10 Best Baking Cookbooks of 2026

For award-winning cookbook author Maureen Abood, food is more than mere sustenance — it is how she shows love, connects her past to her present and ensures her family’s legacy through recipes and cherished memories. Her latest book is dedicated to the canon of Lebanese baking, with chapters for baklava, knafeh, sweet yeast breads, cookies, cakes, fatayer and savory yeast breads. We’re bookmarking traditional bakes like Saj Bread, a soft, chewy disc that Abood’s Sitto first baked for her, her genius short-cut Baklawa Diamonds recipe, and modern takes destined for instant classic status, including Za’atar Croissants and Mocha Cardamom Snack Cake.

The book is beautiful, practical and deeply personal — the stunning photographs and process photos guide you every step of the way, sprinkled through with tender anecdotes and hard-won tips and tricks. In other words, the next best thing to having Abood in your kitchen. As she says in her introduction, “Habibi, let’s bake!”

Food Network personality and cookbook author Molly Yeh has earned legions of fans for her sunny, approachable style and homey recipes that blend Midwestern farm life charm with her Asian and Jewish heritage. Her latest cookbook is dedicated to all things sweet — which is extra fitting, given that she lives on a sugar beet farm where her husband Nick and his family have farmed the crop since the 1930s.

The book includes a mix of nostalgic sweets and modern classics (hello, Black Sesame Babka) paired with lovely family photos and whimsical illustrations. Whether you have 5 minutes to whip up a treat or are ready to dig into a weekend baking project, there’s something for bakers of all stripes in this vibrant collection. We can’t wait to try One Bowl Any-Butter Cookie Bars, perfect for those moments when a sweet treat craving strikes; a spring picnic-ready Lavender Lemon Loaf; and gooey, sweet Chocolate Swirly Buns, aka the stuff of your brunch dreams.

Iconic cookbook author and baker Dorie Greenspan has written, tested and perfected thousands of recipes, but her latest tome proves that sometimes the simplest bakes are the most memorable. In Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, you’ll find more than 100 recipes for cake, from loaves and rounds, crumbles to Bundts, plus a few savory cakes for good measure, and pages brimming with Greenspan’s stories and Nancy Pappas’ lovely illustrations.

The recipes are easy to follow, whether you’re a seasoned baker or a novice, and we love that Greenspan includes helpful notes on ingredients, storing and serving, as well as a Playing Around section that offers inspiration for flavor variations for many recipes. We can’t wait to dip into treasured favorites like Berry Yogurt Cake, a quintessential, French-inspired loaf cake that begs to be snacked on, toted to picnics or served at dinner parties, and Grandmothers’ Honey Cake, which boasts a rustic crumb spiced with allspice and cinnamon and topped with sliced almonds — take a cue from Greenspan and pair it with a cup of black tea for the ultimate afternoon pick-me-up or a cake-for-breakfast moment.

Fans of nostalgic desserts will love Better Than Grandma’s, the debut cookbook from viral baker Justin Ellen. Featuring more than 80 recipes for cookies, cakes, pies, cobblers and other comfort sweets, the book combines easy-to-follow instructions with helpful baking tips that make homemade desserts more approachable than ever. Thoughtful video tutorials throughout make this a standout addition to any home baker’s cookbook collection and a sweet gift for anyone who loves baking from scratch.

Unfussy yet exceptional cookies, cakes, bars and pies await in this stunning book by Nicole Rucker, chef, author and owner of Fat + Flour bakery in Los Angeles. You’ll find best in category recipes for tried-and-true classics, including her signature pie dough recipe, several vegan baked goods, and irresistible-sounding original creations like Fat and Gooey Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Pecans and Boozy Banana Snickerdoodle Cookies. Think you’ve got your go-to banana bread? Think again. Rucker has five to pick from, including Classic 1980s Mom Banana Bread (the one closest to her heart) and a Wholesome Hi-Protein Banana Bread, which Rucker developed with her husband, Blaine, in mind to fuel him through long-distance bike rides.

Given Rucker’s prowess with pie, it’s fitting that there are two dedicated chapters: Fruit Pies, Handpies, Galettes and Pudding and Custard Pies, plus pages dedicated to techniques like Crimping a “Perfect” Crust and How to Blind-bake a Pie Crust. We’re dreaming of ushering in fall with Summer Apple Pie with Fig Leaf and Vanilla, and bookmarking Gingery Pear Crumble Pie and Ginger Sweet Potato Meringue Pie for our next holiday get-together.

For years, Sally’s Baking Addiction has been a go-to online resource for from-scratch baking recipes that work. Now, expert self-taught baker Sally McKenney has parlayed her best bakes and signature tutorials into a collection of 101 recipes covering cookies, bars, cakes, pies, muffins, yeast breads, pizza dough and more, plus loads of tips, tricks and step-by-step photos. As the title promises, there is a wide range of foolproof recipes geared towards bakers of all skill levels.

