Some things are meant to be enjoyed all on their own . Just as they are because its such a stellar item. They need no embellishment. Like a super star, an A+, or even our famous Dutch Raisin bread.

The very first time my wife came to The Netherlands to visit me, she took her brother along. With our Sunday lunch we had rye crackers with your choice of liver sausage, cheese, tomato, salami and a few more toppings. In the Netherlands, and especially in my family where there are 8 children’s mouths to feed, we can have our choice of one topping for this cracker, besides Mom’s tomato soup.

Of course in the land of BIG and BIGGER we do everything large and easy. We drive through the bank, don’t even get out of our seat to empty the mailbox, and also ‘super size’ our burgers and diet pops. So, what happened with my girlfriends brother? As you can imagine, the conversation around the table became steadily quieter as this foreign guest’s cracker stack grew steadily higher! Finally, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of devouring his creation, he awakened out of his reverie only to notice about eight pairs of eyes travelling from his sandwich-cracker and back to him.

So what, then, does Dutch raisin bread have to do with all this? Well, growing up, we had just butter on our Raisin bread. That’s because the bread is so heavy, yet semi sweet because of the raisin, currant combination, and moist because the raisins are soaked. It really is an A+; a stand alone kinda bread. Selling my bread to customers has been thrilling because of their amazement at the amount of filling in it, while being at the same time ‘interesting’ in some ways.

How do you eat your slice of raisin bread?

I’ve almost heard it all! Here are a few:

1. with butter.
2. with peanut butter,
3. toasted with brown sugar,
4. with Gouda.
5. as day old – turned into French toast.
6. toasted with honey.
7. used in bread pudding (all those raisins….yum)
8. with PB & jelly
9. I’ve even heard them used to make savory sandwiches! (fruit and cheese go well together…salty and sweet)

Are you making it a combo?