Let’s be honest: Groceries aren’t getting any cheaper. In fact, the USDA projects they’ll increase by roughly 3% in 2025. That’s why stores like Aldi are so appreciated. Not only is it one of the most affordable grocery stores, but it prides itself on offering its customers a wide range of high-quality food. Along with finding a plethora of food for a dollar or less at Aldi, you can get the best healthy yet cheap snacks. It even has an extensive selection of pre-packaged baked goods, reminiscent of the ones you’ll see at Walmart or Costco’s bakery section, despite lacking its own in-house bakery. While the company claims its food will taste as good or better than popular brands, this isn’t always the case. Unfortunately, not all of its baked goods are as delicious as they appear. One product you should avoid purchasing is the Bake Shop Raspberry Danish.
Ranked the worst Aldi baked good by the Tasting Table staff, these Danishes are a textural disaster. The perfect Danish should have a laminated dough that features multiple layers of flaky, buttery goodness similar to a croissant. However, Aldi’s version completely lacks those layers. In fact, it seems like this baked good was made with repurposed old bread dough and a mountain of sugar. It looks more like a loaf than a traditional Danish. Plus, it is terribly dry and dense. These Danishes are more comparable to a sweet bread than a berry-centric good. And they have the same lackluster consistency as Aldi’s cinnamon rolls, which also received a low ranking from our team.
Aldi’s Raspberry Danish is loaded with sugar
Although these Danishes are supposed to have a raspberry filling, you’ll have a hard time finding it. When you slice into this dessert, you’ll see two minuscule strips of raspberry jelly in the middle. However, it’s spread so thin you’ll barely taste it when you take your first bite. In order to properly taste the filling, you’ll have to take a bite from the portion of the pastry that actually has jelly in it. And when you finally taste it, you’ll be surprised by how sickly sweet it is.
Made with a combination of seedless raspberry puree, raspberry puree concentrate, black currant juice concentrate, corn syrup, sugar, and high fructose corn syrup, the ingredients list explains why the filling is so sweet. On their own, raspberries have a hint of sweetness that doesn’t need to be amplified with three additional sweeteners. Hence, their natural tartness couldn’t subdue the cavity-induced sweetness. Even the bold tartness of the black currant couldn’t cut through it.
There’s so much sugar in this pastry that each serving (there are eight per container) has 15 grams of added sugar. That’s roughly 30% of the recommended amount of daily consumption. Plus, each serving has 200 calories, 10 grams of fat, and 4.5 grams of saturated fat, so it’s not the healthiest dessert. Even though it costs just $3, it’s not one of the items you should buy if it’s your first time shopping at Aldi.
