15 Aldi Baked Goods, Ranked Worst To Best

There is a whole lot to love about everyone's affordable neighborhood grocery store: Aldi. Its shelves are stocked with some of my favorite goodies, whether I want to pick up a pack of its in-house cookies or am after a healthy snack to fuel my workday. And if I'm throwing a dinner party or a decadent brunch — and don't want to pick up a cookie sheet or a loaf pan — I will peruse Aldi's baked good section to find something worthy of picking up. 

Aldi may not be top of mind when it comes to the best stores for baked goods, seeing as how it doesn't have an in-store bakery. So, while you can't order a birthday cake or special occasion dessert from the grocer, you can still find a variety of baked goods lining its shelves. In true Aldi fashion, these baked goods are super affordable and, for the most part, quite tasty. In order to decide which treats are most worth buying, I paid a visit to my local Aldi and picked up an array of baked goods, spanning from breakfast Danishes to cookies. Then, I tasted them and ranked them from worst to best based on factors like taste and texture. 

Besides its regular cheese Danishes, Aldi also offers two different jammy varieties, one made with raspberry jam and the other made with strawberry jam. I tried the raspberry one, and I can say that, although it was kind of what I expected it would be like, I was also still disappointed by it. Danishes are supposed to be made with a multi-layered pastry dough that unites the crunchiness and thinness of the pastry with a tantalizing filling. This Aldi product tasted like someone tossed all the leftover bread dough into a stand mixer, added some extra sugar, and then baked it into a flat loaf. It has the same consistency as the Aldi cinnamon rolls: relentlessly dry and boring. 

The amount of jam on these "Danishes" (read: flavored bread) is pitiful. There are two measly stripes in the center of the loaf, which are so thin that you barely get any in your mouth. The jam is sickeningly sweet, which offers some reprieve from the filling, but it's otherwise unimaginative. The sugary icing and the little bits of streusel are also effectively useless. 

Pains au chocolats are a dessert that a lot of bakeries get wrong. It's not supposed to be a sad crescent roll stuffed with cheap chocolate. It's supposed to be a flaky, well-laminated croissant-like dough with delicate and beautiful layers inside of it. And as I expected, Aldi did not do the pain au chocolat justice. 

The discount grocer used a cheap brioche roll instead of the delicate, flakily layered pastry. As a result, these little rolls were more akin to potato bread than pastry. Sure, they're enriched and light, but I think if you showed them to a French pâtissier and described them as "pains au chocolat," you would get a chuckle out of them. The chocolate is another issue. It's like a chocolate chunk inside of the bread, which means that it's crunchy rather than smooth and melty. It hits your molars abruptly and causes a momentary panic before you realize that the chocolate was indeed supposed to be there. While I do appreciate that these baked treats are all individually wrapped, there are few other redeeming qualities about this L'Oven Fresh offering. 

After an unfortunate run-in with the raspberry Danish, I can't say that my hopes for its cheesy, fruit-free sibling were quite high. As expected, this cheese Danish was dry and far from the layered viennoiserie that I was craving. But I can say that its cheese topping earned it a slightly higher spot in the ranking. 

You could tell that the lower-ranked raspberry Danish was lacking fruit jam. But the cheese on this cheese Danish played such a minor role in the dessert that I honestly forgot that it was there — so, I wasn't as primed to critique it as I was for the raspberry Danish. When I did try to get a little swipe of just the cream, I noticed that it lacked the clear tanginess of cream cheese. Instead, it was just bland and tasted like a wet, sugary icing. It was about the same after I warmed it up in the microwave. This definitely wouldn't be one of the baked goods I would pick up at Aldi again, though it wasn't as downright awful as the lower-ranked options.

I wouldn't trust anyone who says that these cinnamon rolls are passable, let alone worth buying. Honestly, these are probably some of the worst cinnamon rolls I've had in my life, so much so that I doubt they deserve the title of "cinnamon roll" at all. The top icing was barely an icing — it congealed into a flabby, papery sheet that I could practically tear like a piece of construction paper. The icing lacked any proper vanilla flavor, and it seemed like it was an afterthought. 

The roll underneath was just as lackluster and depressing. I would take a refrigerated cinnamon roll over this one any day. As I broke into it, I couldn't but help realize how dry it was. The cinnamon filling wasn't buttery; it tasted grainy and like it was made with cheap cinnamon — and dare I say, too much of it. I wanted something molten and ooey-gooey, and these were far from it. I even warmed them up in the microwave, and they were equally as dreadful. They weren't as bad as the lower-ranked baked goods, but why anyone who buy these is beyond me. 

