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Orange-Rye

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1 cup rye flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ cup wheat germ

1 egg, separated

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons honey

1 ¼ cups milk

1 teaspoon anise seeds

1 tablespoon grated undyed orange rind

Reminiscent of Swedish rye bread, but cakier, and wonderfully perfumey.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8″ 4″ loaf pan.

Sift the flours, salt and baking powder together, then add the wheat germ.

Beat the egg yolk into the oil and honey. Add the milk, seeds, and orange rind.

Beat the egg white until stiff.

Stir the dry ingredients into the liquids just enough to mix. Fold in the egg white. Spread mixture in the loaf pan and bake about 45 minutes.

Corn Rye

1 ½ cups rye flour

1 cup cornmeal

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons caraway seed

3 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons molasses

1 egg

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

Dark and moist and flavorful, this bread is not at all sweet.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8″ 4″ loaf pan. Sift the dry ingredients together, adding the caraway seed to the rest after sifting. Beat the oil, molasses, and egg together, and stir in the buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring just enough to mix. Put in the loaf pan and bake about an hour.

Cornbreads

We’d been told that true Southerners won’t touch cornbread made with yellow corn, but at least one authentic Virginian to whom we have an inside line says the crucial factors are fresh cornmeal, coarse grind, and no sweetener, please. We never made perfect cornbread for her until we ground the corn ourselves, and voilà—North and South united in applauding! If the cornmeal is not absolutely fresh, the cornbread will have a slight bitterness from rancidity, which some folks prize and others cover up by adding sweeteners.

“Southern” Cornbread in our kitchen turns out to be our Basic Cornbread, with freshly ground cornmeal and no honey.

Without a doubt, cornbread is the quick bread we make most frequently—most often the Basic recipe, which seems to us the very best of all. It also makes 12 fine muffins, when you want muffins.

Basic Cornbread

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 ½ cups cornmeal

1 to 2 tablespoons honey

1 to 2 large eggs, beaten

1 to 2 tablespoons oil

2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease an 8″ 8″ pan or muffin tin.

Sift the salt, baking powder, and soda together and combine with the cornmeal. Mix the wet ingredients together, and then add the dry, stirring just until smooth. Turn into the greased pan and bake about 20 or 25 minutes; a little longer if you added vegetables—or only about 15 minutes for muffins.

VARIATIONS

*If you haven’t got any buttermilk, use regular milk soured with white or cider vinegar (1 tablespoon vinegar plus milk to make 1 cup). Yogurt, beaten smooth, can substitute for buttermilk, but depending on how tart it is, increase the honey to compensate: our yogurt is medium-sour and even with 2 tablespoons of honey in Basic Cornbread the bread is downright tangy.

Add 1 or even 1 ½ cups grated raw yellow or green zucchini, for a very moist cornbread—the yellow squash is pretty nearly undetectable, the green very pretty. Or add 1 cup grated carrots, also very pretty. It is not a bad idea to include two eggs (reduce the buttermilk to 1 ½ cups) when adding the vegetables to help the bread cook well.

This recipe makes a rather coarse, grainy-textured bread, particularly when the cornmeal is medium-coarse grind. To maximize the graininess, use a very coarse cornmeal; let the corn soak in the wet ingredients for an hour or so before you sift the leavenings and stir them in. If you prefer a closer crumb texture, use finely ground cornmeal, or substitute 1 cup or so of whole wheat pastry flour for an equivalent amount of cornmeal, sifting it with the leavenings. With the whole wheat pastry flour, the texture will be lighter and the