Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Desserts, Ranked

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Trader Joe’s is absolutely awash in delectable items. From sweet treats to an impressive range of snacks, from meats to a truly staggering array of cheeses, you can check off your entire grocery list at this nationwide chain. 

But what about TJ’s gluten-free dessert options? Turns out they’ve got quite a few, so we decided to test them all. To do so, we invited family friends over, because the mom has celiac disease and cannot tolerate gluten in any amount. We felt that since she has such a wide range of experience with gluten-free baked goods, her opinion — and that of her family, which eats predominantly gluten-free products as well — would be valuable. Thus, this taste test brought quite a crowd to the table: the husband, small girl, and small boy of standard taste tests (see: our rankings of Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas and flatbreads), as well as a loaner husband, wife, and two small girls.

Note that many of the products below are better when accompanied by a beverage. If you’re eating a muffin or madeleine, we recommend coffee or tea. For a cookie, a classic glass of milk is best for dunking … but that’s just us. Without further ado, here are several gluten-free TJ’s treats, ranked for your consideration.

We should acknowledge from the outset that, even though we were not particular fans of the Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread, it probably wasn’t quite fair to classify it in the dessert category by itself. As a general rule, cinnamon raisin bread of any kind — from Food For Life Flourless Sprouted Grain Bread to Dave’s Killer Bread Cinnamon Raisin Remix Bagels — is meant to be toasted and accompanied by a spread of some kind. Butter, cream cheese, a little honey, at least … we’re trying to have a society here. Our families, on the other hand, tasted it untoasted and dry. Like I said: not quite fair.

That said, this bread was a bit bland except for the raisins, of which there weren’t that many. It’s nice that the loaf was smaller, more toddler-sized than adult-sized. For $4.49, though, we didn’t mind. The main reason we ranked it last was that, when we’d finished discussing, we all agreed that a regular piece of bread would have been just as good, either plain or buttered.

Most people love a good chocolate muffin. The Kirkland Signature Muffins from Costco rank among the most delicious out there, but a DIY option like the Krusteaz Double Chocolate Muffin Mix is always tasty, too. (At least, if you like boxed baked goods, for which this writer has a serious weakness.) So we were primed to like the Gluten Free Double Chocolate Muffins, which were $5.99 for four and seemed like a pretty good deal. They weren’t terrible, that much is true. However, while they had a nice, rich chocolate flavor, they were kind of dry. This is definitely an example of where a hot bevy would have been nice.

Also, the label was a bit misleading. The “double” chocolate part comes from the cocoa powder in the batter and the chocolate chips that are ostensibly in them, but which were scant. Indeed, it was news when someone got a chocolate chip in their section of muffin … of eight sections, two people found them. The loaner husband’s feedback was, “I’m kind of upset about it.” The loaner wife, who is perhaps more routinely disappointed by baked goods than those of us who can eat wheat, was fatalistically unsurprised.

It’s worth noting that when I wasn’t tasting eight baked goods in a row and had half a muffin, I did enjoy it a bit more. As with any other type of food, hunger is the best seasoning. If you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy these muffins in a vacuum, go for it.

The history of the madeleine is a bit muddy. These classic French cookies are said to have been invented in the 1800s by a pastry chef named Jean Avice, or in the 1700s by a girl named Madeleine who baked them up according to her grandmother’s recipe and sold them at market … et voilà, this beloved teeny sponge cake was born.

Whatever their origin, today we know them as a treat that appears to be a cookie but tastes like a cake, with a shell pattern on one side and a distinctive bump on the other. They’re somewhat polarizing: People who like madeleines really like them, while those who don’t are pretty meh. Our team was pretty evenly divided into enthusiasm and apathy, but for $3.49, the stakes weren’t that high. Overall, they were pretty good, even according to those who don’t care. They’re very moist, have a nice vanilla-lemon flavor, and have a perfect crumb. Honestly, they taste better than the with-gluten version. The elder of the small loaner daughters chose to go in for seconds, if that helps. Overall, their place in the ranking was determined more by other treats being better than by their being disappointing.

Traditionally, I try to avoid anything that is individually wrapped, because there’s just so much plastic waste involved. In the case of madeleines, however, you have very few store-bought options, and it seems like, due to their delicacy, you have very few options that aren’t. For instance, the Donsuemor Traditional Madeleines are also individually wrapped, so when trying to decide between TJ’s and another product, this isn’t a distinguishing factor.

For $4.99, Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies were a fine deal, several inches across with more than a dozen per box. They were crisp and salty, with a nice snap that was closer to a biscuit than a cookie. If you like crunchy cookies, which I do, then you’ll like this one. Most people at the table, however, like a softer cookie, so these weren’t as popular as they would have been if they’d had a bit more give. Also, while salt and chocolate are happy bedfellows, we all agreed these ones took the salt overboard a bit.

This treat was another polarizing one. It ranked higher than other treats on the list because chocolate chip cookies are so good, and everyone loves them. However, in an apples-to-apples comparison of chocolate chip cookies, this one definitely loses to the Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies, which were bigger, softer, chocolatier, and not as salty. Unless you love that gingersnap texture, opt for our No. 2 ranking instead. On the other hand, says the loaner wife, if you do want a crunchy version, you might want to try Tate’s Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies, because they’re a bit caramelized.

