Bread Basket Bakery

Bread Basket Bakery


The Bread Basket Bakery is an Armenian bakery located in Fresno at 2418 East Ashlan Avenue (in the strip mall at the southwest corner with Fresno Avenue). The Bread Basket Bakery is open from 7 a.m.- 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7: a.m. - 5 p.m. on Saturday. They are closed on Sunday. You can eat in the bakery at the table they have, and when they are not busy, you can order fresh Armenian coffee to go with your breads or sweets.

There is a large selection of Armenian baked goods as well as some Armenian groceries. We indulged and bought a selection of goods to take home.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bread-Basket-Bakery/115853505110011

Front Window advertising Lahmajoon (Armenian meat pies)

Armenian Groceries - For example, chickpeas next to jars of Tahini (main ingredients for humus dip) or bottles of sour cherry syrup (used to add delightful tang to a variety of dishes).

Tea, Halvah, (more) Tahani, Olives, and Cookies

Pilaf Noodles and Lentils

Cracker Bread

Seating in the Bakery

Kurabia - Sugar and Nut Cookies

Front Counter: stacked with take out boxes of kurabia, paklava, walnut gata, cheoreg (Armenian sweet bread), and beoreg (dough filled with a choice of ingredients).

Paklava

Armenian paklava is doused with a lighter sugar-water syrup (whereas Greek, Arabic, and Turkish paklavas are doused with heavier honey). Secret revealed: your slice the huge tray into diamonds before you bake it. (The flaky phillo dough will crumble if you try to slice the paklava post-baking.)

Simit Cookies (Regular Simit is a Round Bread)

Armenian String Cheese flavored with nigella seeds (you pull apart the braid into an airy heap of 'strings,' then serve)

Nigella seeds are sometimes incorrectly called black caraway seeds, but they have a unique flavor of their own. Nigella seeds are also used in baking throughout the Middle-East and South Asia.

Spinach Beoreg (Filled Pie)

Beoregs are small pies made from dough or flaky pastry shells. The filling can be cheese, spinach, vegetables, or meats, and can be sweet or savory, though cheese is the most common. Bread Basket had several varieties.

Cheese Beoreg (beoregs filled with cheese or meat are often eaten for lunch).

Triangle Shaped Cheese Beoreg (this is a fancier 'dessert' style beoreg)

Apple Beoreg (another dessert-style beoreg)

Sweet Walnut Gata: Gata is a sweet bread filled with sweet (versus savory) ingredients

Choereg: Slightly Sweet Egg Bread flavored with mahleb, an aromatic spice extracted from cherry seeds. Bread Basket's Choereg is also flavored with nigella seeds.

Choereg is best eaten fresh, but after a day or two can be toasted and buttered. Cheoreg also freezes well. Secret revealed: put a paper towel in the bag of cheoreg you are freezing so when you defrost them, the paper towel absorbs the moisture and the cheoreg is not even a little soggy.

Lahmajoon (Spiced Meat Pie)

Roejig (also known as Sweet Sojouk)

Roejig is a string of nuts dipped in fruit juice and flour and allowed to dry. Eastern Armenians call it Sweet 'Sojouk' (Sausage).  The Eastern Armenian sweet soujouk has a thicker and softer dried fruit on the outside. The Western Armenian has a thinner and harder dried fruit on the outside. Both are excellent: Bread Basket has the Eastern Armenian soft grape and apricot varieties.

Walnuts Inside Roejig (the string in the walnuts is extracted after drying)

Our Selection of Armenian baked goods and string cheese came to $56. We had to stop ourselves from buying more.