Day 21 – The Age Old Question …
We’re raisin a question …
Getting together with family for the holidays, whether that’s in person or online, is not always plain sailing. The world appears divided and many people have very strong and opposing ideas and feelings on many different topics right now. Peaceful dinners can quickly turn into heated arguments.
Well, we had one of those just last night …
We had finished our meal when Lisa brought out some cookies for dessert. They looked great – nice, doughy chocolate chip cookies … or were they?
Turns out the “chocolate chips” were actually undercover raisins! That caused a riot at the dinner table.
Michaela and Mona are “Team Raisin” while Lisa and Papa Rudi are on team “Burn them with a flamethrower”.
A long argument ensued about whether or not raisins belong in cookies and cakes. They are a very common ingredient in many Austrian recipes and the British love them too in things like buns, breads and of course Christmas Pudding. It splits our family in half and has caused our grandma to have to bake 2 versions of many cakes in the past. We don’t feel that’s fair on her.
So please, for the love of god, help us settle this argument …
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DAY 21 – CHRISTMAS QUESTION
Task of the Day:
Help us solve our family argument by filling out the poll.
Achievable Points:
5
Live Stream Reminder!
As we mentioned in Friday’s MLT Club Wire, we will be doing our very first YouTube Live Stream on Wednesday, December 23 at 10 pm GMT for MLT Club members only. These are some of the most common time conversions:
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If you don’t have one, it’s super quick to set it up. You will still be able to watch the live stream without a YouTube account, you just won’t be able to take part in the (written) chat.
There will be music, a little Q&A, some fan mail opening and we’ll also be revisiting some of your entries throughout the Advent Calendar 🙂
If you cannot be there live, you’ll be able to re-watch the whole stream afterwards but of course we hope that many of you will be able to join us at the time!
Lots of love to you all and see you soon!
Mona & Lisa
Mona and Michaela,
I love buttered toasted raisin bread with my morning coffee and raisins are also great in hot rolled oatmeal cereal on cold mornings. It sticks with you. I can’t say enough about oatmeal raisin cookies. This I know because I grow Thompson seedless grapes and make raisins for SUNMAID by naturally drying the grapes in the sun. The golden raisins used by so many bakers are not dried naturally under the sun. Sun dried raisins are dark brown where as golden raisins are dried in large gas ovens and coated with sulfur dioxide to preserve the lighter color.
Merry Christmas to all of you and remember to try SUNMAID raisins grown and dried in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Sounds like a commercial…yes/no?
This is tough….raisins are wonderful in some cookies…but…I’m not eating just “some” cookies….Crispy Chocalate Chip is all the cookie I’m gonna eat …so NO RAISINS….????
For everyone’s sake, no raisins because we can get by without them
There are raisin people, and there are the rest. Just kidding. Oatmeal, trail mix, snacks, oatmeal raisin cookies, bread pudding and turkey stuffing are my favorites.
Raisin is a Cereal Killer. No cereal for me if you put raisins in it. Team Rudy and Lisa here, all the way. However, it doesn’t end there for me, I’m adverse to coconut. Put coconut on a brownie and you’ve ruined it. Like putting salt on chocolate. But I go a step further: cinnamon is not my taste either. Put it in my coffee and it goes down the drain. Those “Cinnabon” stores in the malls of long ago, made me gag. I weird that way…
Now chocolate chips, you can’t ever put enough in a cookie! Dough is just the way to hold many many chocolate chips together!
Raisins, but not as a surprise.
Once again I find myself on Team Mona. 😀
Raisins are chewy and go with chewy “oatmeal brown sugar raisin cookies”. Chocolate chips are crunchy and go with crunchy “chocolate chip cookies”. I will have both please. If you’re not a raisin fan then try dried Montmorency cherries instead, Yum!
I’m really looking forward to the live stream!
We adore each of you, but from the very beginning, Sasha is a bit more fan of Mona, while I’m a bit more fan of Lisa. What’s interesting, seems for this particular challenge we swapped our favourites. As a big lover of raisins, I’m definitely in Mona’s camp. While Sasha constantly pulls them away from any bake and wants them to be replaced with chocolate, so she is in Lisa’s team today. As we can only have one vote anyway, I yielded Sasha to make a choice. So we finally voted against raisins.
Is Sasha a bit of a chocoholic then? Very noble of you to cede to her but I must disagree with her choice!
chewy oatmeal cookies need raisons.
Sorry Michaela and Mona, no raisins! Except in oatmeal cookies. I’ll allow that.
Interesting videos on YouTube about “Raisin Water” and the benefits.
I agree with the “red headed baker” & her “silver haired helper”
No raisins unless mother nature decided you might need some!!!
I guess I am going to have to go pro raisin (in oatmeal cookies, not sugar cookies)
Plus raisins are an an important part of the evolutionary tree of life.
