The 14 best recipes to bake in May
From flatbreads to cream puffs, peanut butter cake to burger buns, here are 14 reasons to fire up the oven this month.
If you’re looking for a new recipe to try this month, we’ve got you covered. Want to bake a cake? Try our brand-new recipe for peanut butter cake with seven-minute frosting, a towering four-layer vanilla one, or a simple single-layer almond and berry affair. Cookies more your speed? We’ve got recipes for cinnamon-sugar masa cookies and fully loaded chocolate chip sourdough ones too. Is it bread you’re after? Below, recipes for a loaf so simple you can make it your daily bread and a flatbread so versatile it can be eaten with everything. Let’s get baking!
1) Peanut Butter Cake
This tender cake contains a full cup of peanut butter, so its flavor fully shines through instead of fading to the background. Pair it with sticky, marshmallow-y seven-minute frosting for a dessert that gives big Fluffernutter energy or lay on a thick blanket of chocolate icing for a candy bar-like cake.
Get the recipe: Peanut Butter Cake
2) Craquelin Cream Puffs
Both crispy and creamy, these stunning cream puffs have a crispy cookie cap (craquelin) and are filled with a hibiscus and lime-infused whipped cream. Though they take some time to assemble, they’re a worthy project bake for a spring dinner party.
Get the recipe: Craquelin Cream Puffs
3) Hojarascas (Cinnamon and Sugar Corn Cookies)
Made with masa harina and sweetened with a homemade spiced brown sugar syrup, these crispy cut-out cookies are finished with a dusting of cinnamon sugar.
Get the recipe: Hojarascas
4) Strawberry-Rhubarb Galettes
If you’re looking for a way to transform the season’s first berries and rhubarb into an elegant dessert, look no further than this galette recipe. Flaky puff pastry is the buttery base for a filling of sweet-tart fruit; top each galette with a billow of whipped cream to complement its bright flavor.
Get the recipe: Strawberry-Rhubarb Galettes
5) The Easiest Loaf of Bread You'll Ever Bake
Whether you’re just starting to bake bread at home or are a seasoned bread head, this simple five-ingredient recipe is one of our favorites because, as the name suggests, it yields a beautiful loaf with minimal effort. Want to give it a shot? Let baker Martin Philip show you the way.
Get the recipe: The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake
6) Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sure, you could use your sourdough discard to make crackers, pancakes, or granola. But its highest and best use might be in these Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’ve got thin, crispy edges, chewy centers, and a pronounced butterscotch flavor from the addition of browned butter. And did we mention that they’re loaded with a full pound of chocolate (milk and dark), which melts into irresistible puddles?
Get the recipe: Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
7) Green Goddess Biscuits
These verdant buttermilk drop biscuits, inspired by the iconic herbaceous salad dressing, are colored and flavored with spinach, basil, parsley, and chives, and would be a beautiful and tasty addition to any spring dinner.
Get the recipe: Green Goddess Biscuits
8) Strawberry Coffee Cake with Matcha Filling
This spectacular coffee cake is one of three new variations on our Recipe of the Year, Cinnamon-Crisp Coffee Cake. In this version, the tender cake is striped with a ribbon of brilliant green matcha and topped with fresh strawberries, which roast to jammy perfection as the cake bakes.
Get the recipe: Strawberry Coffee Cake with Matcha Filling
9) Cherry Pie Cupcakes
What’s cuter than a cherry pie but every bit as delicious? Cherry Pie Cupcakes! These irresistible handheld desserts feature vanilla cake (with an extra-tender texture thanks to unbleached cake flour), cherry filling, and brown sugar frosting piped to resemble a lattice-topped pie (check out all our new cupcake recipes here).
Get the recipe: Cherry Pie Cupcakes
10) Matnakash
Make this oversized flatbread the centerpiece of your next meal: Serve the chewy, open-crumbed bread as part of a mezze platter, or alongside almost anything else — it’s incredibly versatile. It gets its deep golden color from a yogurt and egg wash, which is slathered on the Armenian flatbread prior to baking.
Get the recipe: Matnakash
11) Sunken Berry Almond Cake
Almond flour gives this moist, buttery gluten-free snacking cake its tender crumb; pockets of fresh berries lend jammy, fruity flavor. A shower of Snow White Non-Melting Sugar is a simple finishing touch.
Get the recipe: Sunken Berry Almond Cake
12) Beautiful Burger Buns
Memorial Day weekend may be considered the official kick-off of grilling season, but if a beautiful spring day arrives before then, we see no reason not to haul out the charcoal and mix up a batch of homemade burger buns, which are superior to storebought in every way. This recipe is a customer favorite, with nearly 1200 five-star reviews. Perfect the recipe now so you can make them all summer long.
Get the recipe: Beautiful Burger Buns
13) Tender White Cake
Got a spring celebration on your calendar (or just want to make a showstopping dessert)? Make this vanilla cake, slather it with Ermine Icing, and finish it with this spectacular Berry Mirror Glaze. This video will help you perfect your technique.
Get the recipe: Tender White Cake
14) Buttery Gluten-Free Bread
Even if you can’t eat gluten, that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a slice of perfect sandwich bread. Made with our new Gluten-Free Bread Flour, this enriched loaf is perfect for cinnamon-sugar toast or a BLT.
Get the recipe: Buttery Gluten-Free Bread
Looking for more baking inspiration? Check out the newest recipes from our Test Kitchen.
Cover photography (Strawberry-Rhubarb Galettes) by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
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