11 Aldi Bakery Items Ranked From Worst To Best

Aldi is a discount supermarket chain full of unexpected treasures that can save you money on your food bill — from the chain's cheap breakfast items (that are every bit as delicious as the name-brand options) to the best frozen shrimp (that are pretty much restaurant quality) and beyond. But what about the chain's bakery items? When you walk into Aldi, you'll find a large section of fresh bakery items running the gambit of donuts, cake slices, croissants, and Danish, to name a few. Despite many excellent products, there are a few that fall completely flat (like the worst Aldi brand pasta ), so you might be hesitant to give the company's fresh baked goods a shot.

Thankfully, you don't have to play taste roulette in Aldi's bakery aisle because I had the opportunity to do it for you. Recently, I tried 11 Aldi bakery items and ranked them from worst to best — and I think the results will surprise you (but mostly in a good way). To do this, I relied heavily on my bakery background and considered each product's smell, taste, texture, and price.



You can find more about my methodology at the end of this article. Here are my thoughts. 11.

Bake Shop Birthday Cake Donuts The Bake Shop Birthday Cake Everyday Donuts started out strong, with a bright, eye-catching appearance and a deliciously nostalgic birthday cake smell. If you close your eyes, you can almost picture the homemade cakes from your childhood birthdays sitting on the table before you, ready to have their candles blown out. At $4.

69, these are relatively affordable, compared to the prices of similar products at other stores, and each container comes with six large donuts. And, although this donut ranked lowest on our list, it's not a terrible choice overall — in fact, you might be surprised to discover none of the baked goods here are truly disgusting. The primary reason this birthday cake donut ranked so low is that it's not my personal preference, for two reasons.

Firstly, it's way too sweet, to the point where it makes me feel sick. Secondly, the glaze flavor is overpowering, and doesn't allow the soft, cakey inside to shine. However, if you enjoy things that are exceedingly sweet and nostalgic, this could be an excellent option for you.

10. Bake Shop Lemon Sliced Loaf Cake Each slice of this lemon loaf cake from Bake Shop had a beautiful yellow color, as well as a nice density and structure. Unfortunately, the slices didn't have much of a smell at all, and I was expecting a light citrusy scent.

Since I highly value the smell of my food, this was a bit of a letdown. However, the price was certainly not a letdown — at only $3.99 for eight slices, this felt like a steal.

Like my initial impressions, the taste test was a bit of a mixed bag. The texture was fantastic — dense and a little spongy while remaining perfectly moist. It was everything I would look for in a loaf cake.

And, the taste wasn't bad, either, but just not quite what I was expecting. The starring lemon flavor really just doesn't come through at all, so these slices end up tasting more like a mildly sweet bread rather than a cake. I won't purchase this again for myself, but I wouldn't be opposed to eating it again if someone else served it to me.

9. Bake Shop Chocolate Frosted Mini Donuts Chocolate Frosted Mini Donuts are a mainstay in my house, so I was excited to see how the Bake Shop option held up — especially since, at $3.15 for approximately 28 donuts, these are a comparatively affordable option from a supermarket I now regularly frequent.

Unfortunately, these missed the mark just slightly. While I wouldn't be opposed to buying them again out of convenience (and because they aren't bad overall), I do still prefer my name-brand options and will continue purchasing those when possible. The appearance of these mini donuts was okay, although they became a little melty on the trip home — this is despite it being early spring and a comfortable temperature, so weather or humidity didn't play a factor.

These featured a decadently smooth, rich coating around a soft, fluffy base, offering textural interest and a balanced mouthfeel. Unfortunately, the overall taste was overpoweringly sweet (at least for me) and there were heavy artificial notes that counteracted the positive taste aspects. 8.

Bake Shop Powdered Mini Donuts While the chocolate frosted option may have fallen a bit short, these Bake Shop Powdered Mini Donuts really hit the mark. Truthfully, these are just as good as name-brand options like Tastykake or Donette — and that's a completely unbiased opinion because powdered donuts are far from my personal favorite. In the plastic container, they had a standard appearance, which wasn't anything special yet still a promising start.

Plus, with approximately 28 mini donuts for only $3.15, these are a great bargain. There wasn't a huge defining smell, but a light sweet and starchy scent.

The first bite offered a light, fluffy interior with a nice sprinkling of powdered sugar. My favorite part was that these were perfectly moist rather than dry, which is an issue I've run into with other powdered donuts. While these were a little too sweet for my personal liking, they were right on par with what I expected.

Overall, I can recommend these to anyone who enjoys a standard powdered donut without any frills, but I personally prefer other options. 7. Bake Shop Large Butter Croissants I know I already prefaced this list by saying none of the Bake Shop options at Aldi were terrible, but this is the part where the list gets really good.

These Large Butter Croissants looked mouth-watering, with a thick texture that appeared to offer the perfect combination of fluffy and flaky. Having made countless croissants during my time as a baker, I can tell you this is exactly the appearance you should look for in store-bought or professionally made options. The buttery, freshly-baked-goods scent that was released from the container brought me back to my bakery days.

At $3.69 for six, this felt like an excellent deal. I'm happy to report that my initial impressions translated to the taste.

A primarily neutral flavor profile was punctuated with light starchy notes and buttery undertones. The texture was light and fluffy, but dense enough that it held together well when I used it for a chicken salad sandwich. I definitely recommend adding these to your Aldi grocery shopping list.

6. Bake Shop Cinnamon Sweet Rolls In my house, everyone loves when I make homemade old-fashioned cinnamon rolls , and there's nothing quite like a piping hot one out of the oven for breakfast or dessert. But they take quite a bit of time to make and there have been times I wished for a reliable store-bought option — thankfully, I've finally found one in these Bake Shop Cinnamon Sweet Rolls.

