Bread

Versatile breads that are good served with cheese, spread with butter and jam at teatime, or paired with a main-course salad.

This recipe originally accompanied Peach and Blueberry Shortcakes. . They are also great on their own with coffee or tea.

Toast a slice of this bread, and serve it with butter or cream cheese for breakfast.

This dough is moist, so it should be made in a heavy-duty electric mixer.

This recipe was created to prepare Herb and Bacon Corn Bread Stuffing and Sausage, Cranberry and Corn Bread Stuffing .

Deriving its name from the Latin word "focus", meaning "hearth," focaccia evolved from the unleavened hearth cake eaten during the Middle Ages. It was made by patting the dough into a flat round and cooking it directly on a hot stone or under a mound of hot ashes. While it has become something of an Italian national dish, this popular bread's true home is the area around Genoa. It seems as if every seaside resort on the Italian Riviera has its own special focaccia. Whether soft or crisp, thick or thin, the dough is typically flavored with local herbs and olive oil.

Every village on Sardinia makes its own special breads, and its rumored that there are five hundred different kinds on the island. This particular one comes from the area around Cagliari and was originally a holiday bread. It is now available every day. Formed into semicircles and called cocoeddi, it is made from a simple starter named biga, which gives the bread its special aroma, flavor and texture by producing a second fermentation. The starter can be kept in the refrigerator up to five days or can be frozen; before being used, it should be brought to room temperature, which takes about three hours.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Many southerners object to the practice of adding sugar to corn bread, but associate food editor Alexis Touchet, who grew up in Louisiana, is all for it. Sugar, in fact, is listed as an optional ingredient in the recipe for "pain de maïs nonpareil" in The Picayune's Creole Cook Book, first published in 1901. It's important here that your cast-iron skillet is well seasoned and thoroughly preheated—you want the batter to sizzle when you pour it in.

If preparing this corn bread for the New England Sausage Stuffing , make it one day ahead.

"Never have I tried a homemade bread as light and delicious as the honey-oat loaf at The Green Mountain Inn in Stowe, Vermont," writes Rebecca Rothaug of Westbury, New York. "With your help, I would like to share this bread with my family and friends." Serve slices of this tender, slightly sweet bread with plenty of butter and honey.

Why make your own pita when it's readily available at supermarkets? One bite of these, fresh and warm from the oven, will tell you exactly why. The dough is simple to make, and because the dough rounds are thin, they bake in less than 5 minutes. But if you don't have time to make your own, store-bought pita can be warmed, wrapped in foil, in a preheated 350°F oven.