48 leaven recipes

Homemade naan bread: whole-wheat flatbread leavened with yogurt and yeast, shaped into teardrops, and grilled with a brush of ghee for smoky char. No tandoor required.

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.

Sada naan is soft, pillowy homemade Indian flatbread leavened with yeast and yogurt, brushed with ghee and scattered with poppy and sesame seeds. Bake it in a home oven, no tandoor required.

Scotch pancakes are small, thick griddle cakes leavened with cream of tartar and baking soda for an old-fashioned tangy lift. Cook on a hot griddle, serve warm with berries and syrup.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chocolate mint meltaways are buttery shortbread cookies enriched with melted mint chocolate chips, drizzled with a mint chocolate glaze and topped with toasted almonds. A no-leavener Christmas cookie that melts on contact.

Homemade chocolate cannoli with beer-leavened fried shells filled with sweetened ricotta, chocolate chips, toasted walnuts, and orange and lime zest. An Italian pastry shop classic made from scratch.

Five-ingredient pound cake with seven eggs, butter-flavored shortening, and no leavener. Baked low and slow in a tube pan for an ultra-dense, velvety crumb with a golden crust.

Pan di Spagna is the classic Italian sponge cake, made with just eggs, sugar, flour, and cornstarch. No butter, no leavening. The base for tiramisu, zuppa inglese, and Italian layer cakes.

Salmonettes are Southern-style fried salmon (or tuna) patties leavened with baking powder and the reserved canning liquid to puff up light and crisp in hot oil. Five-ingredient pantry dinner ready in 15 minutes.

Mini-bites of heaven. Individual chocolate cheesecake topped with cherries.

Forget chocolate brownies. These gooey, caramel-filled blondies are heavenly.