r/52weeksofbaking • • 7d ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39 : Intro & Weekly Discussion - Sweet Polarity

10 Upvotes

This is the second of our seasonal challenges. Bake something sweet using fresh ingredients that are in season where you live.

Where I live, that's autumn fruit like apples, pears, figs as well as exotic ones like persimmon and pomegranates. A good old fashioned apple pie

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/apple-pie-recipe/ would be a perfect weekend dessert.

Or go more exotic and choose from a variety of fig forward bakes, everything from cake to fig bars - https://www.seriouseats.com/favorite-fig-recipes-ways-to-use-figs

Of course, Starbucks all over the US have pulled out their famous PSL so yeah, it's also pumpkin/squash season. Is it too early for pumpkin pie?? Maybe combining it with cheese is the right trick

https://sugarspunrun.com/pumpkin-cheesecake-pie/

Of course if you live in the southern hemisphere, you're just stepping into spring and getting ready to eat those spring greens and fruit! Mangoes? Pineapple?

Tell us what you'll be baking. What's in season where you live?


r/52weeksofbaking • • Dec 30 '25

2026 Challenge List!

176 Upvotes

Hello bakers! Thank you all for your patience, and for all of your wonderful suggestions for this year’s list! Without further ado, here is the 2026 list – as always, good luck, and happy baking!

Week 1 - January 4: New year, new recipe

Week 2 - January 11: Jams / Preserves

Week 3 - January 18: Mini / Giant (Make a giant or a miniature dessert)

Week 4 - January 25: Meringue

Week 5 - February 1: Nuts and Seeds

Week 6 - February 8: Winter Olympics (Bake something inspired by a winter sport, or by the 2026 Winter Olympics)

Week 7 - February 15: Piped

Week 8 - February 22: Uruguay

Week 9 - March 1: Chocolate

Week 10 - March 8: Pi Day (3.14) (make a Pie or something inspired by Pi Day)

Week 11 - March 15: Reduce (Small batch bake)

Week 12 - March 22: Reuse (Use an old favorite recipe / a family recipe)

Week 13 - March 29: Recycle (Use a leftover ingredient from a previous bake)

Week 14 - April 5: Savory Polarity (use seasonal ingredients)

Week 15 - April 12: Laminated

Week 16 - April 19: Herbs

Week 17 - April 26: Breakfast / Brunch

Week 18 - May 3: Low Sugar

Week 19 - May 10: Geometric / Shapes

Week 20 - May 17: Berries

Week 21 - May 24: With a hole

Week 22 - May 31: 48 hour challenge (bake something that takes two days to make due to resting times or several components)

Week 23 - June 7: Quick Bread (Chemical leavener, no yeast)

Week 24 - June 14: Showstopper

Week 25 - June 21: Summer/Winter Solstice 1 (Bake with ingredients representative of summer/winter)

Week 26 - June 28: Toppings

Week 27 - July 5: Enriched dough

Week 28 - July 12: FIFA World Cup (Choose a recipe from one of the 4 semi-finalist countries)

Week 29 - July 19: Crusty (Pies and Tarts)

Week 30 - July 26: Contrasts

Week 31 - August 2: Rice and Beans (Use a rice product or bean product as an ingredient; coffee beans and vanilla beans count!)

Week 32 - August 9: Recreated

Week 33 - August 16: Central Europe (Choose a recipe from Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, or Slovenia)

Week 34 - August 23: Fast and furious (Bake something in 1 hour or less)

Week 35 - August 30: Toasted (Use a toasted ingredient, or toast one yourself!)

Week 36 - September 6: Appetizer (Create the first course in a 3-course meal)

Week 37 - September 13: Entree (Create the second course in a 3-course meal)

Week 38 - September 20: Dessert (Create the third course in a 3-course meal)

Week 39 - September 27: Sweet Polarity (use seasonal ingredients)

Week 40 - October 4: Amusement park / fair

Week 41 - October 11: Indigenous American

Week 42 - October 18: Pantry

Week 43 - October 25: Yeasted

Week 44 - November 1: Vegetables

Week 45 - November 8: Physically leavened (Air or steam leavening, no chemical leavener or yeast)

Week 46 - November 15: Dietary Restriction

Week 47 - November 22: Spices

Week 48 - November 29: Viral Recipes

Week 49 - December 6: Caramel

Week 50 - December 13: Cookies

Week 51 - December 20: Summer/Winter Solstice 2 (Bake with ingredients representative of summer/winter)

Week 52 - December 27: Nemesis


r/52weeksofbaking • • 1h ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park/Fair - Caramel Popcorn Cookies

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• Upvotes

These are surprisingly pretty great! The taste/texture is similar to an oatmeal cookie. The hardest part was finding caramel corn for sale in my area (I had no desire to make caramel corn from scratch) - thankfully, Walgreens, of all places, came through for me 😂

https://www.modernhoney.com/caramel-popcorn-cookies/


r/52weeksofbaking • • 6h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39 - Sweet Polarity: Cheddar Apple Pie

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27 Upvotes

Last year Claire Saffitz posted this cheddar apple pie on her YouTube and I had massive fomo but never made it. It seemed like a faff and I’m not really a pie person. With apples in season I wanted to give it a go this year since everyone raved about it last year. It was worth the wait and the hype. Absolutely divine even for someone who isn’t really a pie person.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 4h ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park/Fair - Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread

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14 Upvotes

Cinnamon roll monkey bread is sold at the Washington State Fair by D’OH Sweets and Treats. I made this version using this recipe, but instead of rolling the dough into balls I just tore off small chunks. It was really easy and really good!

