Flaxseed

With a recipe that is simple enough for beginners yet customizable for experienced bakers, this bread will end the days of buying overpriced loaves. Choose your favorite 7- or 10-grain cereal and then experiment with your own mixture of seeds and nuts to determine the taste and texture that suit you. This loaf is special enough to be a gift but requires less than an hour of active prep time. Use it for sandwiches or eat it toasted with a smear of butter or jam.

Packed with oats, nuts, and seeds, this energy booster can be made up to 1 week ahead. Serve it as a snack, or for breakfast with yogurt and any kind of seasonal fresh fruit.

Crackers are one of the easiest things to pop into the kitchen and make. They're simple and impressive. People will do a double-take when they hear that you've shown up at their party and brought homemade crackers. Served with goat cheese, an aged cheddar cheese, or spicy hummus, these crackers shine. Oh! P.S. They're healthy, too.

Chock-full of grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, and natural sweeteners, granola is easy to prepare, and, when it’s homemade, it’s much lower in sugar and fat than store-bought varieties. This basic recipe can be easily adapted to create many different versions, including the three variations that follow. You can omit the nuts or the dried fruit, as desired. For a vegan option, simply omit the egg whites; the granola won’t be as crunchy but will still be delicious. Freeze granola in an airtight container for up to three months (it thaws quickly), or store at room temperature for up to two weeks.

Store-bought snack nuts tend to contain high amounts of salt and sugar, and can sit on the shelf for months. This healthier mixture relies on spices and honey for flavor, and it tastes much fresher than the prepackaged varieties.

Banana breads tend to be high in fat and sugar, but this wholesome loaf relies primarily on bananas to keep the bread moist and flavorful. Walnuts and a generous amount of ground flaxseed add texture and plenty of nutrients; substitute toasted pecans for the walnuts if you like, or omit the nuts altogether.

Steel-cut oats (also called Irish or Scottish oats) take longer to cook than rolled oats but are creamier and chewier.

You can store the banana bread, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature up to 4 days.

Store the granola in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Tim Decker and his wife, Crystal, are the owners of Bennett valley Bakery in Sonoma County. A former apprentice of Peter Reinhart’s, Tim makes artisan breads with a beautifully browned crust by baking them in a wood-fired oven at unusually high temperatures. You can also make this bread successfully in a conventional oven, with the heat as high as it will go.

These rolls can be stored in an airtight container for up to two days.

Narsai David, a San Francisco Bay Area radio personality and former restaurateur, joined us at the Workshop for many years as a sort of camp counselor. He would lead the chefs in their brainstorming sessions, and while the chefs worked feverishly on their courses, he would co-opt one quiet corner of the kitchen to make bread. Narsai surprised us every year with imaginative loaves that almost always incorporated whole grains, like the brown rice from California’s Lundberg Family Farms, or this three-seeded bread that he devised after sampling a similar bread in Australia.

If you didn’t think waffles could taste good and be good for you at the same time, these will change your mind. Besides the taste of fresh applesauce, the addition of flaxseed meal, wheat germ, and whole wheat pastry flour imparts a wholesome flavor. If you choose to buy applesauce rather than making it from scratch, the waffles will still be very good, but nothing compares with homemade applesauce made with crisp autumn apples.

This tastes no more of beets than a carrot cake tastes of carrots, yet it has a similar warm earthiness to it. It is less sugary than most cakes, and the scented icing I drizzle over it is purely optional. The first time I made it, I used half sunflower and half Brazil nut oil, but only because the Brazil nut oil was new and I wanted to try it. Very successful it was too, not to mention boosting everyone’s zinc levels.

