Whole Wheat Flour

The unusual combination of mushrooms and dried apricots makes for a delicious and earthy soda bread.

"One Saturday morning I came up with this bread recipe, and now my family asks for it all the time," writes Priscilla Unger of Alberta, Canada. "My husband insists on having his first slice while the loaf is still warm from the oven, but I prefer mine toasted and topped with marmalade." The slightly sweet bread is great with butter and preserves.

Here is a delicious interpretation of a campfire classic.

Schat begins by making a biga — a rather stiff dough that ferments in the refrigerator overnight. He incorporates a portion of the biga into another, wetter dough made the next day. The biga adds a deeper flavor and extra strength to the final dough. Schat, like all professional bakers, measures his ingredients by weight, which is far more precise than volume.

Ken Haedrich, cookbook author, says, "Since moving to New England nearly twenty years ago, I've heated the house with wood-burning stoves. And because our big Thanksgiving gatherings put oven space at a premium, I've often pressed those stoves into backup duty. That's how steamed breads—which can be cooked on top of the stoves — came to be a regular part of our feast. This steamed pumpkin bread provides another way to bring good pumpkin flavor to the meal, too. I also serve my special crescent rolls on the big day. One year, my kids let it be known that they wanted croissants on Thanksgiving, but that seemed like a bit more work than I could handle. Instead, I came up with these sesame crescents—croissant-like rolls with savory onion filling. I guess they did the trick, because nobody says much about croissants anymore. Plus, I can make the crescent rolls two weeks ahead and freeze them. That way, they don't take up any of that precious oven space." Note that this bread needs to cook in an empty 28-ounce food can (such as the kind used to hold whole tomatoes).

Team the pancakes with sausages, and offer tea, coffee and fresh juices.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from chef Neil Perry's book Rockpool. Neil also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. For your convenience, we've converted the measures — with as much accuracy as possible — from Australian to American. For those who have metric equipment and wish to follow Neil's recipe to the milliliter, we've included the original measures too. To read more about Neil and Australian cuisine, click here. In this dish, the combination of pastry, fish, sauce, yoghurt and spinach makes a complete dish. The cardamom and tomato are a perfect match, and the fish steams gently inside as the outside of the pastry crisps up. This dish also works beautifully with the flat fish of Europe and America. It is important that the vegetables are well-seasoned and cooked until they caramelise to impart their flavour to the sauce. The depth of flavour of aromatics is so often lost when they are not allowed to do their job properly. The Tomato and Cardamom Sauce goes nicely with all seafood; its deep, rich flavour enlivens the taste buds. The tomatoes are cut up, skin, seeds and all. Slice into thin rounds, then into julienne and chop the julienne to give a uniform dice. Don't chop them as if cutting for concassé, they lose too much juice that way.

Chapati or Roti This is the basic bread of India—it is made every day in North Indian homes. Its smooth, soft, and very pliable texture comes from the finely ground whole wheat flour. Only water is added to make the dough. It is then rolled into thin rounds ranging in size from four to eight inches (the size varies from state to state) and baked on a griddle. It takes a bit of practice to learn to roll the dough properly. Don't worry if your first few batches are not perfectly round, or if they don't roll out to the full size indicated. With practice you will soon master this technique. In the meantime, the bread will still taste good, even if doesn't look perfect.

This no-knead, one-rise bread was introduced by Doris Grant in her book Your Daily Bread. This recipe is an improved version devised by Myrtle Allen, founder of the now legendary Ballymaloe House hotel and cooking school in County Cork, Ireland.

The Indian staple cornmeal became a mainstay of Colonial cooking; European arrivals used it to stretch their scarce wheat flour. We have adopted the same tactic with our modern edition of the venerable breakfast dish, pancakes. They are, of course, also a good excuse to bring out the maple syrup, another gift from the Indians. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This moist cake is delicious served warm with cream, but can also be offered cold.

This recipe can easily be doubled.