Our Favorite Types of Pastries
With so many delicious options, who can settle on just one? So we chose 12.
Jan 27, 2025
Pastries occupy the magical dessert realm between bread, pies, and cookies. They come in a countless variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors — and that's a big part of what makes them so special, and so delicious. There are warm spiced pastries, filled pastries, nutty pastries — even savory pastries. In fact, according to Merriam-Webster, any baked good qualifies as a pastry as long as it's made with a rich flaky dough containing some type of fat (typically butter).
Food historians estimate that pastries date back to the dawn of civilization, and were some of the first foods ever made that required a recipe. Flash forward to today and the humble pastry has become a global dessert juggernaut, with people around the planet spending an estimated $31.2 billion on pastries annually and downing more than 400 million pounds of pastries each year. Domestically, one-third of all Americans enjoy some type of pastry or baked treat daily, with 65% of Americans opting for sweet pastries as their breakfast of choice.
When it's all said and done, that's a lot of dough!
But which pastry reigns supreme? Which buttery treat is better than all the rest? Grab a cup of coffee and your favorite pastry of choice and read on, to see where you land in the debate…
Our favorite types of pastries
AUTHOR
Brian Good is a writer, editor, and project manager with more than 20 years experience in publishing. He's written for some of the country’s biggest magazine brands including Men’s Journal, Men’s Fitness, Shape, Men's Health, Muscle & Fitness, US Weekly, AARP: The Magazine, and websites including Mashed, Health Digest, DiversityInc and others. Good specializes on topics including lifestyle, travel, pop culture, health, food and nutrition, spirits, products, politics, and activism.
