9 Walmart Bakery Items, Ranked

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I would consider myself a proficient and halfway decent home baker, but that doesn't mean I neglect my local grocery store's bakery. While I could make many of the treats that line its aisles and cases myself (and probably for cheaper) there's something so easy about adding a clamshell container of whatever — muffins, brownies, blondies, cookies with nuts, cookies without nuts, you know ... the works — to your cart and going on with your day, no dishes, clean-up, or waiting involved. The bakery section also comes in clutch if you have a gathering coming up and don't want to spend several hours laboring over an ill-risen cake, trialing a seemingly impossible recipe, and the like only to have it not go your way, and inevitably causing you to go back to the grocery store bakery with your tail between your legs. 

Walmart features an impressive bakery section that spans a wide range of items, including breads, bagels, cakes, pastries, rolls, and more. It's not odd that Walmart has so many baked goods to choose from, considering it's a very large store to begin with, but that doesn't make it any less daunting when you have to pick one (or a few) items to add to your cart. To help guide you in selecting the best bakery items to buy from Walmart, I scoured its displays to choose some seemingly popular options, tasted them, and ranked them from worst to best based on factors such as flavor, consistency, and whether they could be passed off as homemade or not. 

I'm going to be very honest with you here: I don't like croissants. I especially dislike bad croissants. It's easy to tolerate one that's flaky, crispy, and filled with delicate laminated layers of dough. I also recognize that it's challenging to replicate the high-quality, bakery flavor and texture in a store-bought product, such as these all-butter croissants. 

When I opened the clamshell, I was met with an odor that was not buttery, but plasticky. The croissants themselves are sizable and look pretty good, but all hope was lost when I picked one up and found that it was almost sticky. I think this is because the croissants were sitting out too long and had lost all their flakiness. The package recommends putting them in the oven for a couple of minutes before eating, but if I'm in a rush in the morning, I'm not going to take the time to preheat the oven and patiently wait for my croissant to be finished. They taste like soggy potato bread more than a delicate pastry, and I think if you took them to a Parisian bakery and called them croissants, you would be laughed at. 

Just for giggles, I tried baking these croissants in the oven as recommended and found that, while it did crisp up the outer layers of the pastry, it did nothing for the soggy and bready interior. These Marketside croissants have reaffirmed my belief that you should not only eat fresh croissants, but also always buy them from a bakery instead.

How cute is this apple pie? While Freshness Guaranteed also sells a full-sized version, I was able to find quite a selection of mini apple pies in my store as well. Unfortunately, cute was the only thing that this little double-crusted pie had going for it. When I picked up the cardboard to put it in my cart, I found that it was cold — an indication that it had arrived at the store frozen. I didn't necessarily knock the brand just for this, seeing as most of its bakery items are probably frozen for shipping, but it certainly didn't do the brand any favors. 

I know my way around an apple pie, so I had low hopes for this mini version. I grew up having store-bought apple pies in my house, and I am used to the cloying, gelatinous filling that tasted nothing like fresh apples. That was also the case here, and the coldness didn't help the texture of the apples, either. I also had to knock this brand down for its crust, which wasn't buttery. When I shoved my fork into the center of the pie, the crust shattered around it, rather than having the soft give of a quality pie crust. The dough's flavor wasn't particularly buttery, and it didn't enhance the pie filling in any way. 

This dessert is just as I expected: A store-bought version of a pie that should always be homemade. It's novel, but that's about the only thing it has going for it. 

When I created my shopping list for the review, I clearly wrote "cupcakes" on it — but ended up bringing home a single serving of this white cake with buttercream icing instead, simply because it was more convenient. Like many of the other single-serve products on the list, I appreciate that Walmart carries a pint-size version of its classic baked goods, for when that craving hits. I didn't need a 24-pack of mini vanilla cupcakes when this small slice of sheet cake would work just as well. 

This white cake with buttercream is exactly what its label claims: no frills, add-ons, or funky flavors here. I will say that its cake-to-icing ratio is a little off for my taste; there is only a thin sliver of frosting atop an already very sweet white cake — which is quite moist. If the icing were about half as sweet, I would feel better about doubling how much there was on the cake. The piped rose on top of the cake was also a nice touch, making me feel like I was getting more than just a slab of sheet cake.

