200 leaven recipes

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.

Easy pound cake creams sugar with margarine, beats in eggs and vanilla, then bakes in a tube pan starting from a cold oven for a tender, tall crumb. Six ingredients, no leavening, no fuss.

French sables are buttery slice-and-bake cookies with a crumbly, sandy texture and sparkling sugar crust. Six ingredients, no leavener, all about the butter.

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.

Grandma's classic pound cake: just five ingredients (butter, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla) baked into a tender, golden loaf. Old-fashioned heritage recipe with no leavening.

Quick oat cracker bread with rolled oats, sugar, egg, and milk. A simple baking-powder-leavened flatbread that skips yeast and rises in the oven.

Old-fashioned currant pound cake with mace, lemon extract, and 9 eggs folded in as stiffly beaten whites. No leavening needed. Dense, buttery, and studded with dried currants.

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.

French genoise sponge cake soaked with Amaretto and filled with whipped chocolate ganache. A light, egg-leavened cake with lemon zest and an overnight chocolate cream.

Vienna crescents are flaky yeast-leavened butter cookies filled with sweet pecan meringue and shaped into delicate crescents. A traditional Christmas cookie from Austrian and Hungarian baking.

Nusskipferl are Austrian yeast-leavened crescent cookies filled with sweet ground nut meringue. A traditional Viennese coffeehouse pastry rolled jelly-roll style and curved into delicate horns.

European mocha fudge cake with a dense cocoa-pecan base and creamy coffee whipped cream filling. A flourless-style chocolate cake that's rich, fudgy, and made without leavening.

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.