Costco Pastries, Ranked Worst To Best

Whether you're hosting a crowd or in charge of bringing in breakfast for the office, Costco is the perfect place to pick up pastries in bulk. Many of the Kirkland Signature items are baked fresh each day in the store, but there are also delicious options from other vendors carried in bulk on the warehouse shelves. You can find traditional pastries, such as danishes and muffins, as well as seasonal favorites that boast flavors like pumpkin spice or summer berries. From bite-sized treats to dessert loaves masquerading as breakfast, there are plenty of bakery choices.

Perusing the baked goods section often requires some serious willpower, which we set aside to bring together this ranking of Costco pastries. Overall, the taste was consistently top notch, so we considered other factors, such as versatility, nutritional content, and shelf life when selecting our favorites from those we tried.

The best options had balanced flavors that tasted great without being overly sugary, although we also enjoyed some sweet treats that would be great for special celebrations. Because they're sold in bulk, we also took note of whether or not the pastries were good enough to appeal to a large group, freeze or keep as leftovers, and easy to adapt to multiple meals. Here's what we found, ranked from worst to best.

The cinnamon chip bisconie bites may have been our least favorite pastries among the ones that we tried, but they're still a good choice, especially if you want smaller baked goods. These are some of the only bite-sized pastry options at Costco and they taste great. These are somewhere between a biscotti and a brownie, which is where they get their name. 

We expected a stronger sense of biscotti, but they were more like tiny cakes or muffins and surprisingly soft. The exterior was coated with large sugar crystals, plus a few cinnamon chips sprinkled into the batter. We would have liked the cinnamon flavor to be a bit more prominent, either with more cinnamon chips or spices in the batter. Overall, these were good but we'd probably pass on them if we had other options available.

The giant tub is bulk-sized, as you'd expect from the warehouse store, and comes with 42 bites. These were a nice alternative to large pastries, which tend to be more of Costco's style, but the taste and texture weren't anything we'd go out of our way to buy. That said, they make a nice option in a breakfast buffet, since guests can grab one or two without facing down a sugary pastry the size of their plate.

Another classic breakfast pastry offering from Costco are the morning buns. Each purchase comes with nine buns, which contain a generous amount of cinnamon and sugar wrapped up in delicate pastry. Morning buns have a flakier dough than traditional cinnamon rolls, although these are still denser and less airy than the Kirkland Signature croissants. 

These are a classic option for brunch or an office breakfast, but they don't have as much depth of taste or texture as some of the other choices. As is, they are just okay, but with a few tweaks they'd move up higher on the list. You could warm them in the oven for a couple of minutes to make them a bit softer, but our favorite way to enjoy them is with add-ons. 

Try adding a glaze or crumble on top to upgrade the buns to something a bit more memorable. We'd also use these alongside savory ingredients, such as bacon or ham, to transform them into a Monte Cristo sandwich. The morning buns get top marks for versatility if you're willing to add a bit of creativity to the presentation and ingredients list, though it requires a bit more work and costs more overall. These freeze well too, ideally in individual portions. It's easy to pull a morning bun out the night before, let it thaw in the fridge overnight, and enjoy it with coffee to start the day.

They may not be made by Kirkland Signature, but a package of Wiley Road donut muffins is totally worth adding to your cart. They are pumpkin spice flavored with an amazingly soft exterior covered in a light, sweet glaze coating and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. The outside of each bite is moist while the interior has a firmer texture than we expected, more like a cake donut. 

Each muffin is bite-sized and the purchase comes with two packages. These are perfect to take as a host gift or to a potluck brunch, but we also liked just having a couple along with our morning coffee. They're also fun to share and pack as a little two-bite surprise treat in lunches to add some fall flavor to the day. The taste is on the sweeter side, mostly thanks to the glaze and sugar, but pairing it with coffee helped balance it out. Keep a napkin on hand when enjoying them, since the sugar coating comes off easily on your fingers.

At just over $8.50 for 18 donut muffins, this was one of the more expensive bakery options. Considering Kirkland Signature muffins come with almost four times the servings for only a couple of dollars more, it was hard to justify these smaller and pricier pastries as a routine purchase. Fortunately, this is a seasonal item that comes out in the fall, so splurging when you see it isn't likely to break the budget.

The lemon blueberry loaf is one of the bakery department's most popular items, mainly due to its mouthwatering taste. The loaf has a distinct lemon flavor that isn't overpowering, as well as blueberries mixed into the batter and on top. It also boasts a sweet exterior crumble, along with a generous amount of drizzle. You can also get a Kirkland Signature cinnamon coffee cake loaf, which is a great alternative (or addition) that is similarly sized and priced. Unsurprisingly for Costco, both loaves are pretty large and perfect for sharing. Leftovers tend to dry out quickly, but you can count on enjoying a slice for at least a few days after purchase.

Even though it tastes amazing, the main issue with routinely choosing this baked good is the nutritional content. The first ingredient is sugar, which is evident by its sweet taste, and just a single serving contains 24 grams, or 44% of the recommended daily amount. Calling it a loaf instead of a cake might be a bit misleading. When considering how often we'd return for the lemon blueberry loaf, we'd categorize it as a special treat rather than a staple. However, if you're looking for a cake that is not quite as sweet as a traditional sheet cake, this is a good option that could easily make an appearance on our favorite Costco desserts list.