Grapes —-> Raisins —-> Wine
I love my raisins but don’t put them in anything you’ve baked. I like plain or in trail mix but draw the line when it comes to putting them in a cake, cookie or anything else.
I will make an exception when it comes to cinnamon raisin bread if I just toast it and spread it with butter. Maybe it’s the heated condition of them in toast that makes a difference so put an asterisk on my vote.
Here in the UK raisins (and sultanas), as M&L alluded to, are used in many types of food. I personally adore them and would put them in my favourite top ten food items.
They can be used in biscuits (cookies) such as
Fruit shortcakes or shortbreads (despite the names they are biscuits)
Garibaldis
Fruit scones Wonderful with double cream and jam (jello), a true archetypal British tradition. Picture below
Fruit cookies. In the UK these are generally a specific type of thick and large biscuit.
Cakes such as
Christmas cake
Dundee cake (a rich fruit cake)
Basic fruit cake
Main courses as follows
Many curries
Peshwari naan. An unleavened bread that can be used instead of or as well as rice with a curry. There are many types but this is the fruit one.
Some people add them to pizzas (but not me)
Salads
Puddings such as
Christmas pudding
Bread and butter pudding
Some people add them to rice pudding (I’m not too keen on this)
Spotted Dick.
I suspect that this last one will have raised a smile from those of you not familiar with great British puddings (I’m not referring to Boris Johnson here!). I’ve attached a photo of a spotted dick for you (first one). They are delicious with hot custard. Many people make one big one to be shared by the family as opposed to small individual ones.
Look up my examples online to see what they look like, there isn’t really room for photos of them all, but if requested I will do so. The above are not exclusive lists.
Basically raisins (and sultanas) can be used anywhere in cooking. It is more a case of where can they not be used!
God I’m in my element here!
As you may gather I’m in Team Raisin with Mona and Michaela.
Oh and I forgot to mention that we have boxes of raisins for lunch boxes etc. Attached is a picture of a multipack of the boxes. Brings back memories of my packed lunch at school….lovely days. Same style box 40 odd years on.
Yuppers, these are the bixed 4aisins that I mentioned in my comnent and awhile ago on TV Ontario channel on TV on a show called ” How It’s Made” ( or something along that title line), was a segment on the Sunnaid Raisins, tge history 9f company, the model gal, etc , quite interesting itvwas… I’ll only have these Sunmaid raisins when I crave/mood strikes…lol
Well the three Nesbitt brothers craved and were in the mood all the time, much to the delight of our mother as it made for a good healthy addition to our packed lunches. We consumed vast quantities of Sun Maids (oops this could be misconstrued!).
I love scones and good ones are very hard to find here – those fruit scones look awfully good!
Oh they are they are. I don’t have them very often to ensure that they remain special. Strawberry jam and cream as well, yum!
The picture is of a Cornish cream scone, that is jam first then cream on top. Devon cream scones are t’other way round. Here in London the Cornish method is the norm.
I love raisins in oatmeal cookies, my wife hates them, our son will eat either.
We like chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies.
What I do is just make the cookie dough, and stir raisins into half of it for me, and butterscotch chips or chocolate chips into the other half.
It’s really not much more work, and everyone gets what they want.
Cookies make us happy– a tiny bit more effort for more smiles? no contest here.
I also like raisins in my apple pie, so when consructing it I will put raisins in half..
No more work really, and we are all happy (the true purpose of desserts, and family)
I’m not a big fan of raisins, but in my opinion there are quite a few dishes which would not taste that good without them, like “Stollen” (German Christmas Bread), I like them in cakes, I’ve never tried them on cookies yet.
The only cookie that raisins seem to belong on are Oatmeal ones ( personally I prefer chocolate chips…I have a ongoing love/hate 4elationship with raisins, while preferencewise , I do like them , on their own in a small snacksized wee box ofSunmaid Raisinswhen the mood strikes me to crave tgem. I have eaten tgem in bagels, oatmeal cookies, raisin toast, butter tarts, etc but would rather Not, as I’m not quite keen on raisins, though the chocolate covered Glossette Raisins aren’t that bad…lol…I prefer chocokate covered blyeberries/cherries anytime, any where…lol… so I’m kinda of the Puragatory Raisin Team, Yoyo RaisinTeam, Damned if ya like them, Damned if ya don’t….lol… If the mood strikes me forcraisins I will, otherwise, steer clear if possible…. Raisin Hell on this topic….????☀️
I mentioned on a previous day that I make fruitcake every year, and not with that awful garish candied fruit but with dried fruits. That includes raisins along with currants, dried cherries, and dates, all doused with brandy. One of this year’s recipients said: “Your fruitcake is the best ever! And not just the best fruitcake, but one of the best Christmas treats we’ve ever had. Any chance you could share the recipe? [Wife] begs and implores!” Case closed!
