Taste Test: Chocolate Chips

When it comes to chocolate chips, I always used to grab the Nestle's semisweet, because those were the most common ones when I was first learning how to bake. They're familiar. Which is comforting.

But lately, I've been trying different brands, buying them randomly as I need more chips...but that's not a good comparison. Every one I've tried has been good, but the question really is whether one is really better than the others. To do that, a side-by-side taste test of the plain chips seemed to be in order.

It's a tough job, but I think I'm up for the task.And I found another willing volunteer as well.

From left to right, here we have Guittard, Ghirardelli, and Nestle's chips:

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Great Harvest Bread Company

This was first published in the April, 2006 issue of the Left Hand Valley Courier in my "Vicinity and Beyond" column, where I visit local businesses of interest and write about my experiences. Since I do bake all my own breads, it was interesting to see how these were made on a larger scale. But it's still small batch baking compared to the loaves in the grocery store.

Nice Buns!

To me, bread is almost magical. Take some flour and some water, add some yeast (or for sourdough, wait for it to just appear), knead it for a while and soon it changes from lumpy and sticky to smooth and elastic. Leave it sit around for a while and it grows.

It’s even more fun than that. Flavor it with herbs or cheese or seeds. Shape it, stick it in a pan or bake it on a sheet. Slash the top with pretty patterns. The varieties are endless. And the good news is that you can have fresh-baked bread, without the need for you doing any kneading.

Great Harvest Bread Company in Longmont bakes bread daily “from the best possible ingredients” according to Matt Stanek, who owns the franchise with his wife, Marin.

The bread contains no preservatives and is made from scratch each day. Even without preservatives, the bread has a long shelf life – Stanek said that the honey whole wheat bread will last seven to 10 days.

In a back room is a grain mill with stone grinding wheels that can turn 180 pounds of wheat berries into whole wheat flour in about 45 minutes. Giant mixing bowls hold enough dough for 50 loaves of bread at a time, and there’s a mixer to do the work. The oven looks deceptively small until you realize the trays rotate.

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Peanut Butter Malted Milk Balls

A bulk food store, Simply Bulk, opened nearby, and of course I had to see what was available.

I ogled the cashews and macamias, bought some herbal tea, and spent some time checking out the variety of grains and flours.

It's going to be nice to be able to buy just a little bit of odd items instead of committing to a two- or five-pound bag.

Even better, since this isn't a massive grocery store, I'm betting there's going to be more supervision of the bins, so it's less likely I'll see toddlers roaming around on their own and playing in the quinoa like it's a sandbox.

I took a peek at the candy section, but didn't expect to find anything appealing. But, wait, here's something interesting. Large dark shiny spheres that claim to be peanut butter malted milk balls. I had to try them. I scooped up a small bag of them, and it wasn't long before I sampled. Chocolate, peanut butter, and malted milk flavor mingled nicely.

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