In my post on How to Temper Chocolate, I used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks and Mini Chips. They are always an excellent choice, but there are other vegan chocolate options that are less expensive and just as good. It is also possible to combine different chocolates to achieve a variety of flavors. This tutorial will show you some of these other brands, and then how to make vegan “milk”, semi-sweet, and two kinds of dark chocolate for your homemade candy creations. For information on vegan white chocolate, see my post on Vegan White Chocolate Coconut Nests.
First, let’s look at Enjoy Life. There have three varieties, and they are all are very good for baking and for making your own chocolates. They are more expensive than the others I will be showing you, but they are readily available in stores and online.
Vitacost almost always has the best prices for Enjoy Life, and they offer free shipping on orders over $49. They also have their own brand of mini chocolate chips and chocolate chunks that are very good. I always look at both the Enjoy Life and Vitacost chips to see which is less expensive when I am ordering, as Vitacost often has one or the other on sale.
Now, let’s look at some of the less expensive options. All three shown below are available at my local Kroger, but Meijer also has its own brand of organic semi-sweet chocolate chips under its true goodness label and so do other store brands.
This is the kind you will need to make vegan “milk” chocolate. These chips do contain palm oil and have a “may contain milk” warning on the label, however, so they are not right for everyone. (For more information on what the “may contain” warning means, please see this video by The Vegan Activist). These chips are only $1.79 for 12 oz, and work well for baking too.
Kroger’s organic semi-sweet chocolate chips are larger than a typical chocolate chip, taste great, and are $3.59 for 10 oz. They have a “may contain milk warning” but do not use palm oil:
Kroger’s dark chocolate chunks are made with Belgian chocolate, taste delicious, and are my favorite for both baking and making dark chocolate candy. They have a “may contain milk warning” but do not use palm oil. At only $3.37 for 10 oz, they are a great deal:
For all five of my vegan chocolate variations, you will need to follow the directions for tempering chocolate here. All five recipes use 2 oz (1/3 c) of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips for tempering, but you can chop up larger semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks into mini chip size bits if you prefer. The differences in the recipes are in the amount of shortening and the kind of chocolate(s) for the other 10 oz of chocolate. You will see that my semi-sweet version uses part lighter chocolate, and my semi-dark chocolate is really all semi-sweet. That is because vegan chocolate has a darker flavor than chocolate containing milk, and these recipes are trying to match the flavor of non-vegan chocolate. Here are the recipes:
Vegan “Milk” Chocolate:
- 10 oz bag Kroger Chocolatey Chips
- 6 g (1 1/2 tsp) Shortening
- 2 oz (1/3 c ) Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
My Personal Favorite Vegan Chocolate:
- 8 oz (1 1/3 c) Kroger Chocolatey Chips
- 2 oz (1/3 c) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or Chunks
- 7.5 g (1 3/4 tsp) Shortening
- 2 oz (1/3 c) Semi-Sweet Mini Chips
Vegan Semi-Sweet Chocolate:
- 6 oz (1 c) Kroger Chocolatey Chips
- 4 oz (3/4 c) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or Chunks
- 9 g (2 1/4 tsp) Shortening
- 2 oz (1/3 c) Semi-Sweet Mini Chips
Vegan Semi-Dark Chocolate:
- 10 oz bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or Chunks
- 12 g (1 TBS) Shortening
- 2 oz (1/3 c) Semi-Sweet Mini Chips
Vegan Dark Chocolate:
- 10 oz bag Dark Chocolate Chips or Chunks
- 12 g (1 TBS) Shortening
- 2 oz (1/3 c) Semi-Sweet Mini Chips