Bread Flour

Extra vitamin C enhances the yeast. This recipe is an accompaniment for Country-Style Sourdough Bread .

The longer you wait to use the proto-dough, the tangier the bread will be.

Use this focaccia to make Sausage, Bell Pepper, and Onion Sandwiches and Genoa Toasts.

(Sicilian "Pizza" with Onions and Anchovies) Sfinciune derives its name from a word in local dialect meaning soft, light, or tender, a reference to its rich, airy crust. This version of sfinciune has a bread-crumb topping, which gives it a pleasant crunch.

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.

A perennial favorite on both sides of the Atlantic, this raisiny bread makes fine, fragrant toast.

These pretty rolls are baked side by side in cake pans. To serve, turn the rolls out of the pans, and let your guests pull them apart.

These really do taste like pretzels, but they're shaped like regular dinner rolls. Quick-rising yeast makes them a cinch to prepare, and boiling them before baking is the secret to their superb texture.

Potatoes lend moistness, and caraway seeds and onions--two ingredients favored by German, Scandinavian and Eastern European immigrants--add flavor to these traditionally shaped rolls.

These Italian-style breadsticks are a deliciously different addition to Thanksgiving dinner. You will need a plastic spray bottle filled with water to mist the oven while the breadsticks are baking (the water makes them crusty and chewy on the outside and slightly softer inside).

The ciabatta does require a simple sponge but it takes only a few minutes to put together the day before making the bread. Though the dough for ciabatta is very wet and sticky, resist the temptation to add more flour. For this recipe you will need a baking stone or unglazed "quarry" tiles. Baking stones are available at cookware shops and by mail order from The Baker's Catalogue, tel. (800) 827-6836. Tiles are also available at the above sources as well as at many tile stores listed in the Yellow Pages.

Peter Reinhart, a baking instructor at the California Culinary Academy, says, "Ever since I was a kid, the cranberry relish has been just about my favorite part of the holiday dinner. I love how its juices run in every direction to blend with everything on the plate. Of course, it has to be good cranberry relish, with coarsely chopped berries and walnuts and plenty of orange flavor. The cranberry-walnut braid captures those flavors, and the shape makes a beautiful presentation, too.