Burcu Atalay Tankut/Getty Images
Since chocolate is rich and decadent, it often surprises people when they find out that there are a lot of vegan chocolate options out there. And chances are, when you buy chocolate chips from the grocery store or supermarket, they’re vegan. But to be sure, you should always check the labels on the packaging. First, we recommend you look for the words vegan, dairy-free, or plant-based on the bag. A few of the 15 chocolate chip brands we ranked from worst to best in the past are vegan, including the ones by Enjoy Life. Other vegan brands include Pascha and Lily’s.Meanwhile, brands like Nestle Toll House, Ghirardelli, and Guittard also carry plant-based chocolate chips.
But what if you don’t see those marketing words on the labeling? If that is the case, be sure to thoroughly check the ingredients list. If you see the words milk and milk powder in the list, then the chocolate chips have dairy and are not vegan. It’s also highly likely that dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips are vegan, as opposed to milk chocolate. However, you should still check the labels in case there’s a non vegan ingredient included.
Brands get creative and use plant-based milk for vegan milk chocolate chips
Winslow Productions/Getty Images
Milk chocolate chips are usually not vegan as they contains dairy. Additionally, white chocolates tend to be milk-based as well. This does not mean, however, that you can’t find vegan milk or white chocolate chips. Enjoy Life uses rice milk to make its milk chocolate chips. As for its white chocolate chips, Enjoy Life uses vanilla extract and plant-based oil. Pascha makes its white chocolate chips with cocoa butter (which is vegan despite the word “butter” in its name) and vanilla and rice products.
Now that you have vegan chocolate chips all stocked up in your pantry, it’s time to make some delicious plant-based desserts this week. Why not try making our basic vegan chocolate chips cookie recipe to whet your palate. You’ll also need vegan butter, and since you won’t be using eggs as the binder for your cookie dough, make a flax seed egg. After all, flax seeds can give vegan chocolate chip cookies a texture upgrade, mimicking the properties of eggs.
