20 International Costco Bakery Items We Desperately Want To Try In The US

Costco's bakery section is something of a legend — shoppers can lose hours recounting the crunch of the streusel on the cinnamon coffee cake or the delight of sliding a spoon through the velvety texture of the tuxedo mousse chocolate cake. But while Costco U.S. has a robust bakery lineup of its own, it is only once you glance at the bakery staples from its international locations that you realize just how badly we are missing out.

From bulgogi pizza in Korea to gelato in Iceland, Costco's international food court items are known to stir up envy — and the international bakeries are no different. There are the cakes: decadent, moist, and playing host to every flavor imaginable from peaches and cream to almond and salted caramel mousse. Then, there are the bite-sized treats: French butter madeleines, chocolate hazelnut beignets, and crodots, all beckoning hungry shoppers for some indulgent snacking while on the go. If you haven't added Costco's international baked goods to your foodie bucket list yet, this round-up is about to change that.

The roots of shortbread can be traced back to 12th century Scotland, but given the buttery nature of this melt-in-your-mouth delicacy, it comes as little surprise that the United Kingdom wanted in on the action as well. Today, shortbread is a common treat in the region, and if you find yourself roaming the aisles of Costco U.K. at teatime, you'll want to reach for their chocolate-studded shortbread cookies.

Priced at £7.49 for a 15 pack, Costco's iteration dials up the taste of this classic cookie with the addition of Belgian chocolate chunks. As opposed to regular chocolate, the Belgian version is known for being made with 100% cocoa butter, which contributes to a richer taste. When added to Costco's buttery shortbread cookies, you can expect a more intense burst of chocolatey goodness with every bite.

The feeling of biting into a soft, pillowy beignet oozing with chocolate in the middle is unrivaled. While stateside shoppers make do with their imagination, the guesswork has been taken out of the equation for Costco shoppers in the United Kingdom. Mini chocolate hazelnut beignets are easily among the most FOMO-inducing items from Costco U.K.'s bakery section, and with good reason.

Available as a pack of 24 pieces, the mini chocolate hazelnut beignets make for a comforting, chocolate-filled treat dusted off with powdered sugar. If your travels aren't taking you to the U.K. anytime soon, you might want to cross the border to sample Costco Canada's donut section that has an envy-inducing lineup of its own: chocolate hazelnut, red berry, and apple cinnamon beignets.

From raspberry crumble to orange pecan, Costco's cookie aisle is known to exude major main character energy. And if you find yourself in any of its Canadian outposts, you'll want to make a beeline for the toffee-enhanced iteration of its classic chocolate chip cookies.

Priced at $10.99 for a 24-piece pack, how do these stack up against the classic chocolate chip version? The texture and the chewiness are where you can expect to feel the difference. The addition of toffee adds a caramelized hit of chewiness, while maintaining a crisp exterior. The pack comes with a prescribed best-before period of five days from the date of packaging, but if the thought of polishing off 24 cookies in less than a week sounds intimidating, you can always choose to freeze yours in an airtight container to prolong the shelf life.

You might polish off every last crumb of the tuxedo mousse cake and perhaps, you refuse to share a single slice of the cinnamon coffee cake — since Southern Living pronounced it "Costco's best new bakery item in a long while," nobody is blaming you. But as you cross the border over to Canada, you'll find regional staples tempting your palate, such as the maple pecan coffee cake, as well as novel flavor pairings, like the peaches and cream coffee cake.

Priced at $9.99, Costco's peaches and cream iteration infuses its classic coffee cake with the juicy, slightly tart notes of the fruit. A strong infusion of walnut chunks and streusel on the top adds a delectable crunch to the moistness of the cake. If you find yourself in Costco Canada around evening, you can choose to round yours off with a lashing of crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream for the ultimate dessert.

From cranberry orange pecan to raspberry Greek yogurt, you'll never go back to just plain ol' Costco coffee cakes once you set foot on Canadian soil. Another contender for your list of favorites comes in the form of Costco's almond coffee cake — a moist, crumbly iteration that is sure to win over almond lovers.

Priced at $11.99, the cake is made with ground almonds⁣ and baked with a creamy almond filling and buttery streusel. Unlike Costco's almond cake that is topped off with almond flakes, the finishing touches here come in the form of crunchy almond praline, which is then dusted off with a snowy coating of donut sugar⁣.

From the caramel tres leches bar cake to caramel-coated s'more clusters, the Costco bakery loves using caramel in every imaginable way. Pushing the envelope on the range of possibilities is the salted caramel mousse cake, available only in its Canadian locations.