Aesthetically, they looked promising in the container and had a sweet vanilla smell with strong cinnamon notes. For $3.45 for eight rolls, these felt like a steal — I mean, that works out to just barely over 40 cents a roll.

And honestly? I'd pay two or three times that. The roll itself featured a predominately cinnamon profile with very light starchy and earthy tones. This was nicely coated in a sweet sugary vanilla glaze that had a really nice consistency.

The flavor profile was perfectly balanced and the sweetness didn't feel overwhelming in the slightest. I highly recommend grabbing these on your next Aldi shopping trip. Pro tip: Pop these in the microwave for thirty seconds for that fresh-out-of-the-oven feeling.

5. Bake Shop Blueberry Mini Muffins My kids are particularly fond of mini muffins as after-school snacks because they're a little sweet but also filling, without being too much a few hours before supper. Plus, we live less than an hour from the blueberry capital of the world, so it's only natural that the whole family thoroughly enjoys this flavor option.

I'm happy to report that this super affordable Bake Shop Blueberry Mini Muffins met all my expectations for only $3.45 a dozen. The appearance was standard with a promising amount of dark blue spread throughout, and a delicious strong blueberry scent with heavy sweet notes greeted me as soon as the package was opened.

From the first bite, I was hooked — a fresh blueberry taste permeated the moist, dense starchy sweetness of the muffin itself and a distinct crumble along the top added textural interest. Better yet, there was no lingering aftertaste beyond a very mild blueberry that was honestly refreshing. Definitely pick these up and try them for yourself.

4. Bake Shop Chocolate Dipped Everyday Donuts These Bake Shop Chocolate Dipped Everyday Donuts were the best-ranking donuts on this list and the ones I'll definitely be buying again for special morning treats. For starters, I really love the white drizzles because they create visual interest against the solid black.

The smell was overwhelmingly chocolatey, which was on par with what I expected. At $4.69 for six generously sized donuts, this was yet another excellent Aldi deal.

Both the texture and flavor were exactly what you want in a chocolate donut — richly decadent, airy, and moist. The white drizzles turned out to be purely for decoration and didn't appear to add any flavor on their own, but that was fine with me because I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate. While these donuts are excellent on their own, I think they'd be a particularly great option for making a triple chocolate donut shake .

The dense, flavorful profile seems well-suited to the recipe, and I'll likely give it a try next time I buy these. 3. Bake Shop Chocolate Chunk Gourmet Cookies I can summarize these Bake Shop Chocolate Chunk Gourmet Cookies best in one sentence: they taste identical to Wawa's cookies.

Unfortunately, not everyone is in an area with a Wawa convenience store on every corner and I honestly feel bad for those who aren't. But, don't worry, I'm going to give a more detailed description of how fantastic these are for those who can't relate. These cookies had a distinctly doughy smell, accented with light vanilla tones and strong chocolate notes.

It was all laced with a vaguely brown sugar sweetness. A dense, moist texture with a slight crumble offered me a taste profile perfectly embodied by the cookies' smell — and yes, it's just as delicious as it sounds. Honestly, I prefer these over any other store-bought cookies I've had, and that's a huge endorsement from someone who's been called a "cookie snob.

" For only $3.89 per ten cookies, grabbing these when you want a sweet treat is a no-brainer. 2.

Bake Shop Raspberry Cheese Strip Danish Coming in at second place, these Bake Shop Raspberry Cheese Strip Danish are among the best store-bought options I've tasted. For years, I specialized in Danish and similar pastries in a now-closed bakery called Ricca's, and I've never been overly fond of store-bought options. However, this had a nice visual aesthetic and a sweet, fruity smell laced with butter, so I was ready to give it a shot — especially since it was only $3.

49. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint. The pastry crust itself was soft and flaky, with strong notes of butter, sweetened by generous (but not overdone) drizzles of glaze.

There was a nice amount of raspberry filling running through one side of the Danish, while a sweet cream cheese ran through the other. Every bite had at least a little of either filling, which made the pastry feel very balanced. Definitely pick this up if you're a fan of a Danish.

1. Bake Shop Strawberry Cheese Strip Danish The Bake Shop Strawberry Cheese Strip Danish is our top-ranking Aldi bakery item, and it was an easy choice to make, honestly. At $3.

49, this delicious pastry feels like an absolute steal, and my family got about four large servings out of it. Visually, it held up to what I'd expect from a Danish. The smell was predominately sweet and starchy, laced with buttery notes, sweet cream, and a distinctly strawberry scent.

My first bite offered a soft, flaky texture and a taste that had been perfectly embodied by the smell. This balanced sweet treat paired perfectly with my morning coffee and was even better after I heated it up in the microwave for about twenty seconds. Pick this up from Aldi on your next shopping trip to see why this strawberry cheese Danish easily made the top spot.

And, if you're struggling with the fact that Aldi doesn't offer bags to carry all your goodies in, try the box in a reusable bag hack for all your heavy groceries . How I chose the best Aldi bakery items Aldi bakery items were chosen to reflect the widest range of my local New Jersey store's offerings, while remaining in line with products I enjoy. The baked goods that made this list represented most of what was available to me at the time I went to the store, but I limited each specific type of good to two each — i.

e. two mini donut options, two everyday donut options, two Danish strips, etc. Only fresh baked goods were chosen, with boxed or frozen options being excluded from this ranking.

Each bakery item was judged based on its smell, taste, texture, and price. To make my assessments, I relied on my more than fifteen years of experience in the food industry, during which time I spent countless hours as a baker and pastry chef. Personal preferences also played a small role in these rankings, although I aimed to be as unbiased as possible.

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