15 Sarah Kieffer Recipes for Cookies, Cakes, and Morning Bakes
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When I first came across Sarah Kieffer’s The Vanilla Bean Blog many years ago, her innovative pan-banging cookies quickly became a weekend staple, much to the dismay of my cats, who were terrified of the ruckus. Surely this wasn’t just happening in my kitchen—home bakers everywhere were loudly banging their cookie sheets in the oven to give these equal-parts-chewy-and-crispy cookies their signature ripples. For weeks my Instagram feed was flooded with renditions and interpretations of this viral baking sensation.
Fast-forward to 2020 and Kieffer’s book, 100 Cookies, was a fortuitous addition to an otherwise ill-fated year. In it, she gave avid bakers like myself an entire chapter dedicated to her pan-banging cookies. I was ready to live in that chapter, but when I got the book, I fell in love with her brownie and blondie recipes, particularly the white chocolate brownies with toasted sesame caramel, which I’ve made for every holiday since. The fruit-forward bakes were also a hit—especially the lemon oat bars that easily pass as both breakfast and dessert.
With her next book, Baking for the Holidays, Kieffer broadened the lexicon of holiday cookies but also introduced us to her hot chocolate cake and an unbelievably easy laminated dough that makes homemade croissants and danishes a very real possibility. Most recently, she published 100 Morning Treats, which includes a cookie recipe, of course, but also so many other bakes that make the morning meal anything but an afterthought. With her knack for frankensteining popular desserts into breakfast treats, Kieffer gives those who can't handle evening caffeine a tiramisu in the form of coffee cake and brings pie to the breakfast table with her crackle-topped lemon meringue loaf.
Below you’ll find some of the never-fail recipes I keep returning to from her first few books, and plenty of proof of Kieffer’s status as more than just the cookie queen.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer1/14Everything Breakfast Pretzels
For the ultimate breakfast pretzels, Kieffer uses milk bread, the Japanese-style bread made with tangzhong, a roux of milk and water. The texture of the bread is light and airy, almost cotton candy–like, and it’s perfect baked into loaves but especially as pretzels flecked with everything bagel seasoning.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich2/14Sesame Chocolate Rye Breakfast Cookies
One way to make sure you eat breakfast is to turn it into a cookie. These have everything you might put in oatmeal, like oats, pecans, and poppy seeds, plus whole wheat flour and rye flour for a little extra heartiness.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer3/14White Chocolate Brownies With Toasted Sesame Caramel
Sesame oil brings an indefinable savory quality to these toasty white chocolate brownies. And before you know it, you’re left with just the crumbs. Their nuttiness means they’d make an excellent bar cookie for Thanksgiving.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer4/14Cheater’s Croissant Dough
This shockingly easy recipe for laminated dough breaks all the rules. While the traditional method requires flattening a block of ice-cold butter by way of an aggressive arm workout, Kieffer’s actually encourages softening the butter to room temperature and spreading it evenly across the dough with a spatula. This prevents tears in the dough and allows for smooth folding to ensure the flakiest homemade croissants and danishes.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer5/14Cruffins
An combo of croissants and muffins, these extravagant morning buns are made easy by Kieffer's cheater's croissant dough. She recommends an overnight rise which yields super flakey buns worth every bit of wait.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich6/14Tiramisu Bundt Cake
All the elements of our favorite Italian dessert turned into a Bundt cake. This recipe involves some planning ahead, but the result is oh-so-worth it. Have a slice with your morning cup of coffee for a fancy start to your day.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer.9/14Caramel Candies
Kieffer’s caramel candy recipe comes with three variations: orange (with some boost from triple sec), espresso, and the classic salted caramel. The recipe yields about forty-eight small candies so, come December, you can make a big batch of all three varieties and sneak them into your holiday cookie boxes.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer10/14Hot Chocolate Cake
In Kieffer’s multiverse of hot chocolate, the beloved winter beverage becomes a chocolate cake tunneled with marshmallow filling, then topped with chocolate ganache and toasted marshmallows. There's no need to wait for cold weather for this one; it would make a fabulous birthday cake at any time of year.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer11/14French Silk Pie Bars
All the best parts of the classic pie in bar form. An ultra-creamy and chocolaty filling gets layered over a buttery, flaky crust that’s quite versatile. You can even make the crust and freeze it for up to three weeks to use it for these bars, or top with your favorite custard, mousse, or fruit curd.
Photo by Sarah Kieffer12/14Pan Banging Ginger Molasses Cookies
This list of Sarah Kieffer favorites would be incomplete without one of her signature pan-banging cookies. The method works especially well here because it enhances the chewiness from the molasses. Plus the crunch from sprinkled sugar and the subtle heat from the warm spices make it really hard to just have one.
