200 leaven recipes

Judith's wheaten bread: a traditional Irish quick bread using whole wheat meal, cream of tartar, and buttermilk for leavening. No yeast, no kneading, fresh from the oven in an hour.

Old-fashioned chocolate layer cake leavened with both yeast and baking powder, plus stiffly whipped egg whites folded in for an unusually tall, tender, almost spongy crumb. Made with unsweetened chocolate and cake flour.

Irish buttermilk bannock studded with raisins, leavened with baking soda and baking powder. A no-yeast soda bread with a tender crumb and traditional cross-scored top.

Old-fashioned pound cake with shortening, six eggs, and no leavening. Vanilla and almond extract give this dense, tender tube cake its signature flavor.

Eagle chocolate cake is a triple-layer Ghirardelli chocolate cake leavened by whipped egg whites with buttermilk or strong coffee. Deep flavor, lofty crumb, classic American bake.

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.

Cream cheese butter cookies with a raspberry jam thumbprint. Tender, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread enriched with cream cheese. No leavening, no spreading.

Quick sourdough cinnamon rolls leavened with baking powder and soda instead of yeast, so they go from starter to oven in 45 minutes. Sticky brown sugar caramel topping and a tangy sourdough crumb make these worth the discard.

Old-fashioned pound cake with a full pound of real butter, eight eggs, and no leavening. Baked low and slow for a dense, velvety crumb with deep buttery flavor.

British-style fish and chips with sole fillets in a yeast-and-beer batter, deep-fried to a crisp golden shell. The double-leavening technique produces the lightest crust possible.

Southern spoonbread with fresh corn kernels, buttermilk, and cornmeal, leavened with beaten egg whites. Puffed, golden, and custardy, served straight from the oven.

American coffee cake from a Miami County, Ohio Grange recipe: tender egg-white-leavened cake topped with cinnamon-sugar streusel. Two square cakes for a Sunday breakfast crowd.

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

Old-fashioned persimmon cake made with ripe persimmon pulp, shortening, eggs, and a simple flour-and-leavening base. A vintage autumn bake from the Hoosier and Appalachian traditions.

Date pecan snowball cookies rolled in powdered sugar with a buttery, crumbly shortbread base. No eggs, no leavening, just butter, flour, dates, and pecans.

Lemon chiffon cake with bright lemon juice, fresh zest, and a cloud-light crumb leavened by stiff-beaten egg whites. The vintage springtime cake that's still impossible to beat.