Friday, July 19, 2013

Boycotting Bakers

Most of the products I use in baking, I picked up from my Mom.  She always used Bakers unsweetened chocolate.  I have always insisted on getting the Bakers brand because it worked so well for her.  I didn't even look at the new packaging when I picked up a new box a few weeks ago.


They SHRUNK IT!  Literally, halved the box.  And the price didn't change much.  Actually, I think the price stayed the same at the local grocery store.  I opened the box to get the chocolate to melt for the frosting for the Boston Cream Pie I made and said "What the *%$^ is this?"  It's a Hershey bar.  No more individually wrapped squares.  I had to cut the bar and then try to rewrap it and shove it back into the box since I only needed an ounce.  

I called my Mom who had not seen the change but she had bought off brands of unsweetened baking chocolate before and it had been in the Hershey bar format.  She hated it.  With the individual squares, she could melt it right in the paper in the microwave.  Much less mess.  She has switched to Nestle's chocobake.  
I called Kraft (who owns Baker's) to express my displeasure.  They told me that consumer feedback told them that 8 oz was too much chocolate, prompting the change to 4 oz.  "I can understand that," I said.  "But have you ever tried to rewrap a Hershey bar if you only eat half?  I can't work with this stuff."   What I didn't tell them was that this stuff has an incredible shelf life.  The new box I bought was good for another two years.

So, I have decided to boycott Baker's until they at least bring back individually wrapped squares.  I cannot find chocobake so I have been using 3 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa + 1 Tbsp of oil for 1 oz of baking chocolate.  I use Safflower oil which I find awesome for baking as it has very little flavor.  I used it for making my chocolate butter frosting yesterday and it tasted about the same.  

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