Baking

A buttery soft frosting blankets this tall and sprightly cake, rich with eggs and dotted with lemon zest and poppy seeds throughout. An impressive and showy dessert for lemon lovers, this can be made a day in advance. It’s a nice end-of-brunch finale.

Homemade raisin challah bread is a real treat. Slice this light, egg-rich loaf thick for toast or use it to make a memorable French toast. This bread can be frozen for up to two weeks.

My adopted grandmother, called Mema by dozens of grandkids, step-grandkids, and us adopted grandkids alike, as well as scores of great-grandkids, always made these popovers for Christmas dinner. They are just as tasty for brunch. Popovers rise in the oven due to steam, not a leavener such as yeast, and then they deflate somewhat after baking. Good with butter, jam, or honey, they are best eaten warm. I like using a cast-iron popover pan, but you can also use a good, solid muffin pan. For the puffiest, airiest popovers, make the batter at least 2 hours ahead of time. Refrigerate the batter for 1 hour, and then let it sit out at room temperature for 1 hour.

Soft, slightly sweet rolls are an American dinnertime tradition, but they certainly have their rightful place at the brunch table, too. From this basic recipe, you can shape many rolls, including round rolls, cloverleaf rolls, and twists.

When our neighbors made this recipe on Saturday mornings when we were growing up, the entire neighborhood smelled like cinnamon heaven. These frosted cinnamon rolls are a little more complicated to make than scones or muffins, but they are definitely worth the effort. The cream cheese makes the dough flakier than that of many cinnamon rolls, and the filling is rich and delicious. You can prepare these the night before and let them rise for an hour before baking them in the morning. The uncooked cinnamon rolls also freeze very well for a couple of weeks.

Deliciously gooey and sweet, these delectable breakfast pastries immediately put everyone in a good mood. Be sure to start a few hours in advance of serving to give the dough time to rise. You can also start them the night before.

James Beard’s excellent biscuit recipe can hardly be improved upon. But by using sour cream in the recipe, we feel the biscuits are a little creamier. If you prefer the original Beard biscuits, just omit the sour cream and double the heavy cream.

These colorful scones are crumbly and rich from the combination of Cheddar cheese and spinach. A more substantial scone than some of the sweet ones, these go well with just about any salad and are also good with a frittata.

These scones are easy to make and can be rewarmed quickly in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes. They work well with either fresh or frozen berries.

Thanks to a combination of aromatic spices, this is an extraordinarily good pumpkin bread, and it’s also easy to make. Be sure to use plain canned pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie version, which has spices already added to it.

This rich, dense bread is flecked with green from the zucchini and adorned with delicate zucchini blossoms on top. The flowers, which are available at gourmet specialty stores, are a beautiful addition, but the loaf is equally delicious with or without them. You can also use this batter for muffins, in which case you’ll have about twenty-four muffins and you’ll need to bake them for 20 to 25 minutes.

The sweetness of the honey and the spiciness of the jalapeños make for an intriguing flavor combination in this rich corn bread. Wear rubber or plastic gloves when handling and chopping hot chile peppers—the chiles can make your fingers sting—and wash your hands thoroughly afterward. Serve with butter, honey butter, Maple Butter (page 274), or jam.

Banana bread was one of the great rewards for not eating all the bananas Mom bought for our lunch boxes. This hearty loaf is full of crimson berries and pecan chunks. When sliced and served in a napkin-lined basket, it rounds out any brunch. Leftovers are equally good for breakfast the next day. You can also bake the batter in muffin pans.

This recipe could almost be labeled a health bread, except that it tastes too good. It’s packed with a generous quantity of bananas, plus an assortment of mix-and-match dried fruit. Spread the bread with any of our fruit butters (pages 270–272) and serve at a fall or winter brunch.

Packed with all kinds of good ingredients, these muffins make a densely flavorful treat that, if paired with yogurt, could almost be a light meal on its own. Buckwheat flour is made from the dry fruit seeds of the buckwheat plant, and is available at most health food stores.

In springtime at the farmers’ market, rhubarb is a gloriously welcome sight after a winter of squash and potatoes. If possible, buy rhubarb at a farm stand or farmers’ market. If you are craving rhubarb when it’s not in season, frozen rhubarb is available at most supermarkets. Remember, if you pick your own rhubarb, use only the stalks, not the leaves as they are poisonous.

Good, ripe bananas lend plenty of natural sweetness to these muffins. Feel free to substitute another nut for the pecans if you like. I like using All-Bran for these muffins, as opposed to bran flakes, because it holds up very well during baking and lends a great nutty bran flavor to the muffins.

Citrus and chocolate is a classic flavor combination. It’s your call whether to use semisweet chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate chips. You could also leave the chips out entirely, or substitute a half cup of chopped nuts of your choice instead.

Fresh currants come into season in August, but they also can keep for months in the freezer. You can substitute frozen or more widely available dried currants for fresh, making these muffins a year-round indulgence.

Juicy blackberries garnish these moist, flavorful corn muffins, which have a soft and rich interior. Not overly sweet, these muffins go especially well with cheese omelets. Try substituting raspberries or blueberries for the blackberries.