Cookies · 50 minutes
Butter shortbread
A simple first bake. Six ingredients, one tin, and a little practice knowing when cookies are done.
Open recipe →What shall we bake?
A few good recipes. Clear instructions. And all the time you need.
A GOOD PLACE TO BEGINSmall steps.
Small steps.
Lovely shortbread.
Start with a simple butter dough. Learn to measure, mix and spot that golden edge.
Bake your first batch →Butter shortbread
- Butter
- 227 g
- Icing sugar
- 113 g
- Flour
- 240 g
Plus vanilla, salt & optional almond extract.
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The recipe book 100 recipes
Cookies · 36 minutes
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Everyday oatmeal bread
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Eggless whole-wheat pound cake
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Eggless date and walnut cake
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Banana Bread
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Cabot Cheddar Soda Bread
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Chocolate Cake
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Open recipe →Cookies · 36 minutes
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Cranberry-Fudge Pie
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French Macarons
This easy macaron recipe streamlines the classic French technique without sacrificing the macarons' signature light-yet-chewy texture. Unlike our classic macaron recipe, this approachable version doesn't require preparing sugar syrup, making the process far less fussy. Made from a simple base of almond flour, sugar, and egg whites, the macarons are endlessly adaptable — flavor them as you like (see "tips," below for ideas) and sandwich them around anything from buttercream to ganache. Note: This recipe requires you to line your baking sheets with parchment or nonstick foil; if you don't have either, don't make these cookies; they stick like glue to an unlined pan.
Open recipe →Brownies · 40 minutes
Fudge Brownies
These rich brownies combine the ultra-moist texture of fudge brownies with the subtle rise of cake-like brownies for the best of both worlds. The batter comes together quickly and includes the important step of melting the sugar and butter together. This partially melts the sugar and creates the classic shiny, crackly top that everyone loves on homemade brownies.
Open recipe →Brownies · 53 minutes
Gluten-Free Brownies
These brownies are fudgy, chocolate-y, and ready to satisfy anyone's brownie craving.
Open recipe →Breads · 325 minutes
Honey Oatmeal Bread
If you're going to make oatmeal bread, don't accept some watered-down version, more white bread than whole grain. This dense-textured, moist sandwich loaf includes a generous measure of oats. It slices beautifully for sandwiches, makes absolutely delightful toast and, due to the oats, honey, and applesauce, stays fresh for days in your breadbox.
Open recipe →Cakes · 170 minutes
Italian Meringue Macarons
While light-as-air French almond macarons have a reputation for being finicky, we found that the Italian meringue method, which involves cooking a simple sugar syrup and streaming it into whipped egg whites, delivers the most consistent results. Though slightly more technical, this approach creates a stable batter that performs especially well in humid conditions and produces macarons with delicate, chewy shells and beautifully defined feet. They're sandwiched around a luscious filling of French buttercream. For ideas for flavoring your macarons, see the "tips" section before getting started.
Open recipe →Breads · 165 minutes
Light-As-Air Seed Bread
This light-textured loaf with crunchy crust is perfect to serve with soup or stew.
Open recipe →Cakes · 70 minutes
Maple Bacon Scones
Maple-cured bacon (or ham) are breakfast regulars. So adding a bit of salty breakfast meat to your maple-flavored scones is a natural. A shower of maple sugar on top enhances the sweet/salty effect.
Open recipe →Cakes · 85 minutes
Mashed Potato Doughnuts
Doughnuts made with mashed potato? Absolutely. Potato doughnuts have been around for over 150 years; in fact, the original Krispy Kremes were made with potato, whose starch adds moisture to help keep doughnuts tender. Give these old-fashioned cake doughnuts a try, and find out what doughnut fans back in the day were raving about!
Open recipe →Cakes · 60 minutes
No-Fuss Coffee Cake
The name of this coffee cake comes from the convenience of assembling it the day before baking. If you can’t wait, by all means make and bake it right away; it’s wonderful either way. Generously topped with nuts, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate chips, it’s your ticket to a warm, luxurious morning.
Open recipe →Cookies · 34 minutes
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft and chewy, packed with chips, and go beyond the standard chocolate chip cookie with the addition of nutty-tasting oats. Make them small for almost bite-sized cookies or scoop big mounds of dough for a bakery-style cookie. This past Recipe of the Year will be the last Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe you ever need!Our thanks to the Cookies for Kids' Cancer non-profit for the inspiration for this recipe.
Open recipe →Brownies · 40 minutes
Our Ultimate Chewy Brownies
These exceptionally chewy brownies are decadently rich and chocolatey. Their deeply fudgy flavor and supremely chewy texture is due to the combination of melted butter and oil in the batter, plus the use of cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate. Stick-to-the-knife gooey, these brownies appeal to the ultimate chewy brownie lover.
Open recipe →Muffins · 93 minutes
Panettone Muffins
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Open recipe →Cakes · 110 minutes
Passover Popovers
Popovers made with matzo meal — who knew? These light, airy treats combine the best characteristics of popovers, muffins, and cream puffs. Depending on how you observe Passover, these popovers can make a great addition to your Seder.
