Part of being a Costco member is getting to know the company’s in-house products and figuring out your favorites. Besides the famous food court and its timeless hot dog deal, there are few departments at the warehouse retailer that are as beloved as the bakery. From cakes and croissants to baguettes and brownies, the smell of these baked goods coming out of the oven can be enough to impulse purchase them on the spot. But which items are made in-house at the Costco bakery, and which are frozen? Now, employees are revealing some of the store’s secrets.
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What Costco bakery items are made in-house?
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In a recent discussion on the Costco subreddit, one customer pointed out that her local Sam’s Club didn’t appear to be baking much of anything on-premise. For comparison’s sake, they asked employees to reveal which items Costco actually makes without the use of a freezer—but some of the answers aren’t as straightforward as you might expect.
According to one employee who says they work as a wrapper in the bakery department, there’s a mix of “from scratch” and frozen items. “When I say ‘from scratch,’ it’s usually a provided dry mix that water, eggs, oil, vanilla, etc. are added to,” they explain.
“The pie crust is made and pressed in-house, and we made the pecan and pumpkin pie fillings from scratch,” they say. “We used to use pre-made apple pie filling, but now the apple pies come frozen, and we just bake them.”
They also clarify that both round and sheet cakes are another in-house item, as well as the store’s popular cheesecakes. “Muffins and quick loaf breads like lemon and banana bread are like the cakes also baked in-house from a mix,” the employee adds.
While it’s technically not baked, another employee explains that a lot of the icings and fillings are also made in-house, including products like cream pies and peanut butter chocolate pies. They also prepare the frosting for the store’s beloved cinnamon rolls, icing for the muffins, white buttercream frosting, and chocolate fudge icing right at the store.
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Which Costco bakery items are baked from frozen?
For as many items get mixed and made on-site, the store bakeries don’t handle every little thing. According to one employee, croissants, buns, chocolatines, and danishes are on the list of items that arrive frozen but unbaked.
“They get proofed and baked in-store, though,” they clarify, often using the store’s proving ovens to cover this first step.
The same thing goes for loaves. “All bread is frozen and then baked, so loaves, artisan rolls, baguettes, bagels,” another employee says. “[The] exception is dinner rolls are made in-house.”
And while many of Costco’s popular cakes might get mixed and made right on-site, not all of their sweet treats can say the same. Employees say that bar cakes are another item that comes frozen before they’re popped into the oven and put out for sale.
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Most customers don’t seem to mind the process.
Learning that you’re paying for “fresh” baked goods that were actually frozen at one point might seem like it would put off customers. But based on the results, many Costco shoppers defended the company’s system.
“It’s not like the product would be better if they made the croissants from scratch at your local warehouse. You’d get more variation,” one user replied.
Yet another shopper explained that Costco is technically still making just about everything the bakery offers, just not all under the same roof.
“Sure, some of it comes in frozen and then is put into an oven and out for sale, but Costco employees [and] machines at Costco’s Commissary Bakeries made those store-level frozen items from scratch,” they say. “It would be impossible at the store level to bake Costco’s daily needs from scratch in its warehouse kitchens.”
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