14 Trader Joe's Baking Finds Every Pantry Needs

Trader Joe's may draw customers in with pre-baked goods, like its French-inspired olive fougasse, its old-school glazed sour cream donuts, and its easily elevated mini sheet cakes. That doesn't mean, however, that this chain has nothing to offer home bakers. Its assortment of baking supplies is a small but select one, with every item chosen for its quality.

If you're a beginning baker or simply short on time, you'll appreciate all of the Trader Joe's boxed mixes on offer. If you're into organic ingredients, TJ's has you covered too. Other items are geared towards baking gourmet goodies, while some capitalize on the latest trends or lean into seasonal flavors.

Many items on our list are long-time favorites that should be around for a while, while others are limited time and likely to be gone with the season. Not that this is always set in stone, since at times, Trader Joe's inventory seems to change more rapidly than the weather. You never know what you'll find on any given visit, which is what makes shopping there both fun and frustrating. Overall, we feel that fun is winning out, including with baking staples.

Before Golden Doodles, Labradoodles, and Aussiedoodles, we had snickerdoodles, a cookie that's almost as sweet and nearly as beloved as all the doggie doodles. The basic cookies are cinnamon-flavored, but if you throw in a few more spices, you have pumpkin spice, also known as the official flavor of fall. In addition to cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and clove, Trader Joe's Pumpkin and Spice Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix also includes powdered pumpkin for all-natural orange color. Simply add butter, milk, and an egg, and with minimal effort you'll have the perfect fresh-baked accompaniment to your PSL. A 17.57-ounce box will cost you $3.99.

Flour is just about the most basic baking staple there is since very few baked goods don't include it. Trader Joe's offers two different kinds to suit your purposes: a 5-pound bag of budget-friendly Unbleached Enriched All-Purpose Flour for $2.99 and a 5-pound bag of American-grown, minimally processed Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour for $5.49.

Putting cookies inside cookies? Yes, Trader Joe's went there. Or rather, you can go there with a little help from a package of Trader Joe's Cookies and Creme Cookie Mix, which costs $3.99 for a 14.4-ounce box. The end result will be kind of like chocolate chip cookies, except that the chips are white chocolate and the cookies will also be filled with broken bits of Joe-Joe's.

Turbinado sugar is the least-processed kind of cane sugar, which is why it's sometimes also known as raw sugar. (Technically, it's not exactly raw, but it's as close as you can get while still being edible.) Trader Joe's Fair Trade Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar comes in a 24-ounce bag and costs $3.49. It's similar to brown sugar in appearance and flavor and can actually be swapped out for this ingredient. That's not all it can do, though — its large, crunchy crystals make it excellent for sprinkling over cakes, cookies, or muffins before baking.

If you want to bake a batch of something fall flavored but you're sick and tired of pumpkin bread, Trader Joe's has another option: Maple Butterscotch Blondie Baking Mix. This new item — which comes in a 17.49-ounce box for $4.99 — consists of a maple base with maple bits and a packet of butterscotch sauce for drizzling over the top. Melt some butter, stir it into the mix along with an egg, bake, and enjoy your ABCs: autumnal bar cookies. As this item is so very seasonal, it will likely be gone once the shelves fill up with winter holiday stuff. With any luck, though, it will be back again next year.

It may seem like Trader Joe's is always discontinuing your favorite products, but that's unlikely to be the case with the Brownie Truffle Baking Mix. This beloved item has been available for a quarter century and counting. We're not sure what the "truffle" part of the name refers to, but the inclusion of both cocoa powder and chocolate chips in the mix makes these brownies double-chocolatey delicious. A 16-ounce box will cost you $3.99.

The marshmallows from Trader Joe's ($2.99 for 10 ounces) are full-sized and fluffy and just right for Rice Krispies treats or marshmallow frosting. Trader Joe's Mini Maple Flavored Marshmallows are a seasonal item ($2.99 for 6 ounces) that could be used as a tasty topping for baked apples or combined with walnuts and pumpkin bars for fall-flavored rocky road. The maple version of the product may last up through Thanksgiving, unless it sells out first. Come winter, though, it'll be swapped out for mini marshmallows flavored with peppermint.

Forget green eggs and ham; would you eat purple pancakes? If your answer is no, you're really missing out, since Trader Joe's Ube Mochi Pancake and Waffle Mix makes a pretty amazing breakfast. The pancakes (or waffles), which are made with purple yam puree, are every bit as tasty as they are colorful, and this gluten-free mix makes them super-easy. A 13.3-ounce box will cost you $3.99.

Salted caramel first came to most people's attention back in the early 2000s, but it gets trendier with each passing year. Trader Joe's, always one to embrace a food fad, has several salted caramel products in its lineup, including cookies, energy bars, and mochi ice cream, as well as Caramel Sea Salt Baking Chips for those who prefer to DIY their own treats. Looking for ideas on how to use them? Try adding the chips, which come in a 10-ounce bag that costs $3.49, to oatmeal cookies or apple pies for a sweet and salty surprise.

Some of the very best baking recipes are sweet ones, and most of them include sugar. Trader Joe's offers three high-quality and organic options for this ingredient, all of them reasonably priced. A 24-ounce bag of brown sugar sells for $4.49, while 2 pounds of cane sugar costs the same. There's also a 1-pound package of powdered cane sugar for $3.79. Each comes in a resealable zip-top pouch, which is much less messy than a paper bag in the pantry.

Strawberries may not be quite as common in muffins as blueberries or bananas, but strawberry muffins aren't too out of the ordinary. Cornflake muffins, though, are something you don't see every day. Leave it to Trader Joe's to combine the two, resulting in Strawberry and Corn Flake Muffin and Loaf Cake Mix. In case you're wondering, the strawberries (dried ones) are in the batter, while the cornflakes are used as a crunchy topping. The 17.71-ounce box is priced at $4.49.

When baking without dairy, one of the best swaps for whole milk or cream is canned coconut milk, and it can even be used to successfully make non-dairy whipped cream. Trader Joe's Organic Coconut Milk makes an excellent choice since it is shelf-stable and additive-free (the only ingredients are water and coconut). Somehow, it manages to stay reasonably priced, too. Each 13.5-ounce can costs just $1.89.

Of all the flavoring extracts, vanilla is the most ubiquitous, appearing in what seems to be a vast majority of baking recipes. It behooves you to choose a good one, therefore, and Trader Joe's offers a variety. On the main roster, there's Organic Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract ($9.99 for a 4-ounce bottle) as well as Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste ($4.99 for a 4-ounce jar). Joining them for a limited, yet unspecified, time are the twice-as-strong concentrated Double Fold Bourbon Vanilla Extract ($7.99 for a 4-ounce bottle) and, for DIYers, Bourbon Vanilla Beans ($2.99 for a package of two).

Polls have confirmed that chocolate chip cookies are America's favorite, and it goes unsaid that the very best ones are home-baked. With a 12-ounce bag of Trader Joe's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips in the pantry, which costs $3.99, you'll be ready any time a cookie craving strikes. In addition to using them in cookies, you can also melt the chips down for dipping strawberries, stir them into pancake batter, or just eat them straight from the bag. (In fact, could you pass us some, too?)