I really do think that there's a certain expectation that comes with the word "croissant," and you have problems when you don't deliver that. Store-bought croissants are not generally known to be good, especially compared to ones that you would get at a bakery. This Aldi offering smelled like hydrogenated oil, and I was immediately turned off by it the second I opened the package. And while the croissant itself did have discernible layers, when I bit in, they immediately all squished together like one blob of butter. It also left a greasy coating on my tongue, which was not very pleasing. 

I don't like croissants as a whole, but I could possibly foresee stuffing this one with some arugula and ham to try and make it a little more palatable. As is, it's very bland and lacks the proper croissant consistency, though it could be disguised with some creative fillings. 

Never have I ever heard someone say that angel food cake is their favorite type of cake — and I think there's a good reason why. It's light and fluffy, thanks to the addition of egg whites, but besides the sugar and the subtle vanilla flavor, it really doesn't have anything else going on. So, maybe this Aldi selection was just destined to fail because there are other items on this list that are just more flavorful than it. 

But I will give Aldi some credit for this cake, which was one of the more expensive items on this list. It is very light and almost feathery in texture, and there's just enough sugar to shift it into the dessert territory. But it's just not a practical cake to buy, seeing as how you have to dress it up with berries or accompaniments to make it actually worth eating. 

Okay chocolics, listen up. You might be tempted to buy this triple chocolate creme cake from Aldi based on its label alone. But don't let this bundt fool you; it's really far from the best item that you can pick up on your next trip to the grocer. 

I was surprised to see that Aldi didn't carry any full-sized chocolate cakes in its bakery section; it only had this one. This chocolate bundt base is adorned with what I assume is supposed to be chocolate ganache and chocolate chips. While the sponge itself is super light and decadent, I can't say that chocolatey richness was at the forefront here. It didn't have that degree of heaviness that I've come to expect with chocolate cakes, and I think that it could have sold me on it more if it was topped with a chocolate frosting. The ganache itself resembles a thin chocolate sauce. It wasn't buttery or thick, which made it almost more like a chocolate glaze gone wrong than anything else. And the chocolate chips were, well, chocolate chips. 

It's not a cake to write home about. Would I eat it if it was the only dessert on the menu? Maybe, but there are just so many other, better offerings on Aldi's shelves. 

When a lemon cake is well done, it can be a triumph. "Triumph" is not a word I would use to describe these slices, though. The lemon loaf is florescent yellow, which made me a little hesitant to try it. When I did muster the confidence to open the package, I remarked that my house would probably smell like lemon Pledge for the foreseeable future. The smell that emulated from this clamshell container is relentless, and the worst part about it is that none of those lemon flavors are anywhere near natural — and neither is the artificial dye it's colored with. 

The texture of this loaf is, admittedly, not bad. It's very rich and soft — and certainly lemon-forward — almost like the industrially produced banana bread slices I remember eating in elementary school. There's no tangible lemon zest or authentic lemon flavor; it's all so artificial. I will say that I appreciate that this loaf is not overwhelmingly sweet, and as a whole, I don't think it's as unpalatable as the lower-ranked options. 

You either like Lofthouse cookies or you don't — and I would say that I kind of walk a thin line between these sentiments. I can appreciate that Lofthouse cookies have this irresistible quality to them, but I can also admit that they taste like the lovechild of molten plastic and fondant. You have to embrace their nastiness a little bit to truly enjoy them. 

I think that Aldi's Lofthouse cookies (which, it appears, are name-brand) are a little bit drier and less plasticky than the flavor I remember. They have more of a plain sugar cookie-leaning taste; I can't pick up on those tangy, cream of tartar-like flavors until I reach the middle of the cookie, where there's a ton of misplaced icing. Then, I get a surge of it — though, it's still not as overwhelming as I remember it being as a kid. I don't think I've ever gone out and bought these cookies, but I'll surely eat them if they're left unattended in the break room. They're not good enough to warrant seeking them out specifically, but they're still good enough to eat if they do just appear somewhere. 

It's really hard to mess up a mass-produced chocolate chip/chunk cookie. And for the most part, Aldi's cookies were fine. However, I wouldn't recommend sampling them after you try the higher-ranked cookies on this list, because you will think these plain Janes are "average" at best. 

There's a good amount of chocolate in each cookie and the flavor is definitely buttery and brown-sugar forward. Is it dynamic, fun, or inventive? Not at all. They're average cookies, and I think if you were a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur like myself, you would even say that they were boring. They're likable enough to where, if you served them at a business meeting or birthday party, your guests would be hard-pressed to say no to them. 

