Cinnamon Raisin Bread, Pitas and Lemon Bars, Oh My!
This week’s box is a little more on the sweet side with Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Lemon Bars. The Pita Bread is the only non-sweetened baked good (though the Cinnamon Raisin Bread really isn’t that sugary at all).
The Cinnamon Raisin Bread is a light loaf bread perfect toasted for breakfast or an afternoon snack. It was a special treat was I was growing up and despite the fact that I always picked out the raisins, it was one of my favorite breakfasts.
I was so excited when I tried a pita bread recipe a couple weeks ago and found how simple they are to make. As a Persian, pita bread is one of the three staple foods you will always find in my house: feta cheese, Persian tea and pita bread. As you can imagine, we go through quite a bit of pita bread, eating it with everything from stews to hummus to salad pockets (stuffing half a pita bread with green leaf lettuce salad) to grilled cheese (stuffing pita with pepper jack cheese and some salsa). One of my favorite preparations is pita crisps. My parents make these for just about every party they throw and they are completely addictive. Typically they are made by halving the pita breads, lightly buttering them (you can use olive oil too for a lower fat version) and sprinkling them with coarse ground salt and pepper. Repeat this for as many pitas as you like, then stack them on top of each other and slice into 6ths or 8ths. Lay them out on a baking sheet and broil until they are golden around the edges. They can be used in place of chips or crackers and are perfect for dipping.
As I mentioned in the weekly email, the lemon bars this week are a special treat given the origin of the lemons; two sources were used, Patricia’s garden and my in-laws lemon street tree. My friend Patricia (whom many of you know) has created the most delightful and inspiring urban farm/garden in Berkeley, just a stone’s throw from my house. For two years now, she has transformed an unused backyard into a highly productive garden with amazing fruits and vegetables, bees and chickens. Her bounty this season has included daikon, cabbage, various types of kale and chard, garlic and every herb you can think of.
You should all check her blog out about the garden at Foodscaping.
We are always trying to work ways to use garden ingredients in the bread box and this week we succeeded with the Lemon Bars. The lemon tree in the garden actually produces Meyer Lemons, which are not nearly as tangy and tart as the traditional Eureka lemons found in the store. To boost the tang, I picked a couple Eureka lemons from my in-laws house when I was down there for Chinese New Years this weekend. My father in-law did not care much for the street trees that Sunnyvale planted outside his home so he has either removed them or passively hastened their removal by not watering them. In their place he planted between 4 and 6 fruit trees (tangerine, plum, apple and lemon; the types and number vary each time we go down there, it seems). And his lemon tree is by far the most productive tree with the most delicious lemons I have ever seen. Anyways, the Meyer lemons from Patricia’s garden give the lemon bars their distinctive flavor and the Eureka lemons from my in-laws give the bars their tang. Hopefully together they will strike a pleasing balance.
I hope you will enjoy all of the baked goods this week. Let me know how you like everything!
