Revisiting the popularity of bread cookbooks

Last week was National Real Bread Week! And here at BookNet, this shook loose a memory for us. Six years ago, locked in our homes with nothing to do, people around the world turned to bread. At the time, in the wake of the bread baking frenzy, we looked into the performance of cookbooks — specifically ones specializing in bread-related recipes in this blog post.

As we leave 2025 behind, and hit the six-year mark, we figured we’d revisit cookbooks and bread-related cookbooks too, to check on how they’re doing.

Sales of Non-Fiction / Cooking books over 2020 and 2025

In 2025 in Canada, a general interest in cookbooks persisted. While the spikes in sales have not been as sharp as in 2020, this graph shows us similar trends over both years. With a decline in the beginning of the year, the sales began picking up in spring, peaking in May, before steadying back out. As expected, however, the sales were highest at the end of the year as the holiday season rolled around.

What about the bread though? Five years after the pandemic, did Canadians still care about bread?

Google Trends graph of Canadians' search interest in “bread” over 2025

Search data over the last six years shows that after the initial spike during 2020, the searches dropped and evened out. However, the graph shows a steady climb up at the end of 2025, reaching the highest it's been since the pandemic, suggesting the interest in bread is well on its way back across Canada as we head into 2026.

Sales of books in the Non-Fiction / Cooking / Courses & Dishes / Bread subcategory over 2020 and 2025

Sales data on bread-related books reaffirm this renewed interest in bread as you can see in the graph above with the steady incline near the end of 2025.

And just like last time, bread isn’t the only subcategory doing well in cookbooks.

Cooking subcategories that experienced the highest growth in 2025

These are the BISAC subcategories with the highest year-over-year increases in sales:

• Non-Fiction / Cooking / Courses & Dishes / Snacks –– up 3,000%

• Non-Fiction / Cooking / Pet Food –– up 513%

• Non-Fiction / Cooking / Regional & Cultural / Amish & Mennonite –– up 500%

• Non-Fiction / Cooking / General –– up 442%

• Non-Fiction / Cooking / Health & Healing / Low Carbohydrate –– up 434%

This tells us Canadians continue to remain active in the kitchen and invested in cookbooks. We’ll keep an eye on sales to see if the interest in bread potentially returning in the upcoming year pans out.

To add to this, below are the top 10 bestselling cookbooks and bread books in 2025:

Bestselling in Non-Fiction / Cooking / Courses & Dishes / Bread in 2025

1. Bread Etc by Matthew James Duffy 🍁

2. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish

3. The No-Fuss Bread Machine Cookbook by Michelle Anderson

4. Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook (2024 Edition) by Kenneth Miller

5. 3 Doughs, 60 Recipes by Lacey Ostermann

6. The Art of Gluten-Free Bread by Aran Goyoaga

7. Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa

8. The Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo

9. The Sourdough Bible by Elaine Boddy

10. The Beginner's Guide to Sourdough by Amy Coyne

Bestselling in Non-Fiction / Cooking in 2025

1. Every Salad Ever by Greta Podleski 🍁

2. Mrs. Brown's Kitchen by Heather Brown 🍁

3. The Essential Cottage Cookbook by Andrea Buckett 🍁

4. Shred Happens: So Easy, So Good by Arash Hashemi

5. Sally's Baking 101 by Sally McKenney

6. Half Baked Harvest Quick and Cozy: a Cookbook by Tieghan Gerard

7. Eat Yourself Healthy by Jamie Oliver

8. Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches by Matty Matheson 🍁

9. Simply Jamie by Jamie Oliver

10. The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook by Meredith Hayden

Looking for more data on what Canadians are reading, buying and borrowing? Visit our research page to look at our most recent reports and keep an eye out for the upcoming ones for more up-to-date information!