Beginners can try their hand at irresistible Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins or veer into savory territory with a genius slice-and-bake Cracked Pepper Parmesan Cookies, perfect for upgrading your next cheese or charcuterie board. If you’re at an intermediate baker level, go straight to the Maple Walnut Pull-Apart Bread, which McKenney describes as having “the magical ability to make all other concerns vanish.” Ready for a challenge? Master the Rough Puff Pastry Dough recipe to make brunch bakes like Sausage, Egg & Cheese Turnovers, Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Danishes and Asparagus and Smoked Salmon Tart.

In her latest cookbook, American-born, Berlin-based baker Laurel Kratochvila distills Poland’s baking culture into a collection of recipes (her own, as well as those of pioneering Polish bakers) spanning cookies, layer cakes, cheesecakes, buns, breads and more. Beyond the excellent recipes, the book also includes personal essays and recipe notes that are rich with history, cultural anecdotes and vivid storytelling. Under Baba au Rhum (Baba Ponczowa), she shares that the mini brioche soaked in rum syrup, typically associated with French desserts, is actually the work of the Polish King Stanislaw I’s pastry chef. In the hednote for Dulce de Leche Wafer Cookies (Andruty z Kajmakiem), she describes andruty as a taste of Polish childhood, and how the thin homemade waffles spread with fillings, like kajmak, a thick caramel made with cooked sweetened condensed milk (like dulce de leche), are often the first cookies Polish children learn to make.

There are also excellent primers for yeasted dough, including step-by-step photos for forming a ball or log, as well as for sourdough, which includes detailed cues and useful process photos for steps like pre-shaping and shaping. We love the sound of Sunflower Rye Loaf, which Kratochvila describes as a hearty sourdough that is as delicious paired with vinegary herrings and wódka as it is meaty tomatoes and fresh twaróg, or farmer’s cheese.

For the Francophile or pastry-obsessed baker in your life, look no further than this gorgeous tome by French baking authority Ginette Mathiot. It includes more than 350 French dessert recipes, spanning milk and egg desserts, tarts, cakes, cookies and more.

Importantly, the book starts with a section dedicated to foundational recipes for various doughs, frostings and fillings and syrups and sauces. Master the basic choux dough, and you’ll be ready to make chocolate éclairs and cream-filled choux buns. We especially love the tarts chapter, which has recipes for classic fruit tarts, from diminutive strawberry tartlets to a show-stopper tarte tatin, and the cookie chapter, which includes both classic and mini macarons plus a bevy of regional biscuits. The book also includes helpful sections on essential equipment, ingredients and step-by-step guides to classic techniques and hard-won advice on how to troubleshoot common baking dilemmas, making this a vital compendium for novice and skilled bakers alike.

In this completely revised edition of Ready for Dessert, professional cook and baker and award-winning cookbook author David Lebovitz compiled more than 170 of his favorite recipes — from cobblers to cakes, pies to pastries — plus stunning photography shot on location in Paris. Lebovitz parlays his Franco-American approach to sophisticated yet unfussy bakes, spotlighting seasonal produce and pure flavor. To wit, you’ll find recipes for Apple-Quince Tarte Tatin, Raspberry Upside-Down Gingerbread Cake and an imminently snackable Spiced Plum Streusel Cake with Toffee Glaze.

With each recipe, you learn the importance of high-quality ingredients, like making Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread with French or European-style higher-fat butter, and the merits of tweaking tradition, as with an Apple Tart with Whole-Wheat Puff Pastry and Maple-Walnut Sauce, where whole wheat puff pastry imparts a hearty, nutty flavor profile that makes the apples sing.

Author Aran Goyoaga has not only mastered the art of gluten-free bread, but gluten-free bakes like biscuits, bagels and croissants. In this compendium of more than 100 recipes, she shares the secrets to perfect gluten-free loaves that are so packed with flavor and texture, we bet everyone will be clamoring for a slice, as well as building block recipes, like using baguette dough to make Olive Pesto Pull-Apart Bread or spinning your sourdough discard into Fudgy Sourdough Brownies or Sourdough Crumpets.

No category is off-limits here — there are gluten-free recipes for flatbreads such as pizza, naan and tortillas, plus delicious donuts and Danishes, pillowy pita and popovers. You’ll also find standout loaves like the high-fiber, high-protein Flourless Fermented Buckwheat and Red Lentil Bread, tender enriched breads like Quickest Buttery Brioche and yeasted breads like Olive and Rosemary Fougasse, plus incredible holiday breads such as Buckwheat and Cardamom Breads and Baklava Babka. We may never bake with regular flour again.