Is Plant-Based Worth More of Your Money?

The title question to could be asked of almost anything, but today here on The Chocolate Cult, we are asking this question and then testing Toll House Plant Based Chocolate Chips. I received one bag of the semi-sweet and one bag of the dark version of the new Nestlé plant-based baking chips via the Baker's Bunch group where we test and then honestly review products used in baking. Today's feature on this blog is an unexpected bonus for the brand.

I happen to have Toll House semi-sweet chips on hand so I first compared the plant-based version to that. Both had a simply fragrance when I opened up the bag. As I hope you can see in the photo, the regular chip on the left is taller than the plant-based version on the right. The regular version had a sharp snap to it when I first bit into them and was harder than the plant-based version. Both were sweet, but the plant-based semi-sweet chocolate chip's sweetness built up over time as I let each piece melt separately in my mouth.

The dark chocolate plant-based chips had a nice dark scent when I opened that bag. These are the same shape and size as the semi-sweet chips, just slightly darker in color. These also were softer and made no sound when I bit into them. There was an initial sweetness when I let one melt in my mouth and the bitterness I expect from dark chocolate built up over time.

Next I used the same bar recipe (modified from the one found on Truffles and Trends) to try out both bags as they are meant to be use: In baking! In both bars the morsels melted well and then firmed up as the bars cooled but did not get so hard it was difficult to eat them. The sweetness of the semi-sweet version of morsels made the bars a bit too sweet for the group I tested them with. The bitterness that came out with the dark chocolate variety of morsels was beloved by all who was willing to try dark chocolate. I'd recommend a less sweet version of dough if you want to use the plant based semi-sweet Toll House morsels to counter their intensity.

Both types of plant-based Toll House chocolate chips, used whole grain in place of the milk and milk fat. That makes these baking chips unsafe for people who have grain allergies. The biggest down to these plant-based chocolate chips is the amount in the bag, only 9 ounces verses the 12 ounce bag for the traditional semi-sweet and the 10 ounce bag for the dark variety. This makes the dark variety seem like a better buy. However, why does the traditional dark chips from Toll House even include milk and milk fat in it to begin with?

These chips are options but there are better vegan chocolate chips out there and do not add in grain.

I'm not sure these plant-based chips can be Sacraments because of the added ingredients which is not part of the legal definition of chocolate that we use here on this blog.