Popular Costco Bakery Items Ranked From Worst To Best

Aside from Costco's unbelievably great prices and delicious samples, the store's bakery section makes the yearly membership worth every penny. We're not saying you should only join for the bakery, but we're not saying you shouldn't either. From the moment you walk in the door, the smells wafting out of the bakery section practically pull you over to the fresh made cakes and breads. 

While we always make sure to add a rotisserie chicken to our cart every week, we don't sleep on the muffins and pies Costco offers, especially during the holiday season. Not to mention, that you can save serious dough (pun intended) by buying cakes, loaves of bread, and pastries at this wholesale store.

While the store itself can be overwhelming, we want you to feel confident strolling through the bakery section because some bakery goods you'll find here are just a bit tastier than others. We took the most popular bakery items and ranked them from worst to best to simplify your next Costco shopping experience. Keep reading to discover which bakery products to add to your cart and which ones to pass on.

Starting at the bottom of the list, we've got the Mantecada muffins. This Mexican sweetbread bakery classic contains eggs, flour, butter, and sugar (via Views on the Road). With Mantecada muffins, the butter ingredient sets this muffin apart. Before we carry on any further, we want to add the disclaimer that although ranked "worst" on our list, these muffins are still a popular Costco baked good for many reasons.

We love the taste of a buttery muffin, but Costco's version contains additional ingredients that preserve the muffin longer, yet don't add to the taste. Eat This, Not That highlights these muffins' nutritional information, like the 610 calories, 38 grams of fat, 550 milligrams of sodium, and 33 grams of sugar per serving; that's a lot of sodium.

While these muffins taste good, we prefer buying Mantecada muffins from an authentic Mexican bakery. And although buttery and delicious, we like other muffin varieties from Costco more.

Next on our Popular Costco bakery items comes the Plain Bagel, a basic but delicious bread-filled breakfast delicacy. Due to the simple nature of this bakery item, we suggest adding a spread like cream cheese or avocado to create a meal out of this. We could only imagine eating this bagel with at least butter, as it's slightly dry.

The Mashed taste testing team didn't rank the plain bagel higher because we shop for bagels at Costco only when we need them in bulk or don't want to make two stops when grocery shopping. Nothing compares to getting a bagel breakfast sandwich from your local bagel shop, especially if yours has one of the absolute best bagels in the U.S.

If you do your shopping in bulk or less frequently and like to have bagels on hand, throw these in the freezer, toast them when ready, and add extra cream cheese for peak enjoyment. We'll eat these if available, but overall prefer our local bagels more.

What's braided, flaky, and contains apple cinnamon all over? If you guessed Braided Apple Strudel as the next popular Costco bakery item, you guessed right. This large strudel comes in a pack of eight and tastes best after a few minutes in the microwave or air fryer for a little bit of extra crispy crunch. It's so sweet you might mistake it for a slice of apple pie.

One Costco lover, known as @costcohotfinds on Instagram, reported on the dessert's comeback to stores in the summer of 2022. You can score an incredible deal on this bakery item; enjoy eight strudels for $7.99. For that price, you should consider adding this pastry to your Thanksgiving dessert table.

During the fall season, this sweet treat hits the spot. We like the Braided Apple Strudel alone but believe it tastes best with additions like vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce on top.

Imagine this: dinner time, and you're heading to Costco. Make sure to grab one staple dipping mechanism that can fit most Italian meals, a bakery baguette. While Costco nails the crispy outside and soft inside we know and love in a baguette, can one truly mess up this type of bread?

Here at Mashed, we're self-proclaimed foodies and bread lovers and have baked a baguette loaf or two ourselves. While this recipe may be intimidating to bake at first, it's relatively easy to nail. The simplicity of baking baguettes contributed to why we didn't rank this bakery item higher on our list.

According to the Krazy Coupon Lady, a Costco fanatic, two slices of this Costco baguette yield 150 calories, so you can eat a decent amount of bread with your next pasta dish. If you need a baguette and happen to be at Costco, don't hesitate to grab one, but we'll often choose our local bakery for bread instead.

Sixty mini chocolate chip cookies are better than one. If you head to the Costco bakery department, you'll find our next item, a box of Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies. These crispy, sweet, and salty cookies satisfy like no other, and because they're small, you can grab a handful or two without feeling guilty.