Okay, I’ll admit it: Although I’m known primarily as a bread guy, I’ve been eating far more crackers than bread lately—probably always have, actually, and it’s a safe bet that I always will. Sure, artisan bread is the sexy sister, but a good cracker is the hardworking Cinderella of baked goods, and I think it’s time to bestow the glass slipper. In fact, I have a feeling that there are many other undeclared cracker freaks out there just waiting for crackers to be validated as a significant player in the exploding American culinary renaissance. A quick look at supermarket shelves shows that the real growth for both crackers and bread is occurring in the whole grain category. Even iconic brands such as Ritz are coming forth with whole grain products. I’ve spent nearly twenty years trying to convince folks to bake bread at home, even tilting at windmills by trying to encourage them to make 100 percent whole grain breads at home, but I’ve encountered far less resistance in urging that same audience to try making their own whole grain crackers. Why the receptivity? It’s probably because crackers are far easier and faster to make than bread (and the dough doesn’t even need to be held overnight in the refrigerator). But I also think there are deeper reasons. Crackers are so versatile, and so easily substituted for chips and other guilt-laden snacks. Whole grain crackers are the perfect, guilt-free snack. Not only do they have a satisfying, toasty flavor, they’re also loaded with dietary fiber, which helps lessen cravings for sweets and reduce mindless eating between meals. When properly made, crackers have a long finish. Eat some now and you’ll still be enjoying the lingering, earthy flavors in 30 minutes. Crackers can be naturally leavened with yeast, like Armenian lavash; be chemically leavened with baking powder or baking soda, like many commercial crackers; or be completely unleavened, like matzo or Triscuits. They’re usually crisp and flaky but don’t have to be. They can be buttery (with real or fake butter), or lean and mean, like saltines and other variations of water crackers. Whole grain crackers, regardless of the leavening method, have one major factor going for them: fiber, lots and lots of fiber. This cracker recipe is easy to make at home, even if you’ve never baked a loaf of bread in your life. It’s a variation of one of the most popular recipes from my previous book, Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, and is especially fun to make with kids. I’ve adjusted the recipe so that these crackers, which are unlike any crackers you can buy, are even more crisp than the original. I’m ready to start a home-baked cracker revolution to match the bread revolution of the last fifteen years and hope I can enlist you in the cause.

I enjoy seeds in bread. They add all sorts of valuable nutrients, and they just taste so good. This bread is similar to a classic German Mehrkorn bread, loaded with seeds and just a touch of whole wheat flour (though you can certainly use more whole wheat if you like). I love to make sandwiches with it, especially peanut butter and jelly, to toast it, or to simply eat it by the slice. Take my word for it, it tastes really good. Only the sunflower and pumpkin seeds need to be toasted; the sesame and flaxseeds can go in without toasting. Natural sesame seeds, which are light brown because they still have their hulls, are much more appealing in this bread than white sesame seeds, which have had the hulls polished off. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can use other combinations of seeds. Try adding lightly toasted chopped walnuts or pecans. Because the dough will stiffen overnight in the refrigerator as the seeds slowly absorb moisture, it’s important to have a very soft, supple dough—even a tad sticky—before you put it away for the night.

Although there appear to be many recipes for the Armenian dish called khavits, most of which entail frying semolina or cracked wheat in butter before boiling it, the toppings are what hooked me when I had it for breakfast at an Armenian café in my town. You can crack your own wheat in a blender (see page 59), or use semolina, store-bought seven-grain cereal, or even Cream of Wheat. For added fiber, I usually include a couple of tablespoons of ground flaxseed in each serving.

I’m not a fan of commercial protein bars. In my opinion, they’re too sweet, more like candy than food. But I do love the idea of portable snacks packed with nutrition. So I decided to make my own and fill them with lots of protein, fiber, and a mild sweetness derived from agave nectar and dried fruit. All my gym buddies love them. They’re a great on-the-go snack or even breakfast in a pinch. Substitute almond butter for the peanut butter to change it up a bit.

These chewy low-fat cookies make the perfect afternoon snack. Chock-full of fiber and protein, they’re a nutritious pick-me-up—and they’re quick and easy to make.