In the last 12 months, according to Associate Recipe Editor (and YouTube sensation) Kye Ameden, we’ve published well over 100 brand-new recipes for bakes both sweet and savory. As we head into the final days of December, we thought it would be fun to look back and see which of those recipes were the most popular this year. Here are the recipes you loved most in 2022, which includes some recipes that were new this year, as well as some oldie-but-goodies that remain beloved. And just for fun, I also asked my colleagues to share their favorite recipe of the year.
The top 5 sweet bakes of 2022
1) Mostly Apples Apple Cake
This creamy, custardy cake is packed with fruit, with just the tiniest bit of batter to hold it together. Though we only published the recipe in October, in that short time it became the most popular recipe of the year — period — as well as one of our most popular Bakes of the Week. If you’ve made it, maybe add your review to the raves and let other bakers know why they should try it, too.
2) Spiced Carrot Snacking Cake
This loaf cake couldn’t be simpler, which is probably why it made this list of the year’s best: It has no butter to soften (it’s oil-based), uses mostly pantry ingredients, and requires no special tools. It can be made in a loaf pan or turned into cupcakes, but don’t skip the nutmeg- and cinnamon-laced frosting, which turns it from “snacking cake” into “I can’t stop snacking on it” cake.
3) Hot Summer Spoon Cake
This quick, simple, and wildly delicious recipe, from cookbook author Anna Stockwell’s book For the Table, was both shared widely and saved to many, many digital recipe boxes this year. Add it to yours, and you’ll be ready to bake this simple, tender fruit dessert (which can easily be made gluten-free) when the first strawberries of the year make their debut.
4) Basque-Style Cheesecake (Tarta de Queso)
While technically published in the last few days of 2021, this recipe from Charlotte Rutledge quickly rose up the ranks to become one of the favorites of bakers in 2022. With a dark exterior that contrasts its silky interior, this special cheesecake is, in the words of one reviewer, “the most delicious cheesecake, ever.”
5) Buckwheat-Cardamom Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Maybe it’s on account of their size (huge), or the fact that they’re shot through with two types of chocolate (lots) and fragranced with cardamom. Or perhaps it’s that they’re made with nutty (and naturally gluten-free) buckwheat flour, or that the nuttiness of the flour is underscored by the addition of browned butter. Whatever the reason (or for all of these reasons!) these were your favorite cookies of the year.
The top 5 savory bakes of 2022
1) Pan de Cristal
Made with a dough that’s almost batter-like in texture due to its ultra-high hydration, Martin Philip’s Pan de Cristal was the most popular bread recipe we published all year. We think we know why: This “glass bread,” made with higher-protein bread flour, has a thin, crackly crust and a miraculously open crumb structure. Is it bread, or a magic trick, or both? Bake it to find out (and note: Martin also developed an incredible chocolate version).
2) Filled Wool Roll Bread
If Pan de Cristal brings one kind of drama, our second most popular bread of the year, Filled Wool Roll Bread, brings another. It’s soft and tender where Pan de Cristal is crisp, but it has an equally showstopping appearance that belies how easy it is to shape. The base of the wool roll is our enriched Japanese Milk Bread dough, and comes in two variations: a savory option stuffed with cheese and herbs and a sweet version filled with lemon-raspberry cream cheese.
3) Ultimate Sandwich Bagels
When we named Ultimate Sandwich Bagels our Recipe of the Year back in January 2022, we hoped you’d love them. And it turns out, you did! Bread flour gives these bagels their toothsome texture, and they’re the perfect size for sandwiching with everything from classic combinations (egg and cheese) to more creative pile-ups (here are our best topping ideas). Hosting a New Year’s brunch? Add these to the menu.
4) The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Make
This isn’t a new recipe, but it remains enduringly popular, with 348 reviews (and counting). This crusty yeasted loaf can be made by hand or in a mixer and is a great gateway bread for new bakers. (Our How to Knead Dough video is extra handy for newbies.) It also can be made start-to-finish in a couple hours, and the recipe makes two loaves, one to keep and one to give.
5) Sourdough Pizza Crust
Some of you made (and named!) your first sourdough starter only recently, while others have been nurturing one for decades. But whether you’re old or new to the naturally-leavened party, we’re all looking for ways to use sourdough discard. This chewy, open-crumbed pizza dough is an enduring favorite. (And if you haven’t already signed up for our Pizza School, what are you waiting for?).
A few more favorite recipes
You all had your favorites, but some of us King Arthur bakers had our own personal favorites of the year too. I can’t get over these Maritozzi, which are tender brioche buns split and filled with whipped cream (yes!). And I’m bewitched by our Tahini Poppy Seed Pound Cake, which I think is the ideal anytime cake. Recipe Tester David Turner can’t resist our Chocolate and Pecan Candy Bar Tart. The Apple Butter Apple Galette is Blog Editor Rossi Anastopoulo’s pick. And favorites of our Test Kitchen Director, Sarah Jampel, include Mushroom and Cabbage Pan-Fried Buns (which are fun to make and eat) and these Layered Fig and Rosemary Cornmeal Scones.
Thanks for sharing the joy of baking with us. Wishing you a brilliant (and delicious) start to the new year.
Ready to kick-start your 2023 baking? It all starts with a well-stocked pantry.
Cover photo (Buckwheat-Cardamom Chocolate Chunk Cookies) by Rick Holbrook.
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