Home for the Holidays: Festive Baking with Whole Grains

The main points of this friendly holiday cookbook are the use of whole grains and the practice of baking as a family experience. Together these elements imbue the holiday with character and remind us that ``the simple things in life are some of the best things.'' Like many bakers, Haedrich ( Country Baking ) begins his holiday season with Thanksgiving, focusing on filling the Thanksgiving breadbasket with hearty fare such as whole wheat Parker House rolls and three-grain biscuits. Recipes for other holiday traditions follow: cranberry scones (for Christmas Day breakfast); rose water almond nuggets to mail to friends or leave for Santa; apple butter maple pie for the dessert table. A favored spice is cardamon; many doughs are yeast-based (Haedrich presents sidebars for readers unfamiliar with these). Menus and gift suggestions are helpful; recipe instructions are clear, if talky. Introductions are chatty and sentimental: the liberal use of the adjectives ``little'' and ``special'' and sentences interrupted by exclamation points may grate on some sensibilities. Still, for the baker tired of white-flour holiday recipes, this is an excellent choice. (Oct.)