Flour

Nothing says CELEBRATION like blinis and caviar. These quick, buckwheat pancakes, made with baking powder (unlike the traditional yeast-based ones) are brightened with the addition of lemon zest. Use whatever caviar you prefer and your budget will allow. We are quite enamored of the trout caviar made in North Carolina (see Cooks' Notes). The roe is a beautiful pale orange with a delightfully firm texture that pops in your mouth. Better yet, it's much more affordable than imported or domestic sturgeon caviars (see Cooks' Notes).

Buffalo-style chicken wings have long ruled the roost, but there's a spicy new upstart poised to challenge their spot at the top of the game-day menu: Korean wings. With their balance of salty, sweet, and spicy, Korean wings are packed with delicious flavor, but they also come with a lengthy ingredient shopping list. By fusing the best elements and techniques from Korean and Buffalo-style wings, we've come up with a dynamite wing that's—dare we say it?—better than the sum of its parts. In this version, the iconic Frank's RedHot Original sauce (which can still be slathered as liberally as you wish) is balanced by the sweet-and-sour tang of rice vinegar and soy sauce. Gone is the hefty dose of butter; instead, a very light coating of rice flour keeps the wings super-crispy, even a day later.

These green-and-red-studded biscotti look vaguely Christmassy but are good any time of year. Feel free to swap in other nuts or dried fruit—this combo is particularly pretty but you could use golden raisins, almonds, or hazelnuts as well. To make the biscotti even more decadent, dip in melted chocolate.

Everyone’s inner child emerges when these “corndogs” come out of the fryer. Who doesn’t love eating from a skewer? But unlike the popular corndogs that star at America’s state fairs, this whimsical hors d’oeuvre hides a juicy whole shrimp under its cornbread coat. Steven Oakley, a 2005 Workshop alumnus, serves the skewers with homemade honey mustard for dipping. On another occasion, you could use the cornmeal batter for pancakes.

Olive oil and white wine may seem like unfamiliar ingredients in desserts, yet here they combine to produce a subtly fruity cake. For a crunchier topping, use coarse sanding sugar, available at many grocery stores, in place of the granulated sugar in step 3.

As its name implies, this savory Southern side dish is so soft it should be served—and eaten—with a spoon. You could serve the spoon bread as an alternative to cornbread with the barbecued ribs on page 202 or with the turkey chili on page 173.

These low-fat morning treats only taste indulgent; all six muffins contain just one egg, and a quarter cup each of dark-brown sugar and oil keeps them surprisingly moist. Raisin-bran cereal soaked in milk lends hearty texture.

USING ROASTED PARSNIP PUREE as a base and adding a few fresh herbs results in rich but still light and flavorful biscuits.

THIS LONGTIME PASTA & CO FAVORITE crosses a pretzel with a breadstick. (The word brezel is German for “breadstick.”) Flagship and Just Jack cheeses give the breadsticks a creamy flavor, but you can substitute Gruyère, Cheddar, or Parmesan. Don’t let the thought of making dough intimidate you; it’s easy to get the hang of and worth the effort. You can, however, use pre-made pizza dough; 2 pounds of dough will make 10 breadsticks.

WITH A HANDFUL OF RICH HAZELNUTS and diced apples, these Pacific Northwest waffles make a hearty and tasty weekend breakfast dish. The whole wheat flour adds a deeper flavor and bonus nutrients. Once you taste these waffles, you’ll never use a waffle mix again.

WHETHER YOU FRY THEM, SAUTÉ THEM, OR EAT THEM RAW, fresh oysters are simply sublime. Our local favorites are the tiny Olympia oyster (the only oyster native to the Pacific Northwest), plump Pacific oysters, European Flat oysters, and petite Kumamotos. The large Pacific oysters are the best for frying. Coated in cornmeal, they make a savory sandwich, but fried oysters also make an impressive appetizer. One tip: Use two hands while battering the oysters—one hand to dip in the flour and one to dunk in the egg and cornmeal—so you don’t end up with two messy hands.

GOOD TO KNOW In this fruit-topped, vanilla-scented cake, vegetable oil stands in for butter, reducing the amount of saturated fat in each portion. Swapping out a third of the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour boosts the fiber content.

GOOD TO KNOW There’s a reason it’s called angel food cake—not only is it light as air and divinely delicious, it’s also virtually fat-free. The cake gets its lofty texture from a dozen whipped egg whites folded into the batter; it makes an excellent partner for fresh berries or berry sauce (see note). To make a chocolate version, see the variation below.

WHY IT’S LIGHT Since they contain no butter or oil, these crunchy, nut-studded treats are significantly lower in fat than other cookies. Whole-wheat flour gives the wholesome biscotti extra fiber.

WHY IT’S LIGHT Vegetable oil, with no saturated fat, replaces butter in these drop cookies. The dough—which can be whipped up in just ten minutes—also features equal parts whole-wheat and all-purpose flours. (In fact, you can substitute whole-wheat flour for up to half of the all-purpose flour in many recipes for baked goods without compromising flavor or texture.)

A technique for making cornbread with an extra crispy crust is to bake it in a preheated cast-iron skillet. When fresh corn is in season, try adding juicy kernels to the batter.

A crusty yeast-raised bread requires time and planning, but not necessarily more work, as Jim Lahey’s recipe proves. Long, slow rising (fermentation) is the secret to this flavorful loaf of country-style bread.