Chocolate and caramel have long served as a match made in dessert heaven, and the Costco bakery leans into this classic flavor pairing for its fresh take on mousse cakes. Priced at $27.99, the cake comes with a traditional chocolate base that is then layered with caramel mousse. The airy texture of the mousse when layered over the dense chocolate notes of the base makes for an unforgettable teatime indulgence. Whenever your travels take you to Canada next, you can give your slice the gourmet treatment by topping it off with whipped cream and chocolate flakes.

Diehard chocolate fanatics may want to proceed with caution beyond this point. While there are endless variations of chocolate cakes lining Costco's shelves in the U.S., Aussie shoppers of the retailer lay claim to a superior variant: the mud cake.

Known for its intensely chocolatey flavor, Costco Australia's iteration of the mud cake is coated with a decadent chocolate ganache on the top with chocolate shavings lining the circumference, making every spoonful feel like digging into an oversized truffle. Priced at $29.99, shoppers have found the size to be extremely generous. Those who couldn't polish off every last crumb in one serving have reported that leftover slices could be easily frozen to be enjoyed at a later date.

Packaged madeleines are a common feature in the Costco bakery section, but there's nothing quite like being greeted with the tempting aroma of freshly baked madeleines as you cross items off your grocery list — an experience that Australian and French shoppers at Costco know all too well.

Available as a pack of 20, Costco's shell-shaped buttery bites are known for their spongy texture spiked with the fragrance of lemon zest. While it is freshly baked everyday in Costco warehouses, you will need to head Down Under to get your fix until it makes its way over to U.S. shelves. Dessert traditionalists, meanwhile, can also stay true to its roots by picking up this buttery treat while strolling through the aisles of Costco France.

Dessert snack buns are a common sight in Korea, but popping by the local Costco there will allow you to broaden your horizons: red bean cream buns, anyone? Available as a pack of six, slicing open the fluffy buns will confront you with red bean paste and a generous serving of fluffy cream.

Red bean paste is a popular addition to sweet as well as savory dishes in Asia. Within the world of Korean confectionery, you'll find it serving as a mouthwatering addition to fish-shaped pastries, pancakes, rice ball cakes, and even as a topping for shaved ice known as patbingsu. If you are looking to ease yourself into its nutty flavors, it is time to petition Costco to bring the red bean cream bun to U.S. shores.

Love croissants? But you also love donuts? If you head to the Costco bakery in Korea, you'll never have to choose again. Say hello to mini crodots, a mash-up of croissants and donuts available as a 16-pack in Costco locations in Korea and Japan. Not to be outdone, shoppers in the U.K. are also quick to flash the highly Instagrammable mini pink croduts – much to the envy of U.S.-based Costco patrons.

The origins of the cronut can be traced back to French chef Dominique Ansel, who originally set out to imagine an inventive Mother's Day treat in 2013. When his girlfriend initially suggested donuts, he recalled turning down the idea in an interview with Tasting Table. "I'm French. I don't have a recipe for doughnuts. I grew up eating croissants," he said. After months of perfecting the recipe for a croissant and donut hybrid, his creation became a gastronomical craze. But for those who can't make the trip out to his New York bakery, it lives on in the form of bite-sized treats in Costco bakeries around the world.

The bakery section of Costco Korea has endless delights to offer, including croffles (a delightful mash-up of croissants and waffles). But if you are craving nutty indulgence, all roads can only lead to the mini walnut pies.

Pecan, apple, and pumpkin usually lead the pack in any ranking of pies available at the Costco bakery. But if you are looking to step out of your comfort zone — and the country as well — the walnut pies will have your heart. Available as a pack of nine, the miniature version makes for a nifty indulgence while on the go. When paired with whipped cream, it can serve as the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee in Korea.

If you are looking for an affordable dessert for a large gathering at home, Costco's cake section is likely your first port of call — especially if you are armed with our round-up of the best ways to upgrade a Costco sheet cake. It would appear, however, that Costco shoppers in Korea don't need to go to these lengths when they have a delectable array of options to choose from, such as the grapefruit and orange cake.

For those who like a tangy infusion of citrus in their desserts, the grapefruit and orange cake available at the Costco bakery in Korea makes for a no-brainer. An elegantly crafted concoction, the multi-layered cake promises oodles of delectable frosting and fruit wedges with every spoonful.

Marble loaf cakes may be a frequent feature in Costco Canada's bakery menu, but its Taiwanese counterpart takes the classic swirls one step further with marble bread. Styled in the shape of cinnamon roll, the marble bread is available as a pack of six. When you pop open the lid, you can expect two failsafe flavors within: butter and chocolate.

