The Hands-Down Best Items From The Kroger Bakery, According To Reviews

When you have a hankering for something sweet, you have a few options to satisfy your craving. First, you could bake something yourself. Sure, it's a fair amount of work and time, but, if you're a decent enough baker, it's a great solution. However, if you're not a great baker, perhaps you consider option two: Visiting a bakery. Of course, you'll want to choose the best bakery in your state to really get the creme de la creme if you're going to be spending your hard-earned money. But maybe you don't live near the best bakery in your state, or even one that's halfway decent. If that's the case, you'll want to head to the bakery section of your nearest grocery store. And, if that grocery store happens to be a Kroger (or one of its subsidiaries, like Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Sooper, or Food 4 Less), you'll want to get the best of the best.

That's where we come in. We scoured online reviews and comments and determine that the following items are the best you can buy at any Kroger bakery. For the most accurate data sample, we opted only for bakery items under Kroger's store brands, like Bakery Fresh and Private Selection. Whether you're looking for a sweet morning treat or something worthy of celebration, the baked goods to follow will get the job done.

If you're a fan of all things pumpkin spice and you haven't tried these cookies from Kroger, what are you doing? As part of the supermarket chain's Bakery Fresh line, the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Soft Top Cookies are a hit even when a fall breeze isn't in the air.

Soft and cake-like in texture, these cookies are true to their name. Crunchy cookie fans may cringe, but those who prefer a softer bite –– perhaps even bordering on underbaked –– will certainly enjoy what's inside the plastic clamshell container. The ratio of chocolate to pumpkin is perfection, according to some happy customers, and the deliciousness is dialed up even further after a quick zap in the microwave. Plenty of Redditors also espouse the merits of these cookies, which some say might be the best the grocery store chain offers. However, like most pumpkin spice items, these are a seasonal offering rather than a year-round staple, so we advise stocking up when they're around (and maybe freezing extras to reheat later when pumpkin season has passed).

Another seasonal soft top cookie from Kroger's Bakery Fresh line, another stellar baked good. This time, apple is the star of the show in the grocery store's Apple Cinnamon Soft Top Cookies. For apple purists, you'll be happy to know that real pieces of apple are scattered among the cookies, and cinnamon chips help add that necessary burst of fall flavor.

Like the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, the apple cinnamon variety are also only around during the fall months, much to the disappointment of fans who crave that soft, cakey texture and slight apple chew year-round. Multiple customers described this flavor as their favorite cookie ever, with one Redditor saying, "These are the greatest cookies I've ever put in my mouth." Since the seasonality of this sought-after item prohibits people from enjoying it whenever a craving arises, there are some copycat recipes in the same Reddit thread that purport to taste pretty dang close to the real deal. If you do have the OG, try warming them up a bit for maximum tastiness.

Two pastries combine forces for Kroger's Bakery Fresh Madeline and Brownie Bites. Madeleines are a buttery French sponge-cake-like cookie with a delicate flavor and a unique shell shape that requires a special tin. Brownies, of course, are those fudgy, chocolatey morsels that can be jazzed up with a little egg magic or made healthy with the help of cottage cheese. While both treats are delicious on their own, they have vastly different textures, which makes us wonder why Kroger decided to combine them in the first place.

That being said, this decadent duo seems to work. Each bite eschews the iconic madeleine shell shape for a rounder look that resembles those two-bite brownies with which so many of us are familiar. Described as having the ideal firmness of both madeleine cake and brownie, these peanut-free bites are a surprising hit among customers. The combo apparently works because of the difference in texture, not in spite of it. Rich, soft, and slightly crisp, they're at least worth trying once.

The first treat to appear from Kroger's Private Selection line comes in the form of Toffee Apple Pie. The Private Selection brand in the store seeks to offer customers a more gourmet, upscale experience in the comfort of the familiar grocery store. On the packaging, this pie boasts a rich and flaky crust and touts that it's made with apples direct from the orchard.

The Toffee Apple Pie is part apple crisp and part apple pie, a dessert that swaps the traditional double crust of the latter for the crumbly topping of the former. True to its name, the pie has apples listed as the first ingredient and butter toffee (which is not to be confused with caramel) not too far after. The result is a delicious favorite among Kroger's customers, who compliment the buttery crust, hand-sliced apples, and perfect streusel. The toffee flavor is primarily concentrated in the streusel topping, with cinnamon and other warming fall spices showing up more prominently in the apple filling. Overall, it's a winning treat and one that Kroger fans warn sells out quickly when it hits store shelves.

For a breakfast pick-me-up that's sweet but not too sweet, you might consider turning to Kroger's Bakery Fresh Cream Cheese Filled Croissants. While grocery store croissants are rarely anything like what you'd find in a genuine patisserie, if you treat these pastries like the danishes they really are, it's a much more successful endeavor.