PaganButterflies joked on a Kirkland Mini Cookies Reddit thread that her kids love the minis so much, but she tries not to buy them because they're so addicting. She finds it easy to polish off five cookies in one sitting, so the box disappears quickly.

You know these cookies are special when there's a Reddit explicitly designated to discuss the bakery item. The Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies stand out from other chocolate chip cookies because they're not only small but also crispy and not overly sweet. They're not as dry as you'd expect a hard cookie to be and still melt in your mouth.

The next popular Costco bakery item on our list resembles a cream cheese-covered pie. Instead, feast your eyes on the deliciously sweet Cinnamon Pull-A-Part dessert, which is basically a giant cinnamon roll — and that's cool with us.

The announcement of the Cinnamon Pull-A-Part sent @costcobuys fans into a roar. One fan exclaimed in the comments, "Omg, I have to unfollow this page," after buying two containers in one week. Another added that they're so good, "got mine yesterday, and they're about gone!"

If these reviews don't tell you everything you need to know, take our word for it. The Cinnamon Pull-A-Part tastes sweet but not too rich, making it the perfect dessert for any occasion. We love serving it warm with coffee for breakfast or as a mid-afternoon treat with a cup of tea. Whatever you prefer, we can guarantee this sweet treat should be added to your cart on your next Costco run.

If we had to name something more delicious than the Mini Chocolate Chip cookies, it would be the Costco cookie assortment. Three options are better than one, helping this bakery item rise to the top of our list.

This assortment contains eight chocolate chunk, eight double nut, and eight oatmeal cookies. Chocolate chunk slides into number one as our favorite, but all of these cookies hold a special place in our hearts. Costco offers multiple variations of its assorted cookie pack, but we enjoy this variety the most.

Costco fresh bakes its cookies perfectly, with a slight crunch on the outside and a soft, chewy inner center. Out of all the grocery store cookies, these rise to the top. They taste best warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pro tip: Take two cookies of any kind and smash a scoop of ice cream between them to make at-home ice cream sandwiches.

Costco's cheap booze and rotisserie chickens tend to steal the spotlight, but don't sleep on its sheet cakes. Those who religiously shop at Costco understand the hype around its cakes. If you're planning a birthday party, special occasion, or even a wedding and need a cake, here are a few things to know.

Costco sheet cakes will not break the bank like most other products and bakery items at the store. While you can no longer order a half-sheet cake online, the Costco bakery will still make you one if you order it in person. And with a cost of around $20 and a cake that can feed 50 people, that's a steal when you analyze the competition; wedding cakes lead to a lot of mistakes these days and cost a small fortune.

The best part about purchasing a sheet cake from Costo is the availability. The bakery section stocks chocolate and vanilla cakes for different occasions you can take home the same day. If you want something specific, you'll have to order in advance, but Costco will still deliver.

When we think of pastries, cheese and cherry isn't the first flavor combination that comes to mind. Cue Costco coming in with another favorite we didn't expect. After a few bites of cream cheese and cherry pastry, it will be your new favorite bakery item.

One Reddit user, yimsie, comments that the new cream cheese and cherry-filled pastry thread is as good as it looks; it's super soft, creamy, and not overly sweet. We love cheese pastries, and this one especially hits the spot with the added cherry flavoring.

These are basically the best parts of a cheese board combined into one delicious pastry: bread, cherry jam, and cheese. We love buying these for a morning brunch with a cup of coffee. If you're looking for a new pastry that offers a bit of savory and sweetness, add the cheese and cherry pastry to your cart during your next Costco visit.

Sliding into the next spot on our popular Costco bakery items list comes the chocolate delicacy, the Tuxedo Chocolate Mousse Cake. This chocolate and white chocolate mousse cake contains brownie chunks and chocolate ganache, topped with more chocolate. It's a chocolate lover's dream, but the rich chocolate flavor does not overpower the other ingredients.

Due to the bakery item's popularity, Reddit users dedicated entire threads to their love for the Tuxedo Chocolate Mousse Cake. One user, coolblue123, noted the chocolate mousse is so smooth and not the usual Costco size, but perfect for a party of 10. Sometimes we want everything to be regular servings, not family-sized.