There is one possible exception, however. The well-styled image on the Trader Joe’s website shows these cookies crumbled over chocolate chip ice cream. I definitely want to try this, because the saltiness and chocolate would probably complement the creaminess of the ice cream perfectly.

Writing this article has made me realize how many desserts are polarizing. This is true of all foods to some extent, but it is particularly true of desserts … perhaps because the sweetness leads people to believe that everyone should like every dessert on account of sugar being so amazing. It is, of course, which is why almost no one refuses dessert of any kind.

That said, when given the choice, people have strong opinions about it, and oatmeal cookies bring those opinions to the forefront. In our house, for instance, they are scarce because I’m the shopper and baker and do not like them. The husband, on the other hand, loves them, mostly because they’re usually soft and chewy. For him, these cookies were a dream, just as soft and chewy as anyone could hope, while the slight crispness around the edges marked their cookie heritage. The coconut flavor adds an unusual depth, nor did Trader Joe’s neglect the classic addition of raisins. To those who like oatmeal cookies, these are an excellent use of $4.99. To those who didn’t care, they were a shrug, per usual.

Whoever came up with Oreos is an absolute genius — and believe it or not, it wasn’t Nabisco, the original creator of the Oreo. While today Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are the poster child for chocolate biscuits with creamy filling, the title of Creator actually goes to Hydrox. Any time you feel offended on behalf of Oreos by the number of cheap knockoffs, remember that.

In any case, Hydrox has today inspired so many knockoffs that it’s hard to know which one to choose. Trader Joe’s, for instance, modeled its Chocolate Vanilla Creme Joe-Joe’s after them, with alternate flavors and holiday spinoffs galore — Cinnamon Bun Joe-Joe’s, for instance, or Easter Joe-Joe’s dipped in pastel chocolate coating. Happily for the gluten-free set, TJ’s also offers a non-wheat version: Gluten Free Joe-Joe’s Chocolate Vanilla Creme Cookies. You can expect an equivalent amount to what you’d find in a traditional package of Oreos for $4.49, which is a good price. The biscuit is nice and crisp, lacking the common gluten-free flavor and texture issues.

The filling is also tasty, if decidedly skimpy. This engendered most of the criticism of the night, with all parties comparing their cookies to the photo and loudly complaining about false advertising. “It should say, ‘filling is smaller than it appears.'” On principle, we couldn’t rate it higher because of that; otherwise, it would have snagged the top spot. Still, they were quite good, and both the small boy and the smaller of the small loaner daughters had seconds.

If you love a chewy chocolate chip cookie, then you will double-love this version. They are nice and salty without overdoing it like their crispier cousins, the Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. The chocolate chunks were the right size and there were plenty of them, but not so much that the cookie fell apart or felt overrun. Each cookie was perfectly chewy, with a slightly crisp edge that separated them from the brownie or bar category. At $4.99 for six, they were less than a dollar each, which is a major price downgrade from bakery cookies.

As an added bonus, you really couldn’t tell they were gluten-free. They had the same distinctive, developed, gluten-y texture of cookies made with wheat flour, and they were the better for it. These would be perfect served to Santa or as an after-dinner treat for people you weren’t trying to impress, but still wanted to please. The small girl wanted seconds on this one when the taste test was over, and I didn’t blame her: So did I.

Welcome to the most epic of all Trader Joe’s gluten-free treats: the Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins. It is truly difficult to express how divine these were. You’d never know they were gluten-free, because they had absolutely every trait you’d look for in the gluten-iest of gluten-full muffins. They were soft and moist, with a deep and buttery cinnamon flavor. They had a nice, tender crumb, not falling apart as some gluten-free baked goods do. For $5.99, they were a perfectly reasonable addition to your brunch menu or morning treats for the week.

Their only downside is that they were a bit gluey, a criticism given by the loaner wife, the only one of the two families who actually can’t eat gluten and knows what she’s talking about. This is a risk you run, of course, whenever you don’t use flour, because gluten-free products require so many additives to try and emulate the magic of gluten protein. Her suggested fix was simply to have it with coffee, in which case dipping or sipping would distract from the texture a little bit. Still, overall, this was the best dessert on the table, so we say: Go for it.

I found 10 desserts on the TJ’s website that are labeled “gluten-free.” While they obviously have a ton of other gluten-free options, such as gluten-free candies, mochi, and chocolate bars, we felt the intent of this article was desserts that are normally gluten-full and have been made gluten-free. Thus, you will only find options on this list that have the official label. Also, note that a few of the options we found were out at the store we visited: the Gluten Free Strawberry Muffins and the Super Chocolatey Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough (which, in any case, was not a finished product and therefore didn’t meet the brief that well).

To taste these, all eight of us gathered around the table and tasted them one at a time. We ranked desserts based on flavor, quality, and how well they match the promises made on the packaging. (See: the chocolate muffins that seriously lacked chocolate chips.) Once we’d tasted them all, we debated their place in the ranking. Although every taste test is, of course, subjective, this list represents as much objectivity as two Trader Joe’s-shopping families can offer.