Costco Fans Confessed To Mashed The Best Bakery Item - Exclusive Survey

If you're a Costco food fan, you know there's a list of savory reasons people love the warehouse, from its cheap and tasty rotisserie chickens to its budget-friendly hot dogs. But if you've been giving Costco's bakery section a wide berth, it may be time to reconsider your life choices. The big-box retailer's cakes, breads, and pastries are such a hit with so many of its customers, it even had its own Reddit thread.

And there's a reason Costco's bakery treats are irresistible to fans. Back in 2015, Baking Business reported a change to the way the discount retailer was making its bread. While it had started out by making and selling par-baked bread — which meant suppliers were making the bakery items and then having them finished in Costco's ovens — they decided to start handcrafting everything from scratch at store kitchens instead. At the time, the assistant general merchandise manager of Costco Bakery, David Richman, told the store's in-house publication, the Costco Connection, that the initiative was a "rebrand in the bread category." Fast-forward to 2022, and Food52 has noted that a variety of Costco's store-branded bakery items are now planned and prepped by Costco's pastry chefs.

So, which of Costco's bestselling bakery treats came out on top among Mashed readers?

A Mashed survey of 582 shoppers found that 28% of Costco shoppers have a hard time saying "no" to its cheesecake. One Reddit user say there's nothing like buying a plain cheesecake and dressing it up with a jam topping, while another took it a step further by recommending personalized toppings that ranged from chocolate to fruit.

Coming in at number two: Just over 20% of poll respondents felt Costco's muffins were the best bakery item the store had to offer. Nearly 15% thought the croissants were the best thing to come out of Costco's bakery, while nearly 14% said Costco's cake was a favorite. Twelve percent recommended the danishes as a favorite, while nearly 10.5% named Costco's pies as their number-one.

Back in 2015, when the company made the switch, Costco bakery general merchandise manager David Richman had said that "[the use of] quality ingredients mixed from scratch is a value for the member, and it creates our own signature. This scratch bread program differentiates us from our competition," per Baking Business. It turns out, he was right.