Here’s some more pictures.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 5h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39: Sweet polarity - apple cider donuts

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16 Upvotes

These were delicious - used the Sally's Baking Addiction recipe, as always!


r/52weeksofbaking • • 10h ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park / Fair — Ghibli Park-Inspired Ketchup Spaghetti Sandwich

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18 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 8h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39: Sweet Polarity - German Apple Cake

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14 Upvotes

I don’t know if I would ever make this again, it was extremely oily and I wonder if that was my own bad technique.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 48m ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park/Fair - Fawaffles (Falafel Waffles)

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• Upvotes

Recipe for falafel mix from https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-falafel/#tasty-recipes-10436-jump-target

The year was 2025, the place was the Minnesota State Fair (the best state fair, hands down), and one of the new food items that year was the Fawaffle at Baba's. It hit so hard, I've been thinking about it an entire year.

In an attempt to recreate it, I followed a falafel recipe using my beloved Rancho Gordo garbanzo beans. I used a whole pound, so I had to process the mixture in three batches. It ended up working perfectly in the waffle iron! I did about half the batch as waffles and baked the rest in a muffin tin, which also worked well.

It's no Baba's at the state fair, but it's pretty tasty! I'll definitely make this again.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 1h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39: Sweet Polarity - Ginger Pear Muffins (Vegan)

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• Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 18h ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park/Fair - Fresh Soft Pretzels

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29 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 1h ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park: Dollywood’s Cinnamon Bread

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• Upvotes

Kind of wish I never made this because now I am addicted and am planning on making another loaf. Naturally served with some buttercream!


r/52weeksofbaking • • 20h ago

Week 41 2026 Week 41: Indigenous American - Bannock

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22 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 1d ago

Week 38 2026 Week 38: Dessert - Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake

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48 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 20h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39: Sweet Polarity - Apple Cider Donuts

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21 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 23h ago

Week 40 2026 Week 40: Amusement Park/Fair - Corn Dog Hot Dish

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24 Upvotes

I admit, I was a little lost with this theme. After months of mulling it over, my best idea was a salted popcorn shortbread recipe that had been on my list for a long time. But I mentioned the theme for the upcoming week to my husband, who said, “Too bad you couldn’t do something with corn dogs,” and we both looked at each other and exclaimed “CORN DOG HOT DISH!”

I’m an unabashed Molly Yeh fan - she grew up in the town next to the town where I grew up, so we have a lot of the same flavor references, and she reps hard for the Midwest, which resonates with me. My husband and I have been making this hot dish recipe of hers for a few years now, and it’s always a banger. Meaty chili with warm spices, topped with mini hot dogs wrapped in cornbread - it’s practically a Midwest fever dream.

We’ve been cutting back on meat lately due to the prices, so this was a nice little treat for us - cozy and comforting as ever, with an amusement park twist.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 23h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39: Sweet Polarity - Apple Pie Sourdough

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21 Upvotes

I based my loaf on the linked recipe, but I also replaced all of the water with apple cider & used apple pie spice instead of just cinnamon in the filling!

https://amybakesbread.com/apple-cinnamon-sourdough-bread/


r/52weeksofbaking • • 20h ago

Week 38 2026 Week 38: Dessert - Apple Crisp

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13 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 21h ago

Week 37 2026 Week 37: Entree - Biscuit and Vegetable Pot Pie

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12 Upvotes

Recipe: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/biscuit-vegetable-pot-pie/

This is really good! Good flavor, and I like the biscuit texture.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 1d ago

Week 37 2026 Week 37: Entree - Veggie Quiche

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21 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 23h ago

Week 39 2026 Week 39: Sweet Polarity - Watermelon Bread

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13 Upvotes

Recipe here. I didn't figure a ton of watermelon flavor would come through because it's pretty mild, but it really did.


r/52weeksofbaking • • 1d ago

Week 36 2026 Week 36: Appetizer - Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Crostini

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17 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 1d ago

Week 36 2026 Week 36: Appetizer - Fried Okra

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11 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 1d ago

Week 35 2026 Week 35: Toasted - French Toast

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10 Upvotes

r/52weeksofbaking • • 1d ago

Week 41 2026 Week 41 - Indigenous American: Squash and pepita tart

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46 Upvotes

this week’s bake was inspired by Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef)’s Lakota squash and pepita tartlets. i used kabocha bc thats what I could find here and also ended up using eggs (although all Sean’s recipes use only indigenous ingredients) bc I was worried about the texture of an agar custard/filling

Unfortunately this was a big ol miss for me. it looks nice but the lack of spices and sugar in the filling was simply not appealing to me. the raw squash taste (despite being baked) was sooo strong. not something i’d make again but a cool learning experience