Another mix and match option from Costco is the popular gargantuan danish. Like with most danishes, the center was the star of the show and the exterior shell made a great handle to hold while we savored the middle. The filling was firm enough that we could cut the pastry in half without it falling apart on our plate. It had a sweet drizzle that gave it a little extra sweetness and the flaky pastry was also much more enjoyable than most danishes. If you want a great danish for both taste and texture, not to mention size, this is our favorite. It isn't as versatile as some other Costco bakery items but still a solid choice we'd pick up again, especially if we were bringing pastries to share at the office. 

We opted for the cream cheese and cherry optionto get a classic pastry we could compare to similar offerings we'd tried, but the almond was also tempting when we spotted it on the shelves. It had a bit more drizzle over the top and looked to have more texture, thanks to the nuts. Other reports have included a mixed berry and cheese variety, which sounds promising but we didn't see it at our Costco.

Translated to "bread with chocolate," these small, portable pain au chocolat pastries are perfect for on-the-go breakfasts. You can find them in the bakery section of Costco but they are not made by Kirkland Signature. Instead, the warehouse store sources these from La Boulangère, a French baked goods company. Getting French pastries from a French brand gave us a bit more confidence in their authentic flavor, even before we unwrapped them.

These aren't the sweetest of the bakery choices, but traditional pain au chocolat isn't that sweet, so it worked for us. These are a great pairing with coffee or tea, especially if you don't want a sugar rush in the morning. We were surprised at how much we enjoyed the pastry considering our top choices in the past have tended to be more sugar-laden. Ultimately, we ended up preferring it thanks to its pillowy texture and just-right amount of chocolate.

Each of the 16 pieces is individually wrapped, which works well if you're planning to pack them to go or want to maintain maximum freshness. Contrary to other Costco bulk pastries that can get stale before you have a chance to finish them, the pain au chocolat keeps for quite some time if stored correctly.

Want to enjoy one of the largest muffins out there? Head to the warehouse and choose between chocolate, blueberry, and other seasonal flavors such as poppyseed or lemon raspberry. It can be tricky to bake such large muffins, but Costco has figured out the secret and they always come out moist and delicious. These are our go-to whenever we need to bring baked goods to share, since we can cut them into smaller servings and provide muffins for a large crowd at a budget-friendly price.

You can mix and match two flavors in this muffin pack, something that's important to note because you'll have to grab two separate packs from the bakery before heading to check out. If you don't, you'll end up scanning one pack, paying full price, and walking away with just half of your purchase (we know because we've done this). Each pack has six muffins for a total of 12, although they are so large that each giant muffin is enough for two people. You can also store extras in the freezer or transform them into adorable birthday cakes. The fantastic taste and texture, plus the creative uses and freezability, place the Costco muffins toward the top of our pastry ranking.

The Kirkland Signature croissants have been a longtime favorite in our house and are one of the first items we recommend to warehouse store newbies. Brunch can go savory or sweet with these flaky croissants, which boast an airy interior as well as a buttery exterior that flakes without being too dry. Each one has the signature layered look that sets traditionally made croissants apart from imposters. They are larger than your average croissant and perfect for lunch sandwiches as well as a breakfast classic with eggs, bacon, and cheese. In fact, upgrading any sandwich with a croissant is a fantastic way to turn something boring and basic into a mouthwatering meal. The versatility of these pastries automatically places them high on our list and the texture cements their spot as number one.

These are one of the Kirkland Signature pastries made fresh in the store each day. They're sold in boxes of 12 and one of the few bulk bakery purchases that we actually finish in our family without having leftovers. We typically eat a few on the weekend for breakfast or brunch, then pack sandwiches with the rest throughout the following week. On the rare occasion that we don't get through a dozen croissants in a few days, we pop them in the freezer sealed in cling wrap and pull them out to use another day. Heating them in the oven is another handy trick to make the croissants taste fresh and just-made.

With our go-to pastries already in mind, we happily tested out the bakery offerings from Costco side-by-side. Surprisingly, some of the pastries that got the highest marks for taste or texture were not ones we frequently put in our shopping cart, so we got to add new favorites to our repertoire. Others, especially those that work for multiple meals or dishes, were great value purchases that we could enjoy across multiple days before they got stale. We also considered versatility, especially when buying in bulk, which helped separate the options we'd buy sometimes from those that earned a regular spot in our menu lineup. Options we could freeze or store for longer also got special attention, since this helped us avoid wasting food or money on the purchase.

We looked at customer reviews, especially for those with multiple flavor selections, and our own experiences getting pastries from Costco for work and social gatherings. Given that certain pastries have a traditional appeal and others are better for seasonal or themed get togethers, we made sure to make special note of those that hit the mark in both categories. While some super sweet options were delicious as a special treat, the ones that consistently ranked high were pastries that we could eat for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dessert. We also tended toward flaky and delicate textures over heavier offerings. Finally, freshness was a factor, especially for the pastries that Costco bakers prepare and bake in-house each day.