Powdered donuts are perhaps the last breakfast item I would ever add to my cart. As a kid, my dad always kept powdered donuts in the house, but I always found them too dry to be enjoyable. Plus, that inevitable puff of powdered sugar up your nose and down your throat makes eating them, frankly, a hazard. 

Honestly, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by these mini-donut offerings from Aldi. The inside was quite airy and soft, which is far from the dreary and dry donuts of yesteryear. The powdered sugar coating was well-distributed and stuck to the donuts, which made each bite quite pleasant and tasty. Aldi only carries two mini-donut variants: powdered sugar and chocolate-covered cake ones. I would like to see what it could do with a glazed donut, as I think the audience that these powdered mini donuts cater to is far more limiting. 

I'm always on a hunt for a good blueberry muffin, so I was glad to see that Aldi stocked up on options for its customers. Its muffin selection is surely not as expansive as other grocers, but I was able to find blueberry muffins in both whole and mini-muffin formats. It also carries other flavors, like chocolate chip. These muffins are massive and comparable in size to other brands, like Dunkin'. They're mushroom-shaped, and considering that there are four in a pack, you really do get your money's worth. The texture of the muffin itself is wonderfully soft and plush. There are ample amounts of blueberries hidden throughout it, and the actual sponge is buttery and rich.

My only gripe with these muffins is their sorry attempt at a streusel topping. Since they sit in a clamshell container, any crispness on that topping is absolutely gone by the time someone buys them. The streusel almost has the texture of wet bread, so I'm of the mindset that Aldi should either fully commit to a streusel topping or just leave it off entirely. 

Aldi's kitchen sink cookies are apparently a crowd favorite that I haven't heard about until now. They're like a party in a clamshell container. The peanut butter cookie base is stuffed with chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, pretzels, white chocolate, and coconut. Every bite is as dynamic as the last, and there are simply so many add-ins in it that you just never know what you're going to get next. 

I think that these cookies would really appeal to someone who wants their baked goods to be fun and unique. Though, the number of add-ins in these cookies is a little problematic, as I was left searching for every flavor in every bite. In other words, I had to think too much about them for them to be enjoyable. While they're not the best cookies that I've ever had, I can appreciate that Aldi perfected the ratio of "stuff" to the peanut buttery cookie base. 

I think that oatmeal raisin cookies are a take-it-or-leave-it flavor. They're far from the worst cookie that you can buy, but they're also far from the best. But one studded with dried cranberries instead of raisins? Now I'm listening. 

When I opened the clamshell container, I was immediately hit by an overwhelming brown sugar aroma. It was tantalizing, and I was even more entranced when I saw the number of cranberries that Aldi added to these cookies. There's a little bit of cranberry in every bite, and it's clear that Aldi doesn't skimp out on the dried fruit. These cookies were a little softer than I expected them to be. They had a very brown sugar-forward flavor that was borderline molasses-y. The dried fruit and the oatmeal pieces kept the cookies very tender, making them easy to break into. I don't think they will be everyone's favorite, since the cranberry flavor is an acquired taste. But I like that you could get away with eating them for breakfast. 

It was around Easter when I visited my Aldi for this review, so I knew I had to include some seasonal offerings on this list — like its carrot cake cookie sandwiches. The concept behind these cookies are so cute; it's kind of like a seasonal take on an oatmeal cream pie. 

These were really well-executed — and they're undeniably gimmicky. The cookies themselves are super soft and studded with raisins and oats, so as you bite in, you almost experience a slightly grainy consistency. I didn't really pick up on the "carrot" end of the equation until a couple bites in, and I still found them to be a little more oatmeal raisin cookie-leaning than carrot-tasting. The cream cheese icing in the middle was expertly done; it was sweet and not gritty, though I would have liked to see a little more of that cream cheese flavor in it. They were so cute, soft, and would appeal to so many different people. Think of it like carrot cake — just more portable and fun. 

I'm an avid baker, so I would say that I have relatively high standards for store-bought baked goods. In order to decide which Aldi items are worth buying, I picked up an array of baked goods from my local store and tasted each one of them on the day I bought it. 

A big part of my ranking was based on how well each baked good compared to other ones I've had before and if it delivered on my expectation for that baked good. For example, if something is labeled as a "Danish," I'm expecting layers of pastry and a tantalizing filling (which is, obviously, not Aldi's strong suit). Items that had a great taste and texture ranked higher than those that were overly sweet. The best baked goods were also approachable and could be enjoyed by a wide audience of sweets lovers.