12 of My Favorite Baking Products and Brands

click on an image to be brought to its web page

Obviously, I use and enjoy a lot more than twelve baking products and brands in my baking.

But I wanted to acquaint you with twelve specific ingredients where I think the brand really does matter and affects the quality of the food item. 

You'll notice key ingredients such as granulated sugar, butter, and canola oil left out of the list above because those types of items can be bought from any decent brand so long as they're of sufficient quality. 

But quality in chocolate chips or honey, for example, really differs from company to company. Which is why those two ingredients, along with ten others, are included in the list above. 

Let's get to it then.

1. King Arthur Flour - I find King Arthur flour to be more hardy and sturdy than other brands of flour. I like using this brand for my cookies especially because it tends to make them bake up thicker and hold their shape better.

2. Spectrum Refined Coconut oil - I have lots and lots of recipes that use coconut oil on this blog. And all those recipes are free of any coconut taste thanks to this refined coconut oil. Refined coconut oil is completely neutral tasting, so you get all the richness from the oil without any of that strong, tropical coconut taste. 

3. Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin - Libby's makes the best tasting pumpkin puree, end of story.

4. Quaker Oats - I like quaker oats because they're reasonably priced, of good quality, and are sold everywhere.

5. Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels - these chocolate chips have a high cacao content (69%), taste great, and contain no dairy in them.

6. Golden Blossom Honey - makes everything taste better (sorry, I had to). But seriously, golden blossom honey is the best tasting honey brand around.

7. Red Star Yeast - maybe it's just me, but I find my dough rises quicker with Red Star yeast. And, I never have problems with it activating properly.

8. Bob's Red Mill Coconut Sugar - I like Bob's Red Mill for a lot of things, but for coconut sugar, Bob's is a must. This coconut sugar is the finest (not as in best, that too, but as in most powdery) from all the other brands I've tried. Which means you won't sink your teeth into gritty pieces of coconut sugar if you don't pulse it in your food processor first.

9. Domino Brown Sugar - this is the only brown sugar I've ever used. In dark and light. Good color, good taste, good texture. 

10. Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats - oats are actually naturally gluten-free, but get contaminated by wheat and other gluten-plants, as they're usually grown together or near each other. But these specific oats are free of contamination. And taste just like regular oats you buy at the supermarket. Which means they taste awesome. 

11. Hershey's Cocoa - available at any supermarket? Check. Sufficient quality? Check. Tastes great eaten plain by the spoonful? Che --- err wait, I think that's just me.

12. Bob's Red Mill Unsweetened Flaked Coconut - no, not shredded coconut. That you can get from any brand. Flaked coconut. They look like shards. And they're so pretty. And taste amazing once you toast them for 10 minutes until they're golden brown.