Dessert, Yeast Recipes

Microwave grape jelly made in 30 minutes with four ingredients. No canning kettle needed, just grape juice, sugar, pectin, and a quick lemon juice brightener.

Irish barmbrack is a traditional yeasted fruit bread studded with raisins, currants, allspice, and lemon zest. Soft, lightly sweet loaves often baked for Halloween and All Saints' Day.

Whole wheat herb bread with cottage cheese, scallions, dill, and V8 juice: soft yeast loaves enriched with eggs, kneaded until elastic, and baked until golden hollow-sounding.

Buttery yeasted beignets scented with orange zest and rum, fried until golden, dusted with powdered sugar, and served with a warm homemade butterscotch dipping sauce.

Traditional New Year's portzelky cookies are pillowy fried dough studded with plump raisins, dusted with icing sugar for celebration breakfasts.

Traditional German Dampfnudeln: soft steamed yeast dumplings stuffed with prunes, drizzled with buttery poppy seed sauce. A cozy Bavarian dessert that's surprisingly simple to make.

Hungarian kiffels: tender butter-yeast cookies rolled around walnut, apricot, or prune filling. Old-world rolled cookies dusted in sugar, holiday tray classic.

Classic New Orleans king cake: a brioche-like yeast ring scented with nutmeg and lemon, filled with citron, glazed with lemon icing and purple-green-gold sugar. Mardi Gras tradition baked at home.

Stanford Court's bread pudding starts with homemade brioche layered with sliced apples, raspberries, and rich egg custard. A San Francisco restaurant-quality dessert baked to a golden crown.

Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake), a classic German yeast cake with a caramelized almond topping and vanilla pudding filling. A bakery favorite made at home.

Yeasted anise biscotti from Genoa, made with a sponge starter for a lighter, bread-like crumb. Twice-baked with butter and aniseed, these are nothing like ordinary biscotti.

Traditional Cornish saffron cake with real saffron threads, lard, butter, and currants baked in loaf pans. A golden, fragrant British yeasted fruit bread that's worth the overnight wait.

Schnecken are German-style cinnamon pecan rolls made from a soft yeasted dough filled with brown sugar, raisins, pecans, and cinnamon, then baked in muffin tins until golden.

Vintage 1935 chocolate yeast bread with cocoa, pecans, and vanilla kneaded by hand and baked into a dark, fragrant loaf. A Depression-era recipe worth reviving.

Nusskipferl are Austrian nut crescent cookies made with a buttery sour cream yeast dough rolled around a sweet ground almond and egg white filling, baked golden.

Streusel and cream pear kuchen with a yeasted hot-roll base, sweet cream cheese filling, cinnamon-pecan streusel, and fanned poached pears on top. A German-style coffee cake worthy of a holiday brunch table.