6 Milk Chocolate Baking Chips, Ranked Worst To Best

There are many different chocolate chip varieties to choose from, ranging from dark chocolate to semi-sweet morsels. Whether you're getting ready to bake your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe or you just want to keep a stash of something to snack on in your pantry when you have a sweet tooth, you might need to pick up some baking chips from your local grocery store. But for those who like extra-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate baking chips are the way to go. They tend to be richer, creamier, and sweeter than their counterparts, making them perfect for all kinds of baking purposes.

If you want to ensure all of your favorite chocolate dessert recipes come out tasting as delicious as possible, it's important to make sure that you're using quality chocolate. Unfortunately, it's hard to know what you're getting until you try every chocolate product on the shelves. That's why I've picked out six milk chocolate baking chips from different brands and ranked them worst to best. The best-ranked are milky, creamy, and luscious, whereas the more poorly ranked that taste oily and cheap, broadly speaking.

Just because you're watching your sugar intake doesn't mean you want to skip out on the sweets altogether, so it's nice that brands like Lily's have ones without added sugar. That being said, alternative sugars often don't taste very good to me, so it didn't come as a surprise that I liked Lily's Milk Chocolate Style Baking Chips the least out of any in this lineup. These baking chips contain erythritol and stevia extract to get that ultra-sweet quality milk chocolate is known for.

Sure, these baking chips taste sweet, but they also have that strange, bitter aftertaste that can only come from alternative sweeteners. The sweetness also tastes a bit thin and flat compared to chips made with actual sugar. But things don't get much better when you take a closer look at texture. I found these chips rather oily-tasting, lacking the rich creaminess I expect from milk chocolate chips.

All that being said, if you have dietary needs or goals that don't align with full-sugar chocolate chips, then this option from Lily's might make sense. Although I don't think they taste that good on their own, I can imagine that they'd perform well in chocolate chip cookies where their own flavor isn't front and center.

Overjoyed is an Albertons brand that offers a variety of sweet treats, including its own milk chocolate chips for use in various recipes. Maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that a store brand isn't offering the very best chocolate chips. To be fair, I probably wouldn't notice anything wrong with these baking chips if I weren't tasting so many others at the same time. However, in comparison to some of the seemingly higher-quality varieties listed here, I think this product falls flat. These chocolate chips just feel cheap, with a slight waxiness to them in place of the expected creaminess.

They're also quite sweet, which might be useful in some recipes. But on their own, I felt like that sweetness was a bit overpowering and unbalanced. Since they're made with real sugar instead of alternative sweeteners, though, they still represent a decent step up in terms of flavor from the worst-ranked variety on this list.

I won't lie — I actually really like Toll House's cookie dough, especially when I'm too lazy to try baking a cookie recipe from scratch. Therefore, I was fully expecting to love the brand's milk chocolate morsels as well. Unfortunately, though, they were just okay. They don't taste quite as high-quality as some of the other, better-ranked versions on this list, and their texture is oilier than I would prefer. There's also not as much of a creamy quality as I would expect from milk chocolate.

That said, this is another example of a product that tastes fine if you're not comparing it to other varieties. Would I want to eat these chocolate chips on their own? Not really. But to be fair, that's probably not what they're most used for anyway. If I tasted these chocolate baking chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe, I think they'd probably taste just fine to me. Therefore, if this is the best brand you can find at your local grocery store, go ahead and snag them — your milk chocolate recipes will come out just fine.

I grew up with Hershey's candy my whole life. Not only did I indulge in the brand's many treats as a kid, but my parents also took me to Hersheypark, where I rode my very first rollercoaster. All that's to say that I have no ill will toward Hershey. However, in the last few years, I've noticed that Hershey products are tasting cheaper than ever. I'm not sure if I've developed a better palate for chocolate or if the quality has actually declined, but regardless, I wasn't too excited about trying the brand's milk chocolate chips. I discovered, though, that they were one of the better varieties I tried.

Are they the milkiest, creamiest chocolate chips ever? Maybe not. But they are surprisingly rich, with a fuller flavor than you'd get from, say, the brand's milk chocolate candy bar. The sweetness comes in a little hot, but I wouldn't say it's unbalanced — just ideal for recipes that require a bit of extra sugar. Like Toll House's milk chocolate morsels, Hershey's milk chocolate chips are a solid middle-of-the-road selection.

Out of all the grocery store chocolate brands out there, Ghirardelli might just be one of my favorites. The brand's chocolate squares are a huge treat that I especially indulge in around the winter holidays, but I hadn't tried its milk chocolate chips before today. Because I've already enjoyed other products from Ghirardelli, I wasn't surprised to find that its chocolate chips were some of the very best I tried, with the almost velvet-like creaminess the brand is known for. This chocolate also seems to retain some of its complex bitterness despite being quite sweet, which adds an extra layer of depth to whatever chocolate dish you plan on baking.

When you're looking for an easy way to elevate your favorite milk chocolate-based recipes, using these chocolate chips might just do the trick. But because they're so tasty on their own, I also think they make a tasty snack by themselves. You can also use them as toppers for yogurt bowls or other dishes that need a sweet, chocolatey addition.

Now, we've arrived at the tastiest milk chocolate baking chips of them all: Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips. They're certainly not the cheapest, but honestly, I think the extra cost is worth it in this case. First of all, these chips are slightly bigger than any of the others, which makes them great for snacking — they offer a better bite than smaller chocolate chips do. But I also think this larger chocolate chip makes for a better cookie too, since you're getting a bigger glob of chocolate.

But it's not just the size of these that makes them stand out against the competition. The flavor is also excellent, with a milky taste that makes it clear you're eating milk-based chocolate. The sweetness is pronounced but balanced, not overpowering the more subtle chocolate notes. Plus, this brand also delivers texturally. The chips feel slightly softer, with more give when you bite down. When they start to melt, they have a rich, thick consistency that feels luxurious. If milk chocolate baking chips are at the heart of your recipe (especially if you're keeping them intact rather than melting them down), Guittard's chips might be your best bet.

I found all of the milk chocolate baking chips available at one of my local grocery stores to conduct this taste test and ranking. I tried each chocolate chip brand on its own, one right after another, taking sips of water in between to clean my palate. I ranked each brand according to my perception of overall quality, taking flavor (especially balance of sweetness) into account, while also considering texture. Creamier, richer, and more subtly sweet chocolate rose to the top, while chocolate chips with artificial sweeteners and oilier textures fell toward the bottom of the list.