Baked Goods Category

This heavy and slightly sour bread is made with molasses and a blend of rye and wheat flours. It's often cut into thin slices and used for appetizers.

A specialty of El Salvador, these are tortillas stuffed with cheese and other flavorings.

This bread is studded with raisins and often flavored with cinnamon. It's usually served as toast for breakfast.

These come with or without a coating of sesame seeds.

These crunchy snacks are relatively low in fat--and flavor. They come in different flavors, like caramel, cheese, ranch, and apple cinnamon. Don't confuse this with mochi, which is also sometimes called rice cake.

These addictive Japanese snacks are available in many large supermarkets.

Produced by Nabisco, these are the best-selling crackers in the United States. They're high in fat and sodium, which makes them a tasty foil for cheese or peanut butter. Cooks sometimes crush them and use them as a pie crust or topping for casseroles. The crackers are also used to make the filling for a mock apple pie, which contains no apples. Reduced fat and low sodium versions are available.

These are made with flour, nuts, and butter, baked, and then rolled in powdered sugar.

This is a favorite of Northern Europeans, who use it to make hearty sandwiches. Most of it is made with both rye and wheat flours. There are dozens of varieties, ranging from light tan to almost black.

These salty crackers are very crisp, and they're great for snacking. They're often made into tiny sandwiches with cheese or peanut butter in the middle.

This Iranian flatbread is about two feet long, enough for the whole family.

These crumbly quick breads are often served at teatime in Britain. They're usually split open and lathered with butter, jam, and/or clotted cream. Americans pronounce the name SKONE, but the British and Australians say SKAHN. They freeze well.

These rich cookies are loaded with butter.

These sweetened biscuits are traditionally split in half and topped with whipped cream and strawberries. You can buy them ready-made in stores, where they're often displayed near the strawberries, but they're easy to make from scratch. Don't confuse shortcake with shortbread, a rich butter cookie.

These cakes are made with butter or other solid fat, so they're richer and heavier than foam cakes. Examples include pound cakes and butter cakes.

These Indonesian chips are made with tapioca and different flavorings. Before serving them, you're supposed to fry them in hot oil for a few seconds until they expand and become crunchy. Look for them in Asian markets.

Mexican cooks put various savory toppings on these corn patties. Look for them in Hispanic markets.

These matzo meal crackers are used in soups or ground into crumbs.

A San Francisco specialty, this is French bread made with a special starter of yeast and bacteria that imparts a pleasant, sour taste to the bread. It's especially good with seafood.

Like sponges, these cakes have lots of air pockets, which are made by beating egg whites and folding them into the batter. Angel food cakes are similar, but they're made without egg yolks, while sponge cakes are made with whites and yolks. A sponge cake will keep its shape better if you cut it with a serrated knife.

These are breads that are made with a starter instead of fresh yeast. A starter is a mixture of flour, water, and baker's yeast that been set out so that it can be colonized by airborne yeast and friendly bacteria. Starters lend a special character to the bread--sourdough bread, for example, needs to be made with a starter to acquire a sour flavor.

This rich German coffee cake is traditionally served at Christmas.

This is usually put inside a whole turkey to absorb flavorful juices while the bird roasts, but it can also be baked in a casserole dish. It's usually made of small bread cubes or shredded pieces of bread that have been dried. Commercial stuffing is convenient, but not as fresh-tasting as homemade stuffing.

These are crunchy corn tortillas that have been loosely folded and deep-fried. You just fill them and serve. Look for boxes of them among the Mexican foods in your supermarket, or make them yourself by deep-frying corn tortillas, forming them into a U-shape, then allowing them to harden into a crispy shell.

These thin wraps are used to make countless Mexican dishes. Corn tortillas have little or no fat, and they're the preferred tortilla for making tacos and enchiladas. Flour tortillas are softer, higher in fat, and more pliable. They're traditionally used to make burritos, chimichangas, fajitas, flautas, and quesadillas, though some cooks use them to make everything from spring rolls to peanut butter sandwiches. Before filling tortillas, cook them briefly on a hot, dry frying pan or wrap them in damp paper towels and heat them in the microwave. Store uncooked tortillas in the refrigerator or freezer.

These are tortilla wedges that have been deep-fried or baked. They're often served with Southwestern-style dips, like salsa and guacamole.

These crunchy crackers are made of woven strands of whole wheat. They're often used as a base for appetizers, though some devotees eat them straight. Reduced fat and low sodium versions are available.

These vanilla cookies can be eaten as they are, but cooks often pound them into crumbs and use them to make pie crusts.

These are often used to make pie crusts. To make them, place vanilla wafers in a heavy plastic bag, seal, then crush the wafers with a rolling pin.

These crunchy crackers have little flavor, making them a neutral foundation for spreads and appetizers.

This is Australia's answer to America's graham cracker.

These are slices of bread that have been baked a second time, making them crisp and dry. Toddlers use them as teething biscuits, while adults add them to soups.