Another Reddit user, dorianrose, added this is probably her favorite Costco dessert. It's pretty high up there on our list too. How can you not love a rich piece of chocolate cake? It's for the best this doesn't come in family size; we struggle to stop after one serving.

Pumpkin pie remains a staple on the Thanksgiving dessert table. We can't get enough of Costco's Pumpkin Pie here at Mashed. It's sweet, contains the perfect amount of pumpkin, and can feed the whole table.

Feeding a group of people on Thanksgiving can be expensive; thankfully, Costco saves the day again with an incredibly affordable dessert. According to Insider, Costco Pumpkin Pies cost only $5.99 and, dare we say, taste better than the homemade version. And making pumpkin pie from scratch takes a ton of time and ingredients; who has time for that?

According to Reader's Digest, Costco sold 6.1 million pies in 2019 alone. Think how many people it would take to hit those numbers off a pie that costs less than six dollars. Thankfully, Costco expects this influx of Pumpkin Pie sales and stocks the shelves during November. If you live far from a Costco, hit the store early. If needed, you can freeze the pie and save it for the big day.

We've noted Costco sells a wide variety of baked goods, including cakes, but the next bakery item on our list is cheesecake. Reddit user stininja commented the best cheesecake to buy is the Kirkland Signature with Organic Strawberry Spread on top, as the flavors complement one another nicely. We can't get enough of this and the New York Cheesecake. If guests join you for dinner, head to Costco to pick up a couple of these cheesecakes and wait for the compliments to roll in.

According to Costco Menu, Costco's cheesecakes align with the affordable price theme. You can purchase a 4.5-pound Kirkland Signature Costco Cheesecake for $14.99, a much lower price than other grocery stores or bakeries.

Cheesecake is challenging to make, and other than The Cheesecake Factory, few establishments craft the perfect crispy crust and sweet cream cheese-like filling. While Costco may not offer the variety of cheesecakes that The Cheesecake Factory is known for, it knocks it out of the park with its different sizes and affordability. 

If you've ever been to a kid's birthday party, you've undoubtedly had a cupcake, but have you ever tried a Costco Mini Cake? While these might sound like synonyms at first glance, we can assure you the two share only a few similarities.

Upon entering the Costco bakery section, we eyed the half-dozen chocolate mini cakes in their clamshell packages. While the name suggests these cakes would be mini, they're rather significant in size. These desserts look mini compared to a whole-size cake, but they are larger than a standard cupcake.

One Facebook user commented on Costco's promotional post for the cakes saying these were perfect for dinners and birthdays. The mini cakes bring "oohs" and "aahs" when presented to the table and taste incredible. The only thing that would make this bakery item that much better is the option to order a dozen of them. We can't get enough of the mini cakes.

Croissants are going to taste best at a cafe in Paris, but Costco is your next best bet if you can't make it to France. Made fresh daily, Costco's bakery buttery croissants come in a pack of 12, offering that traditional flaky outside and melt-in-your-mouth interior.

According to Costco Food Database, the pack of croissants from the Costco bakery section costs only $5.99, which, like most things in the massive store, is a pretty good deal. These sweet buttery cones can be enjoyed as is, stuffed with butter or jam, or used to elevate tuna or chicken salad into a fantastic sandwich.

One Reddit user confirmed their love for the delicious crescent-shaped treat by writing in a thread that the Costco croissants are incredible, showcasing a mouth-watering egg and bacon sandwich made with the pastry. No matter how you enjoy this delicious bakery item, it's worth picking up a few boxes during your next trip to Costco.

Few bakery items compare to the number one item on our list – Costco's Blueberry Muffins. We love blueberry muffins, so it takes a lot to impress us. Costco does it again with their crispy on-the-outside and soft-on-the-inside blueberry creations; these will genuinely take your breath away.

Insider ranked Costco's blueberry muffin as their favorite, noting its sweet balance and dense texture without feeling too heavy like a pound cake. The muffin top packs the right amount of moisture to break it off, and enjoy it piece by piece. According to Costco Food Database, Costco sells a dozen of their fresh baked muffins for $8.99. Another steal for 12 good-sized muffins. We recommend enjoying them a few days after purchasing or freezing and reheating them later for that same fresh taste.

Next time you're browsing the bakery section in need of the perfect breakfast addition, grab a pack of blueberry muffins. You won't be disappointed.