Whether baking has quietly taken over your entire personality, The Great British Baking Show serves as your ultimate comfort watch, or you simply possess an unwavering love for freshly baked cookies, the culinary world has a welcoming space for you. Enter the Bon Appétit Bake Club, a digital community designed to bring together passionate home bakers of all skill levels.
Spearheaded by senior editors and resident Test Kitchen bakers Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic, the club approaches the craft with a blend of obsession and accessibility. The pair love to bake and, more importantly, love to talk through all the mechanics, successes, and occasional failures that come with working in a kitchen.
Conceived as the baking world’s equivalent of a book club, the initiative invites members to tackle a brand-new, meticulously tested recipe each month. Participants can bake along, share their triumphs and missteps, post photographs, and direct burning culinary questions straight to the experts. The overarching mission is to cultivate a community of confident, curious bakers who find just as much joy in the messy, unpredictable process of baking as they do in the final product.
For those looking to participate, getting involved is straightforward. The primary requirement is simple: save each month’s featured recipe and bring it to life in your own kitchen. Beyond the baking itself, members can engage with the community through several interactive channels.
The Bon Appétit Bake Club chat on Substack offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into the rigorous recipe development process. Bakers can also post photos of their creations on Instagram using the dedicated hashtag #BABakeClub. Furthermore, feedback and questions can be shared directly in the Recipe Notes section of the Epicurious app, where editors read every comment to discuss details like butter, sugar, and technical adjustments. Baking questions can also be submitted via email for a chance to be featured on the official podcast feed, which goes live at the start of every month.
Over the past several years, the club has guided its growing community through an ambitious array of seasonal projects, technical challenges, and comforting classics.
October 2026: Salt Bread
Imagine a Parker House roll having a tryst with Asian-style milk bread and a classic French croissant. That is the essence of salt bread, known as shio pan in Japan and sogeum-ppang in Korea. Each soft bun holds a rich secret: a nub of salted butter bundled within the shaped dough. The little pat of fat melts in the oven, pooling on the baking sheet to effectively fry the bottom crust, yielding a crisp, savory shell akin to something you would find in a high-end patisserie. Tearing it in half reveals a buttery, hollow center with flaky layers that unravel just like a croissant, according to deputy food editor Hana Asbrink.
September 2026: Apple Pie Fritters
Capturing the essence of autumn requires translating the experience of apple picking and racing to a farm stand for warm cinnamon-sugar doughnuts into a home kitchen. The September 2026 project achieved just that, offering an apple-studded dough with a hint of richness, a jolt of sugar, and aromatic spice, all without requiring the time-consuming rise of traditional yeast doughs.
August 2026: Plum Cheesecake Karpatka
For those unfamiliar with karpatka, also known as Carpathian Mountain Cake, the traditional pastry features two disks of tender, airy pâte à choux housing a layer of pastry cream lightened with whipped cream or crème mousseline. The Bake Club version offered a twist by substituting the classic filling with a no-bake cheesecake ribboned with homemade plum jam, creating a make-ahead-friendly dessert designed to extend the vibrant flavors of summer.
July 2026: Sweet Corn-Coconut Crunch Butter Mochi
A midsummer stunner characterized by its sunflower-yellow hue and bouncy texture, this recipe combined fresh or frozen corn with sweetened condensed milk and sweet rice flour. The result delivered a textural masterpiece with gentle resistance, tasting of buttered corn, toasty coconut, and nutty caramel all at once.
June 2026: Tiny Tomato Galettes
Conceived by Test Kitchen editor Rebecca Firkser, June 2026 brought a savory pastry that combined the best elements of a tomato sandwich, a pizza, and a flaky tart. Built on a black-pepper-spiked pie dough that requires no specialty equipment, each round features a dollop of garlicky Parmesan and herb mayonnaise, acting as a moisture barrier between juicy tomato slices and a delicate pleated crust.
May 2026: Whole Lemon Bars
Challenging the conventional method of using only juice and zest, these bars utilized two whole lemons blitzed directly into the curd before straining out the pulp. This technique preserved the essential oils of the skin, the bitterness of the pith, and the bright acidity of the juice, resulting in an intense flavor profile reminiscent of a classic Lemonhead candy.
April 2026: Strawberry Shortcake Roll
Inspired by Hana Asbrink’s birthday celebration, this roll cake featured a fluffy, oil-based chiffon sponge that eliminated the traditional cracking and shaping difficulties usually associated with rolled cakes. Filled with vanilla-bean-flecked cream and jewel-red strawberries, it provided a celebratory dessert tailored for the spring season.
