Maybe you learned to love baking during the pandemic, starting easy with banana bread and working your way up to braiding beautiful challah and laminating flaky croissants. Or maybe youāve made sourdough your whole adult life, consistently churning out loaves with crisp ears and beautiful scoring patterns long before everyone hopped on the bandwagon. Maybe youāre only getting into baking now and donāt totally understand the concept of folding egg whites into batter. No matter where youāre starting from, there are a bunch of new baking books coming this fall that will help you further that baking education.
Read on to find a list of the many, many baking books coming out this season, just in time to give you inspiration for holiday cookies, cozy fall baking, and yes, more loaves of sourdough.
For our full list of upcoming fall cookbooks, read our fall cookbook preview.
Baking for beginners
Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimber gave us the perfect book for 2020 when he published One Tin Bakesāa guide to approachable baking projects that can be made in one vessel. Heās back just one year later with One Tin Bakes Easy, which aims to even further simplify the baking process. Each of the 70 recipes is designed to be made in a 9x13" pan and use minimal ingredients and equipment. āOut October 19
Twenty years ago, Anne Byrnās The Cake Mix Doctor helped busy home bakers make delicious cakes by elevating store-bought mix. Now, with A New Take on Cake, Byrn updates old methods, pulling from a new-and-improved set of cake mixes available in the baking aisle and emphasizing modern flavor profiles. She offers gluten-free and vegan options too. āOut November 9
Abigail Johnson Dodge has written over a dozen cookbooks designed to make cooking easier, and in Sheet Cake she tackles simple cake baking. Johnson gets creative with the humble sheet cake: stacking it, rolling it, or presenting it in classic form with next-level flavors like Salty Pretzel Caramel Cake and Gingerbread with Cranberry Cream Cheese Frosting. āOut now
Bread baking and sourdough
In her latest book, Kimbell (who has authored several books on sourdough already) busts the myth that naturally fermented dough has to be time consuming and complicated. She presents a bread method that includes only 10 minutes of hands-on work, so readers can make sourdough a part of their everyday lives, no intimidation or laborious folding required. āOut September 21
Natalya Syanova shows that sourdough baking can be a kid-friendly project. With a variety of recipes for different types of loaves, as well as creative ways to use the sourdough discard, Syanova explains the science of baking through fun facts and lessons that parents and children will find educational and entertaining. āOut November 23
Sourdough isnāt reserved for savory baking. In this book, pastry chef Caroline Schiff of Brooklynās Gage & Tollner shows you how to build a starterāand then how to use it in cakes, sweet breads, biscuits, tarts, and more dessert recipes. āOut November 23
New York Times best-selling author Mark Bittman and coauthor Kerri Conan explore just how easy breadmaking can be. Starting with a basic, no-knead dough, Bittman Bread then gives you recipes for soft pretzels, cinnamon rolls, sandwich loaves, and baguettesāall made in the simplest way possible. Youāll also find tips on timing your bread so that you can fit baking it into even the busiest of weeks. āOut November 9
If you bake sourdough, thereās a significant chance that the first recipe you ever tried came from Chad Robertson and his bakery, Tartine. Now, in a new book dedicated to the subject, Robertson, along with Tartineās director of bread, Jennifer Latham, explores whatās next in the world of naturally fermented bread, including alternative grains, gluten-free breads, and more. āOut December 7
If there was one word to describe FrĆ©chetās guide to making bread at home, it would be thorough. The book spans over 440 pages, and the recipe section doesnāt even start until page 200. FrĆ©chet provides descriptions of various grains and flours, details how to choose the right water, provides lessons on fermentation, and gives tips for kneading, proofing, scoring, shaping, cutting, serving, and storing. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentalsāand beyondāof mastering homemade bread. āOut November 23
Cookie lovers
Hereās a set of cookie recipes for people who think theyāve tried them all. Jesse Szewczyk puts a twist on tried-and-true favorites, with recipes like Everything Bagel Biscotti and Red Wine Brownie Cookies. Recipes are broken down into eight categories, depending on the primary flavor profile: chocolaty, boozy, fruity, nutty, tart, spiced, smoky, and savory. āOut October 26
Baking legend Rose Levy Beranbaum has given us celebrated single-subject deep dives on cakes, pies, and breads. Her newest entry in the Bible series focuses on cookies. This compendium features over 400 pages of her signature detailed, easy-to-follow directions; headnotes brimming with anecdotes; tips and tricks for better cookie baking; and recipe variations that allow bakers to customize their creations. āOut November 16
King Arthur Baking Companyās The Essential Cookie Companion includes over 500 pages of detailed recipes, troubleshooting, and instructions for how to bake delicious cookies. Youāll find graham crackers, biscotti, and, of course, the classic chocolate chip (in a few forms), but also much moreāthis book includes over 400 cookie recipes. Weāve got our eye on the peanut butter-stuffed Magic in the Middles. āOut October 5
