Lemon herbs

I began growing herbs long before I had a garden. They were in pots on porches, tucked next to steps and back doors; anywhere there was a bit of room and a lot of sun. The minute I had a plot of my own, I planted chives; a pass-along from my garden mentor who also sat next to me at work, a lovely arrangement and one conducive to impromptu garden (and life) lessons.

I planted all the things that I never saw to buy at the grocery store but were critical recipe ingredients in the cookbooks I was reading at the time. Things like Lovage and Summer Savory and Perilla. Over the years, my taste in various herbs has waxed and waned, along with the amount of sun in my garden. But two herbs that I'd never be without are Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis, below) and Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus variegata; the variegated variety is the prettiest, above)

These days, most of my herbs are planted next to paths for easy clipping and close to the house (when possible) so I can run out whatever the weather. But if I only had room for a few, Lemon Balm and Lemon Thyme would always top the list, because they're the flavoring in my favorite summer dessert: Double Lemon Tea Bread. This recipe is probably from the 1970s and is likely from House Beautiful magazine. It's pasted on an index card and stuck inside a plastic sleeve in my recipe box where I can easily find it, even if I can no longer recollect the source.

DOUBLE LEMON TEA BREAD

 

BREAD INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel 

1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon balm

1 tablespoon fine chopped lemon thyme

3/4 cup of milk

LEMON GLAZE:

Juice of two lemons

Confectioners' (powdered) sugar

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter and gradually add in sugar. Then beat eggs in one at a time. Continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon peel and chopped herbs. Add flour mixture alternately with milk. Mix until batter is just blended.

Pour batter into greased 9 x 5 x 3 inch bread pan. Bake at 325 degrees about 50 minutes until a broom straw inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and set on a cooling rack.

Add lemon juice, a few drops at time, to sifted confectioners' sugar until you have a thick but still pourable glaze. Pour the glaze over the still hot bread. Decorate with sprigs of Lemon Thyme. It's prettiest if the thyme is flowering. Mine had flowered once and been cutback (along with the Lemon Balm) and virtually had no flowers.

The flavor is very subtle and the bread has a fine texture and slices easily. Great with a glass of iced tea or lemonade on a hot afternoon — like today. You could easily increase the amount of lemon zest for a sharper flavor, but you don't want to increase the herbs so much that you wind up with green bread!

Lemon Balm can be pretty rampant but it smells wonderful as you pull it out to keep it under control! Mine also gets ratty looking by August so I cut it back to about 6 inches tall and it puts out a flush of new growth. Lemon Thyme likes perfect drainage and mine dies out every few years and I have to start again. The biggest, hardiest clump of it is growing in my traffic island bed where it gets lots of sun bounced off the concrete and also picks up lots of dirt and car exhaust fumes.