The marbled swirl pattern continues beautifully when you slice the bread in half, and one Costco Taiwan customer reported that the inside of the bread doesn't offer the dense moistness you'd expect from a muffin. Instead, you can expect a light and airy texture from the multiple layers of the dough. The chocolate flavor also earns a special mention for offering up a dark, intense flavor without being overly sweet.

You may enjoy your scones, cookies, and cakes, but Costco Taiwan doesn't like to follow the herd. Instead, if you happen to be feeling peckish while strolling the expansive aisles, you might find yourself reaching for unexpected goodies — such as a nine-pack set of Thai milk tea puffs.

At first glance, the orange-red hue will immediately conjure up memories of steaming hot cups of Thai milk tea. And once you bite through the flavored white chocolate crust, you'll get to the real moneymaker: oodles of Thai milk tea-flavored cream oozing out with every bite. While the tea puffs can be enjoyed as they are, Costco Taiwan loyalists on the internet also recommend freezing the batch for creating Thai milk tea ice cream.

The wonders of the Costco bakery in Taiwan never cease to amaze. Case in point: the nine-pack set of pistachio cream choux. After Costco Taiwan's pistachio custard croissants won over shoppers, the retailer has been steadily adding pistachio-themed goodies to its shelves. If you find yourself wandering by the deli section, you'll want to sample some pistachio soft serve ice cream followed by a quick trip to the bakery section for the pistachio cream choux.

If you can handle the FOMO, a quick search on the internet will confront you with endless videos of the crispy shell of the puff being torn apart to reveal pistachio custard cream oozing out leisurely. Just like the Thai milk tea puffs, customers were quick to pop them in the freezer to create a frozen treat that can be enjoyed later in the day.

Costco Japan customers have fond memories of the retailer's pineapple upside cakes while growing up — until the apple-themed iteration entered the chat and immediately stood out as a strong contender. While Costco Canada has its own iteration of pie-style apple cake, Japan honors the essence of the original with a moist cake topped with glazed apple wedges.

Upside-down cakes became a household staple in the 1920s when the Dole Pineapple Company ran a recipe contest featuring canned pineapple. The winning recipe featured an inverted pineapple cake, and after the recipe hit advertisements, it became a nationwide favorite. While Costco Japan's apple-themed offering has yet to hit shelves in the U.S., fans can rejoice with the launch of the Kirkland Pineapple Upside Down Cake at a Costco warehouse in Los Angeles.

Can't quite choose between the buttery goodness of a croissant and a salty pretzel? If you are in Costco Japan, you don't have to make that binary choice ever. Say hello to the croissant bretzel, the triangular lovechild of a croissant and pretzel.

Available in packs of six, the croissant bretzels are crafted from croissant dough imported all the way from Germany and dusted off with assorted grains and seeds. For those looking to make a meal out of it, Costco recommends pairing it with sausage, meat, fish, and other savory items. The buttery, salty nature of the croissant bretzel would likely serve as the perfect combination with this slow-cooked spinach and artichoke dip – even if it can only exist in our collective imagination until it is launched in Costco U.S.

From take-and-bake pizzas to shrimp katsu burgers, the food court at Costco Tokyo will likely leave you spoiled for choice. However, the bakery section has an equal number of delights to offer, like a creamy triple cheese tart.

Unboxing videos on the internet offer a closer look at a crunchy tart shell filled with gooey layers of cheese. True to its name, this tart is crafted from two types of cream cheese and three types of mascarpone. While it is available frozen, it can be consumed either warm or cold as well, and those looking to prolong its shelf life prefer to pop any leftovers in the freezer. When feeling creative, the tart can be topped off with fruit slices, honey, and other imaginative toppings to suit a diverse array of palates and preferences.

For the ultimate afternoon tea experience, you might want to grab the first flight to Costco China. The retailer's outposts in the country play home to an envy-inducing lineup of teatime delights — coconut and tea roll cake, anyone?

Matcha roll cakes are a popular favorite in Japan, and the bakers of Costco China dreamed of an inventive spin on this classic with a coconut and tea roll cake. Available as a pack of four cake rolls, the two tea-flavored options are reported to feature duck s*** oolong tea and coconut longan tea.

While Costco Taiwan shoppers dig into their pistachio cream choux, a different verdant delicacy is taking over the shelves at Costco China: the matcha cream choux. In images shared from Costco's outpost in Shenzhen, an array of mouthwatering goodies have caught the internet's fascination, like the strawberry mousse. However, fans of the classic grassy notes of matcha will have eyes for this green-hued cream choux.

Available in a pack of nine pieces, the matcha cream choux appears to have been baked with a craquelin choux dough for a crispy crust that offers a delightful crackle with every bite. Much like the pistachio cream choux, the shell will likely give way to velvety smooth matcha custard cream for an unforgettable shopping treat while running errands.