200 leaven recipes

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.

Classic buttermilk pancakes from scratch with tangy flavor and tender, fluffy texture. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes to activate the leavening for the lightest, most pillowy pancakes.

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.

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.

Holiday sugar cookies: a tender, softly leavened cut-out cookie made with sour milk for tang and lift. Great-grandma's recipe that bakes pale and soft, ready for sprinkles and icing.

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.

Aunt E.C.'s pound cake is a true four-ingredient pound cake: butter, sugar, eggs, flour. No leavener, no liquid, no flavorings, just pure creaming-method magic baked in a tube pan to a tall, golden, tender cake.

Classic five-ingredient pound cake with butter, sugar, eggs, cake flour, and vanilla. No leavening needed, just pure, dense, buttery simplicity.

Honey-sweetened brown rice batter bread leavened with yeast and baking powder, no kneading and no wheat. A gluten-free quick loaf that slices clean and toasts well.

Sheepherder bread, a Basque-American sourdough leavened entirely with active starter. A simple six-ingredient loaf with chewy crumb and rustic crust traditionally baked in cast iron.

Russian torte: a yeast-leavened pastry layered with cinnamon-walnut filling and apricot preserves, then crowned with meringue and sugared nuts. The Old World dessert that disappears at every gathering.

Lovelight chiffon cake, a tender cake-flour sheet cake leavened with stiff-peaked meringue and brightened with lemon extract. The featherlight 1950s church-supper classic, baked in a 9x13 pan.

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.

Gluten free rice batter bread: a quick eight-ingredient loaf using brown rice flour and potato starch, leavened with baking powder. No yeast, no kneading, ready in under an hour.