53 leaven recipes

Daddy's sour cream biscuits use just five ingredients, flour, sour cream, salt, and leaveners, for a tender, tangy biscuit with a soft crumb. Old-fashioned Southern simplicity at its best.

Buttermilk corn oil biscuits use yeast plus baking powder for double leavening and a refrigerator-friendly dough that keeps a week. Pull off only what you need and bake fresh biscuits any morning.

Snowshoe naan is a hand-stretched, sponge-leavened flatbread baked on hot quarry tiles and topped with nigella seeds. Long oval shape with crisp edges and pillowy centers, dairy-free and rustic.

Irish raisin soda bread studded with sweet raisins and caraway seeds, leavened by the tang of buttermilk and baking soda. A quick, no-yeast loaf with a tender crumb. A St. Patrick's Day classic.

Whole grain apple pancakes leavened with yeast and packed with bran, grated fresh apple, and apple juice. Thicker than regular pancakes, naturally egg-free, high-fiber, and sweet without a drop of added sugar.

Matzo meal cookies with coconut and brown sugar, baked until rich brown and filled with jam centers. A Passover-friendly cookie with no flour, no eggs, no leavening.

Maryland beaten biscuits, the old Chesapeake tradition: a stiff flour-and-lard dough beaten with a mallet until it blisters, then baked into hard, crisp, cracker-like biscuits. No leavening, just elbow grease.

Rustic Herbes de Provence bread with wheat and rye flours, naturally leavened and fragrantly spiced. European-style artisan loaf baked at home.

Old-fashioned muffins made with actual clean snow as a leavening ingredient, plus raisins and lemon zest. A charming winter baking tradition from colder climates.

Vegan fruit cake packed with dried fruit, candied peel, orange rind, and almonds, leavened with a soy milk and vinegar reaction instead of eggs. A dense, dairy-free holiday cake baked low and slow.

Buttery pecan snowball cookies rolled in powdered sugar. No eggs, no leavening, just six ingredients for a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread-style cookie.

Yeast-free brown rice bread made with whole wheat flour and cooked brown rice. Hand-kneaded 300 times and naturally leavened overnight. Dense, hearty, and vegan.

Ale Bread: a no-yeast quick bread leavened with a bottle of ale and baking powder, optional green onions and sharp cheese baked in. Hollow-tap-test crust, ready in under an hour.

Soft yeast-leavened cookies sweetened with honey and cinnamon, made with multi-blend flour and raisins. Egg-free, dairy-free, and naturally sweetened with a bread-like chew.

Sunshine cake is a tall, lemon-kissed cousin of angel food and sponge cake, leavened entirely by whipped egg whites and yolks with bright lemon zest and juice.

Old-fashioned yeast cakes made from hops water, potato liquid, flour, and cornmeal. A pioneer-era leavening method you dry and store for homemade bread baking. Just 5 ingredients.