6 Amazing Bread Recipes That Will Make You Feel Like a Star Baker

Biscuits that come together in just one bowl, don’t require any fancy techniques, and come out pillowy every single time? It sounds too good to be true, but it's not. Turns out the key to flaky, from-scratch perfection is baking a shaggy dough atop a full stick of melted butter.

This fluffy and tender loaf from contributor Stephanie Ganz is the result of many challah trials spanning years and years. Stephanie likes to top the bread with dukkah, a crunchy, spice-tinged seed-and-nut blend that hails from Egypt and the Middle East. And although she says it's optional, we politely disagree. It adds an irresistible savory crunch that's not to be missed!

If you want to make Japanese-style egg salad sandos, you need a bread with bounce, aka milk bread. Like any top-notch milk bread, this recipe from Kristina Cho begins with the tangzhong, a moisture-locking concentration of flour and liquid that comes together like a roux. It makes the loaf extra-soft and keeps it from going stale, which shouldn't be a problem anyway, considering how quickly the loaf is bound to disappear.

The French have baguettes, Italians have ciabatta, and Filipinos have pandesal. This pull-apart version from contributor Yana Gilbuena is based on the one her lola (Filipino for "grandma") used to make. You can serve it alongside eggs, dip it in coffee (like Yana's lola), eat it with soup, or even stuff it with ice cream. Bottom line: There's not a time when pandesal doesn't work.

The first time Associate Food Editor, Nicole Rufus, saw Ligurian focaccia being made on the Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, she gasped. To the unfamiliar, the process of brining the dough (with a saltwater brine) can be jarring. Is it supposed to look that wet? But trust the process. The brine imparts such an unbelievable amount of flavor that adding an aromatic like rosemary is 100% unnecessary.

Nothing, and we mean nothing, compares to a freshly made maíz tortilla. Contributor Alex Cardenas breaks down the process step by step, giving you tons of tips along the way: new shape options, how to make them wihout a tortilla press, and more. Her beautiful blue corn tortillas are an integral part of her mushroom and purslane quesadillas, and after making the recipe once we're confident you'll be DIYing your tortillas much more often.