14 of Lifehacker’s Best Bakes of 2022

This year turned out to be an exciting year for me over here at Skillet. Mostly because I fully jumped on staff with culinary dynamo Claire Lower, and with her unequivocal support, I was able to let my mind wander the weird ‘what-ifs’ of baked goods. You’ll see both sweet and savoury on this list, and each of them is worth flipping on your oven for. Here’s a list of our 14 greatest bakes of the year.

Intensely apple, apple cider cake

Most basic apple cider cakes have you add regular-old watery cider. Our recipe uses an apple cider reduction, so you get roughly two litres of apple power in just 230ml of concentrated syrup. This apple cider cake recipe makes one beautiful, giant bundt cake, but it can be cut in half for a smaller snack cake, or loaf.

Soy sauce brownies

Adding a splash of soy sauce to your baked goods gets those glutamate receptors firing away, highlighting the flavours of chocolates, caramels, and nuts. The bonus, of course, is the added dash of salt. Try these dark chocolate soy sauce brownies for an easy entry point into sneaking more soy sauce into your desserts.

Pastry brittle

You’ll never let the fear of leftover pastries stop you from buying the massive family pack again with this stale pastry brittle hack. It’s as simple as whisking half & half with a large quantity of sugar, and dumping in whatever stale pastry you happen to have in for a soak. Bake until crispy, and you have an insanely delicious, crispy, crumbly snack on your hands (and on your table, and on your laptop).

Cereal milk pie

This pie barely sees oven time; however, since the cereal crumb crust needs to toast in the oven, I’ll group it in as “a bake.” It just wouldn’t be fair to leave this one out, seeing as it’s one of the best things I dreamed up this year. Take your most loved, most nostalgic, sweetest cereal, and turn it into a cereal milk pudding cream pie.

Oat flour biscuits

If you have a tendency to overwork dough and you want a more tender biscuit, try using this recipe for oat flour biscuits. Oat flour makes for a more flavorful biscuit dough than regular wheat flour, has added texture, and results in a more delicate biscuit. The dough is easy to work with and ridiculously delicious.

Explore alternative cookie crusts on cheesecakes

This is a very important hack on how to add different flavours to cheesecakes from the bottom up. Use any crunchy cookie, from holiday Oreos to pecan sandies, to make a fantastic crumb crust. Honestly, there are so many eligible cookies to turn into crusts, we need to start making more cheesecakes just to keep up.

Salt and vinegar freezer fries

One of my biggest complaints about malt vinegar on French fries is the wetness. I like a nice vinegar bite, but gross. I’ll take my fries crispy, thank you very much. Use this hack to elevate a bag of your favourite freezer-spuds with loads of salt and vinegar flavour and none of the sog.

Onion dip breakfast strata

Dips aren’t just best friends with pita chips, they get along well with all kinds of carbs. For an incredibly easy, make-ahead breakfast that is equally as tasty, make a dip breakfast strata. You can use up stale bread, veggies and herbs that are on their way out, and finish off any savoury dip you have chillin’ in the fridge. It’s one of the most satisfying fridge-clean-out meals.

Cinnamon corn cookies

Here’s a cookie that’ll make you wonder why cinnamon and corn don’t appear in more desserts together. The combo is comforting yet simple, and the use of coarse cornmeal provides a welcome knobbly texture. It’s corny, it’s chewy, it’s sweet, and it deserves to be in your oven immediately.

Breakfast pizza with a hashbrown crust

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. Not because of energy or nutrition nonsense, but because it’s a designated time to eat my favourite foods: eggs, carbs, and salt. This extraordinary breakfast pizza delivers on all accounts (except for the delivery).

Savoury breakfast loaf

Luckily, after you make the breakfast pizza, there will be another morning shortly thereafter and you can make yourself this savoury breakfast loaf. The recipe involves a savoury muffin-like batter, crunchy bacon, chives, cheese, cheddar, and a hidden surprise: boiled eggs baked inside.

Nankhatai

If you’re a fan of melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies (or any cookies at all), do yourself a favour and make a batch of nankhatai. It’s an Indian cookie that is so buttery and crumbly that once you lift it to your mouth you’ll find you need to stop everything you’re doing because you’ve closed your eyes to enjoy it.

Protein-packed egg white lasagna

Lasagna with pasta is great, but for those trying to sneak in more protein wherever they can get it, make this protein lasagna that cleverly substitutes egg white sheets for pasta layers. Proceed to layer in your usual meat sauce and cheese, or try the recipe that adds a heap of spinach.

Ricotta and lemon migliaccio

Migliaccio is what I would call a grown-up’s cake. It’s a ricotta and semolina cake that’s lightly sweetened, scented with citrus, and utterly delicious. The entire cake is baked as one layer in a skillet or cake pan, and dusted with powdered sugar after cooling. It’s not too sweet, so you’re encouraged to go back for several small slices.