Babka, Cinnamon Rolls, and Millionaire’s Shortbread: 12 Fall Baking Projects Worth the Effort

Side view of millionaires shortbread — Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Not that I ever need an excuse to bake on the weekends, but as days get shorter and temperatures cooler, baking becomes my preferred method to stay warm and cozy. There are no time constraints, no urgent tasks to complete before sundown, and nothing to prepare for the next workday. I can devote my energy to baking projects that require a bit more thought and attention to detail, like any one of the following 12 recipes we've curated for fellow weekend bakers who aspire to create the perfect Napoleon, crusty sourdough, bakery-worthy chocolate babka, impossibly airy Japanese milk bread, or flawlessly layered millionaire’s shortbread. Trust us, you’re family, friends, and neighbors will thank you.

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Mille-Feuille (Napoleon)

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

You don’t have to be a francophile or a pastry devotee to appreciate the artistry of a well-constructed mille-feuille. Thankfully, Senior Editor Genevieve Yam guides us through the pseemingly daunting task of baking puff pastry, with all the requisite ultra-thin, shattering-risp layers, to create that classic French dessert. Don’t worry, you won’t have to laminate dough from scratch—a quality store-bought dough will do. However, there are no shortcuts when it comes to the homemade vanilla pastry cream filling, made with real vanilla beans.

Mille-Feuille (Napoleon)
Croquembouche

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

In France, this towering confection of delicate, cream-filled, caramel-coated choux puffs wrapped in spun sugar is the celebratory cake of choice at weddings and other festive events. Like mille-feuille, there’s an ephemeral quality about a croquembouche—it’s not meant to be stored for any length of time—so it’s best made fresh and served within a couple of hours of assembly. But then, what's more satisfying than enjoying the fruits of your labor over hot tea or coffee with a few pastry-loving friends?

Croquembouche
Sourdough Bread Loaf

Tim Chin

Making a crusty loaf of sourdough is nowhere near as intimidating as it may seem, even for a novice baker. It all comes down to planning and setting aside time to complete each step of the process—from building the levain and mixing the dough to bulk fermenting, shaping, retarding, scoring, and baking the loaf—all of which are easily doable over a weekend. If you don’t feel like making your own starter, procure some from a local bakery or a baker friend, and feed the leftover levain so you can continue maintaining your starter for future loaves.

Sourdough Bread Loaf
Babka

Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

There’s something to be said about baking your own chocolate babka from scratch. Aside from the intoxicating scent of yeasted dough and cocoa wafting through your home, you won’t have to settle for a “lesser babka” (if you’re a Seinfeld fan, you know) when the bakery has sold out of the chocolate ones. This recipe incorporates a cooked flour slurry to ensure a moist, fluffy texture and prolong freshness. Cold-proofing for up to 12 hours allows the butter and egg-enriched dough to develop more flavor and firm up so it’s easier to fill, roll, and shape into that signature layered, twisted loaf.

Babka

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Biscuits

Liz Voltz

Mastering the art of a flaky biscuit is akin to a rite of passage in some families. Leave it to The Food Lab at Serious Eats to break down the mechanics of achieving all those extra flaky layers (81, we counted). Start by quickly processing ice-cold butter pieces into the flour before it has a chance to melt, then fold in cold buttermilk by hand with a rubber spatula to avoid overmixing. Laminate the dough by folding it into thirds multiple times to create even more layers. Once you've got the technique down, you'll be cranking out riffs, like these sour cream and chives biscuits or leveling up your favorite scones.

Biscuits
Cinnamon Rolls

Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

Waking up to warm cinnamon rolls, lavished with cream cheese frosting, is how I like to start my Sunday mornings. This super-easy recipe, courtesy of Stella Parks, begins with mixing, filling, rolling, and cutting the dough into rolls the night before, then letting the rolls rise overnight in the fridge. This slow fermentation gives them time to develop flavor and structure, so they bake up soft and airy. The best part? No need to wash the mixer bowl between steps—just wipe it down with a paper towel.

Cinnamon Rolls
Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)

Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

Scroll through social media, and you’ve no doubt seen countless images of plush, pillowy Japanese milk bread. With its ultra-soft and airy texture, fine crumb, and mild sweetness, it's the bread of choice for everything from Japanese katsu and fresh fruit sandos to peanut butter-stuffed French toast. Unlike most recipes that require cooking wheat flour and water for yudane, ours is made by simply whisking glutinous rice flour into boiled milk, producing a light and tender loaf that stays fresher longer.

Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)
Kanafeh (Middle Eastern Cheese and Phyllo Dessert)

Vicky Wasik

Like many traditional Middle Eastern desserts, kanafeh is a delicate balance of contrasting textures and flavors: crunchy shredded phyllo drenched in floral rose and orange blossom syrup, stretchy, gooey, salty cheese, and nutty pistachios. It's a decadent showstopper that requires no special equipment or technique. Frozen shredded phyllo is available online or at specialty or Middle Eastern markets (or at larger supermarket chains, depending on your location). If you can’t find the nabulsi or akkawi cheeses, stretchy mozzarella or cheese curds will work just fine.

Kanafeh (Middle Eastern Cheese and Phyllo Dessert)

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Homemade Bagels

Vicky Wasik

Sure, you can buy bagels almost everywhere, but when freshly home-baked, they're on a whole other level, and miles apart from the mass-produced, supermarket variety. What makes this recipe special is that it uses a Japanese technique similar to that for milk bread to help keep the bagels tender and chewy for days. Barley malt syrup in the bagel boil gives them their distinctive aroma.

Homemade Bagels
Millionaire's Shortbread

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Contrary to its moniker, millionaire's shortbread does not contain a plethora of expensive ingredients, like 24-carat gold leaf or hand-crafted butter that costs $60 per pound (I'm not joking, that does exist). What it does have are layers of tender shortbread with a pleasantly crumbly texture, well-set chewy butterscotch, and bittersweet chocolate topping that perfectly balances out the sweetness of the butterscotch, along with a flourish of flaky sea salt to underscore the sweet-salty profile.

Millionaire's Shortbread
Yeasted Coffee Cake

Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

While the standard cake-batter-style coffee cake with crumbly streusel topping is relatively simple to whip up for a last-minute get-together, this yeast-raised coffee cake is what to make when you really want to impress. A tangzhong, or cooked flour slurry, imparts a soft, moist texture, and an overnight cold proof gives the milk-, butter-, and egg-yolk-enriched dough time to develop a deeper flavor. Swirls of buttery, nutty, cinnamon crumb filling, artfully arranged rings of toasted pecan halves, and a drizzle of sweet vanilla glaze transform the yeasted dough into a worthy centerpiece.

Yeasted Coffee Cake
Butter Tart

Serious Eats / Vy Tran

There is a lot of debate amongst Canadians about what makes the quintessential butter tart—with nuts or without, raisins or no raisins, and a gooey or firm filling. But what is not up for debate is the buttery, flaky crust, which begins with thoroughly chilled pastry shells. As for the filling, here we opt for one that's rich with deep caramel and molasses notes and very soft, but not runny in the center. If you prefer a chewier filling texture, serve the butter tarts chilled.

Butter Tart