March 2026: Chocolate Guinness Cake
Shifting focus back to robust chocolate bakes, this malty loaf was infused with Guinness stout. The tender crumb was achieved through a technique akin to reverse creaming, where dry ingredients are combined and butter is rubbed in by hand until it disappears, preventing excess gluten formation without the need for a stand mixer.
February 2026: Cheddar Biscuits With Old Bay
Packing intense cheese flavor and a dash of Old Bay seasoning, these tall, layered biscuits utilized a quick lamination technique similar to croissant preparation. While no specialized machinery was required, the recipe heavily recommended a sturdy bench scraper to streamline the dough-shaping process.
January 2026: Homemade Bagels
Using everyday pantry staples, this project produced a dozen chewy bagels through a traditional dual-step process of boiling followed by baking. The method secured a tanned sheen and a dense interior, welcoming toppings ranging from furikake and Parmesan to classic sesame seeds.
December 2025: Cherry and Chocolate Pavlova
Drawing inspiration from the traditional Bavarian Black Forest cake, this holiday bake relied on a precise two-to-one sugar-to-egg-white ratio by weight. This specific balance ensured a sturdy, crisp, snow-white meringue capable of housing decadent chocolate and cherry elements without weeping or collapsing.
November 2025: Giant, Gooey Cinnamon Roll
Designed to maximize the ratio of sticky filling, this oversized roll incorporated a touch of instant vanilla pudding mix into the cinnamon sugar. The modified food starch replicated the ultra-gooey texture typical of commercial cinnamon rolls, yielding a pastry large enough to be sliced like a cake.
October 2025: Chocolate Chip Cookies With Olive Oil and Sea Salt
Proving that plant-based baking can rival dairy-laden counterparts, this accidental vegan recipe paired chocolate with fruity, slightly bitter olive oil. The oil served a functional purpose, keeping the cookies soft and moist for days after baking.
September 2025: Banana Pudding Paris-Brest
A French classic received a Southern American twist by substituting traditional praline mousseline with a banana-peel-infused diplomat cream. Layered with candied nuts and fresh banana slices, the choux pastry ring successfully merged two distinct dessert traditions.
August 2025: Peach-Blueberry Crumb Pie
Capturing the essence of long summer days, this fruit-filled pie featured a cardamom-scented filling topped with brown sugar streusel. The project emphasized fundamental baking lessons, including crust reliability, fruit selection, and the importance of precooking high-moisture fillings to maintain a crisp bottom crust.
July 2025: No-Knead Cheddar Jalapeño Bread
Serving as an accessible entry point for home bakers intimidated by artisanal bread making, this savory boule utilized instant yeast and a series of quick folds rather than traditional kneading or finicky sourdough starters, resulting in a browned crust studded with fresh jalapeños and sharp cheddar.
June 2025: Hummingbird Cake
The club tackled the storied Southern icon featuring a spiced banana-and-pineapple base enriched with nuts and finished with a rich cream cheese frosting, honoring a dessert with deep historical roots.
May 2025: Coffee Cake Scones
Incorporating cultured dairy from sour cream, these scones maintained a moist, tender crumb without becoming heavy, while featuring interior cinnamon-sugar swirls and crunchy streusel toppings.
April 2025: Millionaire’s Shortbread
Following extensive testing, this sophisticated bar featured an upgraded shortbread base made with pre-toasted flour for a deep, nutty complexity. It was paired with a hybrid caramel utilizing sweetened condensed milk and topped with a glossy chocolate layer.
March 2025: Pistachio Bundt Cake
Utilizing a standard kitchen blender to grind nuts directly into a coarse flour, this vibrant green cake achieved a moist, heavy crumb driven by natural pistachio fats, melted butter, and oil, finished with a lemon glaze.
January 2025: Incredibly Good Homemade Pizza
Proving that world-class pies do not require specialty brick ovens or stand mixers, this adaptable pizza dough relied on a high-heat stovetop-and-broiler cooking method to guarantee a puffy, leopard-spotted crust in under four hours.
December 2024: Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
This low-effort, high-reward dessert featured olive oil in both the batter and the ganache-like frosting, utilizing Dutch-process cocoa powder to deliver an intense, long-lasting chocolate flavor that remained moist for days.
November 2024: Caramel Apple Monkey Bread
Wrapping up the autumn season, this ambitious project combined fruit-studded dough with a tangy cider caramel, requiring a spacious Bundt pan to accommodate the generous proofing and baking process.