‘Tis the season for bountiful baking! Before you make a batch of your favorite cookies, bread, or pie, be sure to stock up on essentials like flour, sugar, vanilla, sprinkles, and, of course, chocolate!

Your-Purpose Flours: Can you use pastry flour for cakes (or cake flour for pastries)? What if you don’t have either and don’t have time to go to the store? What’s gluten got to do with it? Get the scoop on some of the most common baking quandaries with these fun (and functional) flour facts.

Specialty Sugars: Sweet on sweets? Make sure you have plenty of sugars to start! Along with classic granulated (white), light or dark brown, and powdered (confectioner’s) sugar, bring out the best in your baking with unrefined molasses-forward Muscovado sugar and large-grained Demerara sugar for a sweet and crunchy topping.

Baking Chocolate & Cocoa: From chips and chunks to powders, discs, and bars, baking chocolate can take many forms to suit any recipe. Here are some of our favorites:

• Valrhona Premium Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder: This premium, extra fine, unsweetened cocoa is ideal for baking, dusting, and more. It’s made in France by a B-Corp dedicated to crafting premium chocolates for more than a century!
• TCHO Organic Unsweetened Cocoa Super Powder: This organic, Fair Trade Certified cocoa made locally in Berkeley is high-fat and non-alkalized, giving it a beautiful boldness and versatility perfect in sweet and savory recipes.
• TCHO Organic Crush This Cacao Nibs: Cacao nibs are bits of fermented and roasted cacao beans. These ones have a deep, nutty flavor and satisfying crunch that goes great in (or on!) a variety of desserts and other dishes.
• TCHO Organic Sweet & Sassy Baking Discs: Milk and dark chocolate lovers alike will melt for this purely plant-based 66% bittersweet dark chocolate which melds fruity and nutty flavors in deliciously complex harmony.
• Guittard Baking Chips: Made in San Francisco using time-honored French tradition, these beautiful baking chips offer a variety of chocolate options including Fair Trade, dairy-free, and organic options!

Go Nuts: Add a little nutty crunch to almost any baking recipe with whole, sliced, slivered, or chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans, or your favored nut! Depending on the recipe, nuts make a marvelous mix-in or a tasty topping.

Cook’s Vanilla & Almond Extracts: Making premium vanilla for more than 100 years, this family-owned and -operated company crafts a variety of superior baking extracts just down the way in Paso Robles, California!

Supernatural Sprinkles: Sporting colors from plants and spices, these super (and natural!) sprinkles are sweet, soft, vegan, and allergy-friendly making them the perfect choice for that special festive finish.

Drop by your local Nugget Market to find even more ingredients to make your baking a piece of cake!

Selection may vary by store.