Celebratory baking
Kim-Joyās eccentric style took her all the way to the finale of the Great British Bake Off; now, itās front and center once again in her latest cookbook. This festive book features 60 recipes for all occasions, including birthdays, Valentineās Day, New Yearās, new baby, and Pride Month. Kim-Joy breaks each complex bake down into achievable steps, with clear, concise instructions and process photos that will allow you to capture the whimsy you fell in love with on TV at home. āOut September 28
Sarah Kiefferās newest cookbook will ensure that nobody shows up to holiday parties or family dinners empty-handed. This book covers all of your holiday bases: cookies for your swaps and your holiday snacking needs, stellar desserts that will impress on an already-elaborate holiday table, and treats to wrap as gifts. āOut September 7
This book captures the festivity of Advent with over 100 sweet and savory German recipes. Classics like Lebkuchen, rum balls, and Stollen stuffed with marzipan are accented with author Anja Dunkās own linocut illustrations, making this a gorgeous gift in addition to a source for holiday recipes to turn to year after year. āOut October 12
Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin isnāt just a bakerāsheās a pie artist. This book will teach you to be one too. Step-by-step photos and clear and concise instructions mean even novice bakers can present an intricately latticed, elaborately decorated Thanksgiving Day pie, Valentineās Day pie, or even a Bastille Day pie. āOut October 26
Dessert-focused
Ravneet Gillās second book sings the praises of sugar in its many forms. Itās a fun, whimsical personal tribute to dessert, with recipes for cheesecakes from a variety of cultures, along with soufflĆ©s and cakesāall of which are colorful, creamy, and easy to achieve. āOut October 12
James Beard Awardāwinning author Salma Hageās latest book is all about sweet treats from the Middle East. Master the classics like Barazek, Pistachio and Apricot Baklava, and Cherry Pancakes with Almond Butter and Cherry Jam. āOut August 18
The apples of autumn, winter citrus, spring strawberries, and the stone fruit of summerāMartha Stewartās Fruit Desserts helps readers bake with the best of whatās in season. Beautiful photography and a robust instructional āBasicsā section in the back enhance this fruit-forward baking book. āOut September 28
Following up on her acclaimed debut, The Cookie Book, writer, photographer, and recipe developer Rebecca Firth tackles cake in her new book. You may have trouble picking which recipe to start with: Chocolate Stout Cake with Champagne Buttercream or a tart, sticky Glazed Tangerine Donut Cake? āOut October 19
New books from old favorite bakers
Cheryl Day, proprietor of the lauded Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia, and descendent of a storied Southern baking lineage, offers a tome (thereās really no other word for it) on Southern baked goods. Using the traditional methods that Southern mothers, grandmothers, and aunts perfected over generations, Day shares recipes for biscuits, fritters, pot pies, cakes, pies...the list goes on. Many of the recipes lean on traditional Southern ingredients, including cornmeal, pecans, sorghum, and cane syrup. Learn to be a better baker in generalāand gain access to a host of Southern recipes, techniques, and storiesāfrom one of the Southās best bakers. āOut October 26
Life is What You Bake It begins with Vallery Lomasās storyāand thereās a lot to cover. Sheās a lawyer turned baker turned reality television show winner. But when she found out that her season of The Great American Baking Show wouldnāt be televised, Vallery didnāt let that lost opportunity stop her. This book is about perseverance, and Lomas uses her passion for food, recollections of delicious memories, and touching anecdotes to help home cooks become better bakers. Youāll want to whip up the Apple Cider Fritters as soon as the book arrives. āOut September 7
Dorie Greenspanās 14th (!) book focuses on the basicsāsimple recipes built on a foundation of classic technique. Take the Everything Cake recipe: It can be mixed by hand in a single bowl, and it can be used as a canvas for any mix-in, including fruit, nuts, jams, frostings, and fillings. But donāt be fooled into thinking these bakes are simple in flavor: Youāll find elegant cream puffs with crackly exteriors, luscious meringues, and a savory quick bread with black pepper and goat cheese that youāll want to enjoy with a glass of wine. āOut October 19
In Mooncakes and Milk Bread, food blogger Kristina Cho re-creates the staples of Chinese bakeries and cafĆ©s. With detailed instructions and step-by-step photos, Cho shows us how to make luscious pineapple buns, crisp almond cookies, steam pork buns, milk tea, and more. āOut October 12
In this follow-up to her first cookbook, Cannelle et Vanille, Aran Goyoaga proves yet again that gluten-free baking doesnāt have to sacrifice flavor. Find recipes for Lemon Curd and Honey Celebration Cake, Crispy Potato, Leek, and Kale Focaccia Pie, and Chocolate Tahini Buckwheat Marble Cake. Goyoaga provides dairy-free substitutions, so each recipe can also be made vegan. āOut October 5
