Thank you for baking from The Vanilla Bean Blog this year! I'm humbled and amazed to be in your kitchens. These were your 5 favorite recipes of 2021.

1: Pan-banging Chocolate Chip Cookies

The original Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookie, as featured in the NYTimes. This recipe first appeared in my Vanilla Bean Baking Book, and was the inspiration for the ENTIRE CHAPTER of pan-banging cookie recipes in my 100 Cookies cookbook! The cookie falls somewhere in the middle of gooey and crispy, with edges that shatter in your mouth and a center that is soft and full of chocolate. My family loved it so much that my original recipe hasn't seen the light of day since. Our house cookie. RECIPE

2: The Cinnamon Rolls

They're made with straightforward ingredients, and the texture of the baked rolls is pure pillowy goodness. There's a special frosting trick I share that creates a crackly layer of icing under a second layer of soft, gooey icing. RECIPE

3: Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies

This recipe was a definite favorite; rich in flavor, with crispy edges and an almost fudgy center. When they cool, they collapse a bit, giving them a beautiful crackly surface. ⁣⁣RECIPE

4: Meyer Lemon Snack Cake

This is a lovely, poppy seed speckled cake with crème fraîche frosting from the Baking From Scratch Cookbook (Vol. 5). So many of you made it throughout the year. It's just as perfect on the breakfast table as it is served as the dinner finale. ⁣RECIPE

5: Coffee Blondie Bars

These chewy bars have all the classic features that you love in a blondie; toasted nuts and chocolate chips, plus lovely notes of coffee that set them apart. ⁣RECIPE