The base of this cake is a little too sweet for my liking and tastes a whole lot like Walmart's pound cake — affirming that its pound cake is made with the exact same recipe. It's hefty for its price and would make a good dessert for two, but I wouldn't buy it again due to its overwhelming sweetness.

Walmart offers a variety of store-bought chocolate chip cookies, available in both its snack aisle and bakery. I tried the single-serve Freshness Guaranteed cookie for this review, though you can also find bite-sized ones, chocolate chunks, and even a sugar-free version under the Freshness Guaranteed and Marketside labels. Now, I'm a chocolate chip cookie snob, so it takes a whole lot for this timeless cookie to knock my socks off. As I suspected, the Freshness Guaranteed cookie did not do that. 

Walmart was smart not to take a side in the "crunchy" versus "chewy" debate, as it doesn't indicate the texture on the label. I was glad that it was soggy and not stale, and that it was jam-packed with chocolate chips. However, my positives end there. This cookie's texture was mealy, and it lacked the buttery depth that I was looking for. Instead of leaving behind a clean mouthfeel, I felt that an oily lacquer stuck to my taste buds and infiltrated subsequent bites. This cookie was sweet — though it was not really pulling its weight as far as the brown sugar flavor goes. There was nothing about it that was remarkable or would make me say, "Man, you know what I'm craving? A cookie from the Walmart bakery." If you served it to me at a conference or on a cookie tray, I would probably eat one, but I'm not actively going to seek it out or add it to my grocery list, especially when I can make a better version of it at home. 

I don't actively seek out donuts, but if there is a box of Krispy Kremes lying around, I will snag one. In general, I find these donuts are really hard to mess up — especially compared to other types of donuts (like old-fashioned, which have to be cooked just right so they're not greasy, overcooked, or dry). These Walmart glazed donuts looked interesting on the shelf, though not in a good way. There was a coating of icing on the top of the donut, but not on the bottom. When I picked one up, I could see that the top and some of the sides were coated in icing, but the bottom was barren and dry. As such, I would say that these are more like unfrosted vanilla donuts than true glazed donuts. 

The good news was that these donuts were not sweet. The bad news, however, was that these donuts weren't sweet. Usually, that sugary glaze helps hide the fact that the donuts are super greasy and heavy. I could feel the heartburn mounting as I took two bites, then put down the donut for good. From a quality perspective, I thought the glazed donuts were leaps and bounds above the chocolate chip cookies, seeing as they were easier to eat. However, the glaze just wasn't enough to warrant buying them again. The higher-ranked options just had better flavors and textures than these sad donuts. 

Like the white cake with buttercream icing, this slice of New York cheesecake was pretty hefty, considering it's a single serving. Besides the Graham cracker base, it looks fairly monochrome in color, which is to be expected with a store-bought cheesecake. I'm glad I tasted it after the cake slice, seeing as its flavor had a good balance of tangy and sweet; my palate was glad to have a little bit of a break from the unrelenting sugar that this ranking offered. 

Structurally, this cheesecake is quite solid. It's well-baked, well-sweetened (though not too heavily), and could probably pass for a bakery's version — if it wasn't for that poor Graham cracker crust. Since it's made with perishable dairy ingredients, Walmart kept it in the refrigerated cooler. Over time, the condensation and moisture took a toll on the crust, softening it to the point where it felt like wet bread rather than a contrasting, slightly crunchy base. I also have a feeling that the cooler (or perhaps a slightly longer time in the oven) caused the cream cheese center to thicken, making it a little too stick-to-your-ribs, even for a cheesecake. 

If I slathered some strawberry sauce or chocolate sauce on this cheesecake and ate it, I don't think I would be able to focus so much on its consistency and soggy bottom. But as it stands, it's not an item I would buy again from Walmart's bakery. 

I have made (and eaten) my fair share of store-bought brownie mixes over the years, yet I don't usually pick up a pack of them from the store's bakery, seeing as it's so easy to make them at home. But if I were craving a fudge brownie in a pinch, or wanted a chocolatey topping for my coffee ice cream, I would definitely add a pack of these Walmart fudge brownies to my cart. 

