Why You Don't Want To Buy Baking Products From Trader Joe's
If you've got a sweet tooth, baking at home is a great way to spend a weekend and stock up on treats you can snack on all week long. For anyone who is looking to pick up baking as a hobby, you might need to stock up on some new kitchen gadgets, too. According to a pastry chef, some of the tools every beginner baker should own include a good set of mixing bowls and a silicone spatula. Once you have your baking equipment organized, you'll need to get your ingredients — but don't plan to grab those on your next Trader Joe's grocery run.
While many people have raved about Trader Joe's pre-made desserts, if you're planning on whipping up your own dessert it turns out that it's not the best place to buy baking staples like flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. According to Allrecipes, the baking products at Trader Joe's can be more expensive than at other stores, and Trader Joe's doesn't give you too many options to choose from. Plus, when it comes to quality, there's one particular baking staple that just doesn't hold up.
You can find baking staples cheaper at other stores
While it may be convenient to grab baking ingredients at Trader Joe's, you'll find it cheaper to shop at stores like Aldi or Costco. For example, a five-pound bag of flour from Trader Joe's costs $4.49 while you can snag five pounds of flour from Aldi for just $2.45. And if you plan on doing a lot of baking, the best deal is at Costco, where you can purchase 25 pounds of flour for $12.99. Similarly, an Allrecipes comparison of ingredients found that Aldi has the cheapest butter and sugar while eggs were cheapest at Costco.
Besides the price point, there's also quality. In an article for Allrecipes, Courtney Kassel writes that when she was a recipe tester, chefs often specifically called out Trader Joe's powdered sugar because of its lack of cornstarch. Kassel explains that cornstarch prevents powdered sugar from clumping, so Trader Joe's powdered sugar might have a negative effect on recipes like macarons. While prices may fluctuate and differ across stores, generally, Trader Joe's is more expensive, so if you're looking to save money, the better option is likely Aldi or Costco.