"raisins" news and stories

Sometimes I wonder how certain food holidays are created. They seem so specific. Is there an Applesauce Cake Council that demands a day of their own?

Oh, by the way, today is National Applesauce Cake Day! I've never had it, but it sounds quite good. I keep picturing something that is moist and chewy and wet and dry all at the same time. AOL Food actually has two recipes for it, one from The Joy of Cooking and the other from Woman's Day.

Raisins get no respect. The lowliest member of the dried fruit totem pole, raisins have none of the exotic allure of dried mangoes or pineapple, none of the so-good-I-could-sneak-it-into-the-movie-theater-instead-of-candy appeal of dried cherries. Raisins, with their grade school lunchbox associations, get left at the bottom of the bag of trail mix, picked out of the sticky buns. Only prunes have a worse rep, but ever since they changed their name to 'dried plums,' they've hardly given us the time of day.

While I can't be bothered with the beef jerky-tough little raisins from the cardboard canister, I do adore the juicy fire raisin from Trader Joe's, the plump specimens baked into oatmeal raisin cookies. In fact, raisins are underutilized in baking; as soaking in a wet batter and being cooked in an oven tends to soften them, even the cheapest raisins will suit the purpose. In honor of National Raisin Day today, try one of the recipes from Sun-Maid's website - the old-fashioned raisin pie looks irresistibly sticky-sweet. I'm still looking to replicate a raisin cake I ate frequently in Argentina - it was a rather flat yellow sheet cake studded with sugar-swollen brown and golden raisins. If anyone has a similar recipe, please give me a shout.

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Back in the early 1970's, my mom had a friend named Melinda who had a small business making homemade granola. One day, on her way home from shopping for several weeks worth of ingredients in her VW Beetle, she was rear ended. She was not hurt, but the force of the impact sent oats, nuts, raisins, oil and honey flying all over the interior of the car. Even after the body work was completed, the car was never the same. She stopped making granola sometime soon after that. Customers all over the Bay Area mourned her choice, as it was very, very good granola. Thankfully, before she closed up shop, she shared the recipe with a few fortunate people. I thank my lucky stars that my mom happened to be among that number.

This much-coveted recipe is after the jump. It is delicious eaten with yogurt, given away as gifts and eaten as a before-bed snack, right out of the jar or bag in which you are storing it.

photo by Marisa McClellan

Although this photo of Fancy Toast's banana bread is a good one, it's not the look of the loaf that makes it appealing. The unassuming exterior hides a secret and that secret is booze. Erinelle turned an otherwise ordinary loaf of banana bread into a deliciously grown-up treat by adding a hearty dose of rum-soaked raisins to her banana bread batter. The recipe she used comes from Nigella Lawsons's popular cookbook How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, which is full of decadently satisfying recipes that are designed to be very do-able for the home chef. Since all that really distinguishes this bread from other banana breads is the use of the boozy raisins, it would be easy to make the addition to your own personal favorite banana bread recipe if you didn't want to use Nigella's. You could even toss them into muffins or cookies for a little bit of a change there, as well.

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They might look like cookies at first glance, but these oatmeal breakfast bars from Sugar and Spices are really a healthy way to start off the morning. The bars are packed with oats, raisins, walnuts, a modest amount of sugar and minimal fat. Soft and chewy, they sound like the would be very satisfying without being too heavy - much like the Matisse and Jack's energy bars that I baked up a couple of weeks back. On top of their relatively healthy profile, homemade bars are a good alternative to store bought snack bars because they offer you the chance to adapt them to your taste. Want dried cranberries or blueberries instead of raisins? Or hazelnuts instead of walnuts? Not a problem. The bars do not take very long to make and spending an hour on them over the weekend will definitely save some time if you tend to be in a rush on weekday mornings.

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