16 Quick Bread Recipes to Make on Repeat

Sixteen quick bread recipes that require little more than mixing ingredients and throwing everything into the oven.

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Rabi Abonour
Rabi Abonour is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Rabi Abonour
Rabi Abonour is a planner specializing in transportation, but has also been a photojournalist, writer, and editor for several online and print publications.
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and
The Serious Eats Team
The Serious Eats Team
At Serious Eats, we’re a team of self-proclaimed food nerds who are ever-curious about the “why” behind cooking. The staff has worked in restaurants, test kitchens, bakeries, and other notable publications, bringing extensive culinary and editorial expertise to the table.
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Published December 17, 2024
Overhead view of boston brown bread

Serious Eats / Greg Dupree

Getting into breadmaking is a serious endeavor—recipes are often multi-hour processes and require a bunch of measuring, kneading, and waiting for dough to rise. I love eating bread, but baking it is just a little beyond my patience. Quick breads, on the other hand, are much more approachable. Made without yeast, they typically require nothing more than mixing the ingredients and throwing everything into the oven. The category is broad—it encompasses everything from classics like banana bread and Irish soda bread to muffins, scones, and biscuits. If you're looking for baking projects that are easy enough for a weeknight, check out our 16 favorite quick bread recipes.

  • Classic Banana Bread

    Vicky Wasik

    Greek yogurt also makes an appearance in our banana bread, with coconut oil providing extra insurance that the bread ends up rich and moist without being heavy or greasy. Banana bread is often thought of as a way to use up old bananas, but perfectly ripe ones will produce a lighter loaf.

  • Easy Banana Bread

    Overhead view of banana bread

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    The key to this easy pantry-friendly banana bread? Packing six whole bananas into one loaf for an over-the-top banana bread. Browning the butter and caramelizing a portion of the bananas punches up the banana flavor even more and also eliminates unwanted moisture that could make the bread soggy.

  • Pumpkin Bread With Salted Brown Butter Glaze

    20201014-pumpkin-bread-vicky-wasik-beauty
    Vicky Wasik

    Earthy, spiced pumpkin bread paired with a rich and nutty salted brown butter glaze is the perfect fall (and winter!) dessert. The sweet nuttiness of the salted brown butter glaze complements the roasted, spiced flavor of the pumpkin bread.

  • Zucchini Bread With Walnuts

    20200924-zucchini-bread-vicky-wasik-2
    Vicky Wasik

    Like muffins, zucchini bread is often far too sweet. Our recipe uses just a cup of sugar (light brown rather than granulated), though you might find you prefer a little more. We also use less oil than some other recipes, replacing it with Greek yogurt so that the cake maintains a tender, cake-like structure.

    Continue to 5 of 16 below

  • Easy Boston Brown Bread

    Overhead view of boston brown bread

    Serious Eats / Greg Dupree

    Readers from New England might be familiar with this colonial recipe for moist, sweet bread steamed in a can. You can buy the canned quick bread in supermarkets, but it's incredibly easy to make at home—all you have to do is whisk up all the ingredients at once and steam for about 35 minutes.

  • Real Irish Soda Bread

    Vicky Wasik

    Forget about the dry, crumbly "bread" that pops up around St. Patrick's Day—this is Irish soda bread done right. We make it with more buttermilk than is typical to ensure that the bread is chewy but tender and mix in a heaping teaspoon of baking soda to neutralize the buttermilk's acidity.

  • Bakery-Style Cream Scones With Milk Chocolate

    Vicky Wasik

    These scones are so easy that the dough comes together faster than it takes to preheat your oven. The most time-consuming part is incorporating the butter and flour, and that can be done the night before if you want. While we love dark chocolate, for a lightly sweetened dough like this, delicate milk chocolate is more appropriate.

  • Easy Ham and Cheese Scones

    Vicky Wasik

    Once you're comfortable with a basic scone batter you can start playing with other ingredients. This recipe starts just like the previous one, but we add diced ham, shredded cheese, and chopped scallions. While some cheese is mixed straight into the dough, most of it is sprinkled on top to give the scones a crispy crust.

    Continue to 9 of 16 below

  • Blueberry-Lemon Scones

    Vicky Wasik

    Butter and cream make for scones with a wonderfully light, fluffy texture, but they can also be overwhelmingly rich. Replacing the dairy in these blueberry-lemon scones with coconut oil and full-fat coconut milk lets the fresh fruit shine while having the side effect of keeping the recipe vegan.

  • Classic Blueberry Muffins

    Vicky Wasik

    I am not going to tell you that muffins are a health food, but they also shouldn't taste like cupcakes. Our blueberry muffins have enough sugar to be a treat but not so much that you feel like it is an indulgence when eating them for breakfast. To keep the recipe easy, we skip creaming the butter and sugar and simply mix the butter in with all the dry ingredients at once.

  • Raisin Bran Muffins

    Vicky Wasik

    These muffins feel extra healthy thanks to wheat bran, whole wheat flour, and flaxseed. The recipe is basically the same as our blueberry muffins, but it's important to remember to hydrate the ultra-absorbent bran with hot water before mixing it with the rest of the ingredients. We like adding raisins to our bran muffins, but any dry mix-ins will work.

  • Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

    Vicky Wasik

    Pumpkin treat season tends to extend past Thanksgiving, so there's no reason you can't make these pumpkin muffins in the dead of December. These muffins incorporate the gourd in two ways—we make the batter with pumpkin purée and top the muffins with a pumpkin seed streusel.

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  • Moist and Tender Brown Butter Cornbread

    J. Kenji López-Alt

    Cornbread varies widely depending on where you're from—I grew up with this sweet, moist style. The batter is made with equal parts cornmeal and flour, the latter of which gives the bread its cake-like texture. Browning the butter in the same skillet you use to cook the cornbread adds a nutty flavor and yields a crisp crust.

  • Southern-Style Unsweetened Cornbread

    A slice of Southern-style unsweetened cornbread on a round white ceramic plate with a dark green rim. The cornbread is resting on a dark teal surface and there's a dishcloth in the background.

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

    Southerners, on the other hand, might prefer a less-sweet cornbread with a stronger corn flavor. You really should try to seek out great stone-ground cornmeal for this—not only is the texture better, but good cornmeal has a natural sweetness that's vital for making the cornbread taste right. Even if you think you want an unsweetened cornbread, if you use commercial cornmeal you will need to add a few teaspoons of sugar.

  • Buttermilk Drop Biscuits With Garlic and Cheddar

    Vicky Wasik

    Most biscuits qualify as quick breads, and our basic drop biscuit is one of the easiest options out there. That's just the start, though; if you're looking for something more intense, try these garlic- and cheese-packed biscuits. Shredding the cheddar on a microplane keeps the dough light and ensures that you get cheese in every bite.

  • Gluten-Free Pumpkin Gingerbread

    Elizabeth Barbone

    Gingerbread season is in full swing, and this recipe combines pumpkin as well. Half a cup of molasses and a full tablespoon of ground ginger give the bread a classic gingerbread flavor, while the pumpkin purée mainly adds moisture. A mixture of white rice flour, sorghum flour, and cornstarch keeps the recipe gluten-free.

September 2017

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