To start, these laminated treats aren't shaped like a croissant. While pain au chocolat isn't quite croissant-shaped, either, it's also not these flatter rectangles with a cream cheese filling in the center. However, once you accept that these croissants aren't really croissants at all, you can enjoy them for what they are, which is a tasty pastry.

With just the right amount of sweetness and no added glaze, icing, or drizzle to push them into cloying territory, these treats are a win for customers who like to start (or end) their day with a little bit of sugar. These croissants taste good, but the texture may leave a bit to be desired. To really amp up the flakiness, we suggest popping them in your toaster oven or air fryer for a couple minutes and then digging in.

Cookies and cream is a popular flavor variety that's appeared in everything from candy bars to Starbucks bakery items to ice cream pints and everywhere in between. The conceit is a white chocolate base with pieces of chocolate cookies –– frequently Oreos, or Oreo-adjacent –– scattered throughout. Kroger offers a few items on its shelves in the cookies and cream flavor, but it's the Cookies & Creme Cake from its Bakery Fresh Line that's worthy of note.

The cake is a rich chocolate layer cake with cookie pieces mixed in and layers of creamy frosting. It's iced in the same creamy frosting, rolled in cookie crumbs, and finished with large chunks of cookies as decoration. An overload of sugar for even the staunchest sweet tooth, to be sure, but it's still a treat that's worth adding to your cart at least on special occasions.

Happy cake-buying customers describe the Cookies & Creme Cake as moist and fudgy with the right balance of chocolate and cream. The 16.7-ounce cake serves six, making it ideal for smaller gatherings rather than large birthday parties. Be sure to get this one if you're looking to see what the fuss is about –– Kroger has other cookies and cream cakes (like a cake slice and cake square) that don't fare quite so well.

Cream cheese and red velvet are a stellar combo, and even grocery store Kroger does the decadent duo justice with its Cream Cheese Iced Red Velvet Cake. Another confection found under the Bakery Fresh umbrella, the cake is two layers of red velvet sponge with cream cheese icing in between and generous coating of cream cheese icing all over the entire cake. It's finished with rosettes of yet more cream cheese frosting and red velvet cake crumbs spackled around the sides and dusted on top.

Another red velvet cake from Kroger made our list of the best store-bought red velvet cakes, but it appears that Kroger apparently no longer carries it; some customers have suggested this version is a redesign, but it's quite different in terms of construction and garnish. What's not different, fortunately, is the flavor — this will the red velvet void in your life. Moist, not too sweet, and with a plush texture, it's more than able to complete the job of after dinner treat or celebratory birthday dessert.

Nothing can compete with a freshly-baked donut. Served piping hot and either dusted in sugar or enrobed in a sweet glaze, there's simply no comparing a freshly fried donut to its store-bought counterpart. That being said, there is something worth checking out when it comes to Kroger's Bakery Fresh Churro Donut Bites. This new product is a poppable, bite-sized piece of fried dough that's been dusted in cinnamon sugar. Kroger's website says they're soft and fluffy on the inside, a texture that's probably heightened when it gets nuked in the microwave for a few seconds. In fact, customers agree that these churro donut holes are at their best when warmed up and dipped in syrup, with one calling them "stupid good."

To really take these donut bites to the next level, take a page out of Kroger's playbook. On the brand's Instagram account, it's recommended that you pop a few of these bites into a parfait cup, drizzle in some caramel, add some chunks of apple (and even some M&Ms) and bask in the sugary, fall-themed goodness.

The last item that's a must-try from Kroger and its affiliate grocery stores comes in the form of its Tuxedo Mousse Layer Cake. The only other Private Selection item to make the cut, this dessert features layers of marble cake alternating with layers of dark and white chocolate mousses. The whole thing is finished with a dark chocolate ganache, promising a taste that any chocolate lover will adore.

Now, anyone who's a Costco shopper knows that the warehouse giant offers a behemoth of a tuxedo layer cake. It's delicious, but perhaps a little overwhelming for those who have smaller families or fewer occasions but still want a taste of the good stuff. Fortunately, that's where Kroger comes in. Shoppers can get their Tuxedo Mousse Layer Cake as a whole cake or a single slice, depending on their appetite, and both are nothing short of decadent. Described by one reviewer as "restaurant quality" with just the right amount of chocolate flavor without going overboard, this grocery store sweet might just replace your Costco go-to.

To determine the best items from Kroger's bakery section, I selected baked goods with positive consensus reviews from Kroger's website as well as other positive reviews and reactions from other social media and online platforms. I prioritized those with several reviews where customers went into detail describing their experience with each baked good, elevating those that specifically discussed tastes, textures, and whether they'd buy the item again.