Open recipe →Cakes · 690 minutes
Peanut Butter Marshmallow Pie
Peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff, aka The Fluffernutter, has been a favorite New England sandwich for generations. This recipe brings you that sweet and salty flavor combination in a light and fluffy pie, complete with homemade graham crust. Imagine you're back in school trading baseball cards with sticky fingers...
Open recipe →Cakes · 75 minutes
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
These Pumpkin Whoopie Pies capture everything there is to love about fall baking in one handheld treat. The soft, moist, cake-like cookies are warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove, and enriched with a touch of molasses for extra tenderness and depth. Each batch uses a full can of pumpkin purée — so you get maximum pumpkin flavor without leftover odds and ends. Sandwiched between is a tangy cream cheese filling that’s sweet and fluffy like frosting but studded with bits of candied ginger for pleasantly surprising pops of spicy-sweet heat. Easier to tote (and eat) than a cake or cupcakes, these whoopie pies are a festive dessert to share at picnics, outdoor gatherings, or on any crisp autumn day.This recipe is part of The Fall Flavor Edit. View all 24 essential recipes here.
Open recipe →Cakes · 90 minutes
Quick and Easy Vanilla Cake
Moist, fluffy, and mixed by hand, this easy, one-bowl vanilla cake comes together in a matter of minutes. Melted butter adds rich flavor, oil helps the cake retain its moisture, and cornstarch ensures tenderness in every bite. It’s paired with a quick chocolate frosting for classic birthday cake vibes, but feel free to mix and match with your favorite frosting. A scattering of sprinkles on top is certain to make every bake feel like a celebration.
Open recipe →Cakes · 50 minutes
Raspberry-Lime Rickey Cake
Ever heard of a lime rickey? NO?! Then you've missed one of summer's most refreshing drinks. At its simplest, it's a mixture of carbonated water (seltzer), lime juice, and simple syrup (sugar). In elevated form, it includes alcohol; the mojito is its kissing cousin. And if you're talking strictly ice cream fountain fare, the lime rickey is often enhanced with other flavored syrups — most often raspberry, if you live in New England. This lime cake, with its raspberry topping, is a tribute to the drink made famous by New England's Friendly's and Brigham's ice cream chains.
Open recipe →Cookies · 50 minutes
Shortbread Cookies
These shortbread cookies are a starting point for all kinds of sweet adventures: dip or drizzle them with melted chocolate, sprinkle with nuts or flaky sea salt, or give the dough a flavor boost with a touch of espresso powder, lemon paste, or almond extract, to taste. Then again, if you're a "make mine vanilla, please" kind of person, leave this shortbread alone; it can stand on its own in delicious simplicity.
Open recipe →Cookies · 52 minutes
Sparkling Spice Spritz Cookies
These cardamom-perfumed spice cookies are extra-pretty when piped from a cookie press.
Open recipe →Breads · 20 minutes
Supreme Garlic Bread
To make the ultimate garlic bread, you need three things: good bread, ample butter, and lots of garlic. Texture, too, is important — first, we bake the loaf, wrapped in foil, until the butter is melted and the bread is warmed through. Then we expose the garlic-buttered faces of each loaf to the heat of the broiler, so the bread browns and crisps. This recipe comes from our cookbook, the Big Book of Bread. Order it now!
Open recipe →Cakes · 40 minutes
Tamale Pie
With its chili-like bean and meat filling and soft, cheesy cornbread topping, this casserole is quintessential comfort food — and a long-time American favorite. As with so many recipes brought to the U.S. by immigrants, this dish has changed significantly from its original incarnation: the traditional tamal of Mexico and Guatemala's indigenous cultures. We're happy to salute both that first tamal, and what it's evolved to over time in millions of American kitchens.
Open recipe →Breads · 270 minutes
Three-Cheese Semolina Bread
With grated Parmesan in the dough, and chunks of Asiago and provolone studded throughout, this bread is a cheese-lover's dream come true.
Open recipe →Cakes · 310 minutes
Tiramisu Layer Cake
An unparalleled confection: creamy, coffee-flavored, and decadently delicious. The luscious filling is sandwiched between two cake layers of your choice. A light sponge cake is ideal since it soaks up all the flavorful soaking syrup.
Open recipe →Cakes · 210 minutes
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Bars
These creamy, vanilla-scented cheesecake bars are perfect with a cup of coffee. They deliver the full experience of a classic NY-style Cheesecake but with less fuss: no springform pan or water bath is required. Just press the crust into a pan, bake it briefly, and then add the cream cheese filling. You'll have cheesecake that you can eat anytime, any place in no time.
Open recipe →Breads · 210 minutes
Vermont Oatmeal and Maple Bread for the Mini Zo Bread Machine
This hearty dough, bolstered with oats and walnuts and lightly sweetened with maple syrup, is the perfect candidate for a small bread machine like the "Mini Zo": The machine makes easy work out of the high-hydration dough, which is too sticky to work with by hand. The final bread is soft yet substantial, perfect for toasting, and can easily go sweet or savory depending on your toppings of choice.
Open recipe →Cakes · 140 minutes
Whole Wheat Pita with Middle Eastern Salad
These soft pitas are made with a combination of golden wheat flour and bread flour. The whole wheat gives them a subtle nutty taste and golden color; the bread flour helps them "pop" in the oven.
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An expanding personal collection. Each recipe carries its source, attribution and measurement notes.