Can someone please explain to me the differences between baking chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate candy bars (like hershey's), and chocolate coating? When baking with chocolate, do you always have to use baking bars? The only I know is that the coating disks are tempered and I believe that they contain more vegetable oil than the others. Thanks in advance.

Thanks playingwithsugar.

Coating disk = Candy melt

Can you use regular chocolate bars or chocolate chips as baking bars?

You might be able to use chocolate bars.

Chocolate chips are formulated so that they do not lose their shape when baked, so I would not use them in baking anything outside of cookies or recipes that specifically call for chocolate chips.

Theresa

Thanks again. I am trying to buy baking chocolate in bulk from CK and can't figure out what I can actually use for baking!

Just call them and ask them which is best for your purposes. I've spoken with them a few times, and always got great customer service.

Theresa

Thanks Theresa!

Chocolate bars meant to be eaten as candy can be used in baking, but they may (or may not) have a different composition of ingredients than a bar of "baking chocolate." Often the candy bar has shortening or other oils added to it, and usually it's sweeter -- although "semi-sweet" baking chocolate is not all that different from "dark" eating chocolate.

Chocolate chips are totally fine to use if you're going to melt them before adding them to a batter, but again, they often have other oil/fat added to them and may be sweeter than a comparable amount of melted baking chocolate. Different brands have different ingredient lists. If you use melted chips as a 1:1 replacement for melted baking chocolate, the end result is likely to have less chocolate flavor.

Chocolate chips can be used as a direct replacement for candy melts as a coating or drizzle on something baked, but melted choc chips may not "flow" as easily, so usually for that sort of use you would add some shortening when you melt them.