Baker’s Corner Unsweetened Baking Cocoa

Aldi has a substantial aisle filled with baking supplies. It’s stocked with all purpose flour, almond flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, stevia, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla. It also features chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and various baking mixes for everything from cookies to cornbread to gluten free pancakes and brownies.

Another baking supply I pick up from time to time in this aisle is unsweetened baking cocoa. This cocoa powder is good for everything from no-bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies to chocolate-bottom banana squares, along with all kinds of other baked goods. In addition, baking cocoa is an essential ingredient for homemade hot chocolate.

It’s a good baking cocoa for all of my baking projects, and it’s my go-to whenever I need baking cocoa. I can’t tell a difference between the Aldi product and name brands such as Hershey’s.

Baker’s Corner Unsweetened Baking Cocoa is a Regular Buy, which means Aldi sells it all year. You’ll find it stocked among the other baking supplies such as flour and sugar.

This cost $2.45 for an 8-ounce container at the time of writing. That’s around 31 cents per ounce.

This is sold under the Baker’s Corner Aldi private label. There is not a company called Baker’s Corner. Instead, this is a name Aldi puts on its baking supplies to give them a uniform look. Aldi may source those various products from different suppliers.

The only ingredient is fair trade certified cocoa powder.

The cocoa powder is certified by Fair Trade USA. Fair Trade USA’s website states it is “building an innovative model of responsible business, conscious consumerism, and shared value to eliminate poverty and enable sustainable development for farmers, workers, their families, and communities around the world.”

This baking cocoa is also certified kosher.

A 1-tablespoon serving of this baking cocoa has 10 calories, 0.5 grams of total fat (1% DV), no sodium, 3 grams of total carbohydrates (1% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (6% DV), no total sugars, no added sugars, and 1 gram of protein.

The back of the container has directions for substituting cocoa for baking chocolate. It states to use in recipes whenever cocoa powder or baking chocolate is called for. It says 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon of oil equals 1 square ounce of baking chocolate.

There’s also a recipe for hot chocolate.

Hot Chocolate Recipe:

Ingredients —

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 4 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions — 

1. Simmer water, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a pan over moderate heat, stirring until lumps are dissolved, about 3 minutes.
2. Add milk to ingredients in the pan. Stir and bring slowly to a simmer, about 5 minutes.
3. To enhance flavor, stir in vanilla just before serving.

This recipe yields five 8-fluid-ounce servings.

The Verdict:

Baker’s Corner Unsweetened Baking Cocoa is indistinguishable from name brands and works well for all kinds of chocolate-themed baking projects. We always buy this whenever we need baking cocoa.