Whole Wheat Flour

Make this crumbly cake a day ahead; the early risers will thank you.

Ajwain wali Poori Pooris are Indian fried flatbreads regularly served at festivals and celebrations. They are usually made with whole-wheat flour. This recipe calls for carom seeds for added flavor and offers tips to achieve a puffed bread.

Everyone needs a real butter cookie once in a while. I certainly do. These cookies showcase the intense nuttiness of amaranth flour. Rolling them in minuscule amaranth seeds gives them a playful touch and adds a nice crunch, but they are also delicious without. Fine sea salt retains some of its crystalline texture during baking, adding sparks of salt to contrast the natural sweetness of the whole grain flours. For best outcome allow the dough to chill thorougly and firm up, ideally overnight. If the dough balls become soft while you finish them with the walnuts, as in step 4, chill the baking sheet with the cookies for 20 minutes before baking.

Soy Free Tabbouleh, tabouli, tabouleh, taboolee . . . however you wanna spell it, it spells YUM! It has a clean, light flavor that just tastes healthy. If you have a food processor, now is the time to use it.

This zucchini-flecked cornbread walks a delicious line between sweet and savory.

The recipe for red velvet cake has been around since the 1920s, when the cake was the signature dessert at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The cake captured my heart-and it plays hard to get. It took me forever to come up with a magical adaptation that would capture the richness of its namesake. These bars get their health benefits, velvety texture, and deep red color from a paste made of beets, red beans, cocoa powder, and red food coloring. I took a slight departure from the traditional red velvet cake flavor by adding a touch of almond extract, and that, my friends, is where the magic happened.

Graham crusts typically start with crushed graham crackers. Here, graham flour gives the crust a nutty flavor and hearty texture.

The defining aspect of Swedish pancakes is their superthin size. Make these small for a sweet Sunday morning treat. Berries appear often in Swedish food, both fresh, as atop these pancakes, and in sauces for savory dishes.

This dish is emblematic of great home-style Southern cooking. Some say its origins are in Europe, where wiener schnitzel was invented, and there are some similarities. The connection ends, though, with the country-style sausage gravy with which we smother our pan-fried cutlets. Europeans serve their version with a humble (and lean) wedge of lemon. I retained the gravy but lightened it up dramatically—and instead of pan-frying the cutlets in bacon fat as they do in some parts of the South, I chose to bread and bake them.

Flash frying is a high-heat deep frying technique used to rapidly fry small shrimp to avoid overcooking them before the crust browns. Flash flying requires an oil temperature of at least 400°F—which means you have to use an oil with a high smoke point like grapeseed oil. By poaching the chicken first and then flash frying it, I was able to eliminate 20 grams of fat and at least 250 calories from traditional fried chicken. Because the chicken is already cooked, it only has to spend enough time in the hot oil to brown the crust, which means it absorbs less oil.

Giving foods that glorious crispy- crunchy texture without a deep fryer isn't easy. The best way to healthfully approximate the deep- fried experience is to use panko breadcrumbs, a mist of cooking spray, and a hot oven. Panko is a Japanese ingredient that used to be found only in Asian supermarkets and health- food stores but is now available everywhere. The crumbs are made from crustless bread, so they're lighter and crunchier than traditional breadcrumbs.

Charlie Trotter, Charlie Trotter's, Chicago, Illinois
Lee Jones, The Chef's Garden, Huron, Ohio (carrots) A semifreddo is basically an ice cream cake, and Chef Trotter uses carrots, chocolate, and spices as unexpected partners in his version. Star anise enhances the sweetness in the carrots and adds a distinctive hint of licorice to the rich chocolate. There are no egg yolks in this recipe—it's the meringue that gives the semifreddo a smooth texture.

Cornmeal lends these crackers a golden glow and a nice crunch; lots of crushed green peppercorns (left over from Chicken Spice Rub ) provide an intriguing spiciness. Serve them with cheese or all on their own with cocktails.

At Ballinalacken Castle Country House & Restaurant, the bread is baked in a rectangular pan.

These hearty rolls are packed with good-for-you stuff: whole wheat flour, old-fashioned oats, and wheat bran.