matter the size) make any recipe delicious.  But, why not be a little more adventurous?  When you bake with chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips, the world is your oyster. The next time you make homemade brownies, try swapping out chocolate chips for pieces of a salted caramel dark chocolate bar. Or, try this ultimate carrot cake recipe that incorporates chunks of maple caramel bars and milk chocolate peanut butter bars!

Recipe: Chocolate Sorbet

5.)    Select chocolates that fit your dietary preferences

Baking with certain dietary restrictions can be challenging at times. Luckily, when you swap chocolate bars for chocolate chips, you can make sure your ingredients meet your needs. For example, not all dark chocolate is suitable for vegans. At Lake Champlain Chocolates we offer a wide variety of higher cocoa content, extra-dark chocolate bars that contain less sugar and no added dairy. So, whether you are opting for keto-friendly chocolate for a lower sugar treat, or vegan chocolate to make a batch of rich, chocolate sorbet, baking with chocolate bars helps you adapt any recipe to fit your dietary preferences.

Baking with chocolate bars vs. chocolate chips can have a profound effect on your final product — whether you keep it classic and use a 57% dark chocolate bar for making chocolate bourbon maple pecan pie, or decide to switch things up and give your chocolate crinkle cookies a refreshing peppermint twist.

Stock up on Lake Champlain Chocolates for baking and save — buy 12 or more organic chocolate bars and save 10%!  Then share a photo of your tasty creations with us @LCChocolates and tag it #bakingwithchocolate #makeitextraordinary!