When I picked up the package of four brownies, I noticed two things: they are ridiculously heavy and freakishly uniform — like Walmart has a frosting-piping machine in its bakery just for its brownies. I was also greeted by a perfuming chocolatey flavor from the clamshell container, which was completely and utterly tantalizing. I almost melted on the first bite of these brownies, given their extreme moistness and density. There is definitely no confusion between these and cakey brownies. 

Did Walmart need to add a coating of fudge icing to the top of these treats? No, but I'm glad it did. I had tried Great Value's canned chocolate frosting before, and I was worried that this one would be just as cloying and overpowering as the canned stuff — but it wasn't. The only place where I would dock points here is on its overall mouthfeel. I'm not sure what the reason is, but these brownies taste like they were bought from a store, rather than homemade — they're almost too moist and fudgy. 

A single-serve blueberry muffin? Walmart's bakery is clearly evolving, as I didn't have to settle for a four-pack of massive, almost-as-big-as-my-head muffins and a party-sized bin of bite-sized ones. This muffin boasts not only an ample number of blueberries but also a streusel topping. It was a very pretty muffin (though arguably not as enticing as Dunkin's blueberry muffins, which are one of my favorites from the chain), and I was excited to try it. 

Unlike most fast-food or bakery muffins, this one was exceptionally moist. Once I bit into it, I was met with a subtle berry flavor, a soft, pillowy cake, and a couple of errant pieces of sugar on top of the muffin, which I assume stems from the streusel coating. As I had learned very quickly in this ranking, Walmart loves to add more than enough sugar to its baked goods — but the flavor of this one was rather restrained. Some of the sweetness could be credited to the plump blueberries, which tasted real rather than dehydrated and rehydrated. 

I had very few critiques for this muffin, aside from the fact that it could have added more coarse sugar on top of its muffin and tried to keep the streusel crispier so that it better complemented the base of the muffin. But other than that, I was floored by it — and could definitely see myself buying a multi-pack of them again. 

I had a good feeling about these cinnamon rolls from the start, seeing as there is more than enough icing smothered on the top of them. All too often, the icing is added as an afterthought and breaks off in shards. This one soaked into the actual buns, imbuing them with a slightly tangy (and not overtly sweet, luckily) filling. The rolls were hefty and came four to a pack. While they're the most costly item on this whole list, I can tell you that they are the real deal, and more than worth buying. 

The first thing I loved about these rolls was that they weren't sweet. The cinnamon-sugar filling between the rolls was almost spicy, giving the dough an edge. These rolls were also plush and soft (borderline underdone), which made them all the more delicious to peel and eat. Walmart did not skimp on the cinnamon filling, and it came through beautifully against the subtly tangy icing. When I warmed these rolls up, as recommended on the packaging, they became that much more decadent. 

Anyone who has made their own cinnamon rolls before will tell you this: They're a pain in the neck. The proofing, the waiting, the kneading, the resting — it's a lot of work for a cinnamon roll, which is why they're often reserved for special occasions. But I can assure you that these rolls are the special occasion, and something that you'll want to keep stocked in your kitchen. As the kids say, "No notes!"

It was very difficult to select which bakery items to include in this roundup, as Walmart's bakery carries almost every type of treat you could imagine. For brevity, I chose to focus on the ones that I thought would be the most universally recognizable or well-liked, which meant trading the mini palmiers for a chocolate chip cookie. I also tried to buy in small, single-serve sizes where possible, not only to reduce food waste, but to get a sampling of what I'd consider Walmart's bakery impulse buys. In addition, I opted to avoid repetition, choosing one food from categories like cakes, brownies, and cookies — arguably, you could write a ranking of each of these categories. 

Once I had all the baked goods, I tasted them at room temperature and, if the packaging noted it, heated them. I compared the flavor and consistency to those of other baked items I've had, as well as the homemade versions I've made over the years. For an item to rank high on this list, it had to have a compelling flavor, an appropriate texture, and something that made me want to not only take another bite of it, but also go out and buy another package for later. While not all of them could be passed off as homemade, the top contenders were all tasty enough to keep me coming back for more.