Although I like raisins on there own or in a nice trail mix to be expecting to bite into a nice chocolate chip and find out it’s a raisin just makes me go what?!?!
I like raisins in many things, but it depends on the recipe. An oatmeal cookie without any raisins just seems wrong. I also love chocolate, and my wife just came up with a new recipe for chocolate peanuts. Perhaps peanuts can be tomorrow’s argument???
No raisins in cookies! But raisins in some cakes is nice. I like them in Belgian buns!
In the context of cookies I see it as a hierarchy rather than a do-or-die battle: chocolate chips are better than raisins, and raisins are better than nothing at all. I wouldn’t object to a “trail mix” cookie containing both. But certainly raisin cookies masquerading as chocolate chip cookies should come with a warning label.
Well I have to go with raisins. I love raisin toast with lots of butter, Hot Cross Buns with raisins, and not just at Easter, and they also go well with oats and other cereals. So it is Michaela and Mona, “Team Raisin” for me. I’m just pleased that it is easily split in your family so no one is on their own. ????❤️
I haven’t had good homemade hot cross buns in quite a while. My neverending diet does not need them, but …
I meant ’evenly’ split!
Im gonna have to go with Eric on this one. Raisins with anything that includes oatmeal, or ever cereal. Christmas cookies…hmmm not so much.
Raisins in an Oatmeal Cookie? I’m all in. Not to say I have anything against a good Chips Ahoy Cookie, its just I prefer Oatmeal Raisin. I do have to be careful with chocolate chips. Sometimes they don’t like me.
I do gotta say, when you are expecting one thing and get something totally different, I would be like WTH IS THIS!!??
I do like a box of SunMaid Raisins????
Maybe Mona slipped them in, or maybe Lisa knew and didn’t tell anyone????
According to Legend, Lisa is the evil twin????????????????????
Chocolate over raisins 100% of the time – and I don’t think it is close
Still love Mona and Michaela…
Chocolate chips. Gotta be chocolate chips. Yep. Chocolate chips. Now I’m hungry.
I’m not fussed I love raisins whether they’re in biscuits or cakes or you can eat on their own
Like many people, I prefer chocolate chips in many baked goods but there are some cookies, made with oatmeal, for one example, for which raisins are the better match.
Raisins are better in cakes but choc chipp cookies are better without. them
I am with the team of Lisa and Rudi, for cookies chocolate chips are always better than raisins
I’m sorry Mona and Michaela
In cookies, I would always choose chocolate chips over raisins, but I think that raisins belong in many sweets – mince pie, puddings, sweet breads, scones, etc.
I am thrilled to hear about the livestream and can hardly wait till Wednesday!!!
Raisin add a healthy ingredient to lots of things,such as cookies, porrige, mulled wine, etc. They’re actually a very good snack for bicycle and hiking trips. I love ’em.
Totally agree.
Raisins go with Oatmeal Cookies.
Absolutely! 🙂
Chewy oatmeal cookies, yes; crispy oatmeal cookies, not so much. But we’re all entitled to our own opinion.
Sorry. I love chocolate too much. But I do enjoy raisins in oatmeal cookies as well. So I would in reality vote for both.
I will support Mona and Michaela. I love raisins, but I like chocolate too .. I would happily eat it in any version ..
Here in the UK we have chocolate raisins. They are simply raisins covered in milk chocolate although some are made with white chocolate. You can get boxes of them.
I like eating raisins right out of the box, just not in baked goods. I’m with Joseph when he says it’s a texture thing. With coconut, however, it’s the taste and smell I can’t stomach. Our pastor once said “I don’t know why anyone would take a perfectly fine dessert and ruin it by putting coconut on top of it!” I put a lot of stock in his opinions after that! Our old family Christmas cookie recipe called for lard as a shortening, which became crisco sticks in today’s world. That was fine until my sister thought we should change it to butter. Made them too rich for my taste and didn’t go as well with the homemade frosting, in my opinion. So we decided to agree to disagree and make two different batches each year.
It’s really refreshing to hear your family disagrees over something innocent like raisins! It’s these personal revelations that make you feel like old friends, rather than just some random family thousands of miles away that happens to make beautiful ????.
I know many don’t like raisins but I love them, especially in mince pies. For me Mince Pies are for life and not just Xmas. ????
Oh you are so right with mince pies, something that I missed off my list.
Some British would say “sultanas” rather than just any old raisin. Sultanas are sweeter.
My wife and I have a second home in St Andrews, which is also home to Scotland’s oldest university.
Raisin Monday is the culmination of a weekend of festivities when first-year students at the University of St Andrews say thank-you to their more senior student “parents” for mentoring them. The so-called “children” are given embarrassing costumes to wear and take part in a shaving foam fight in St Salvator’s Quad in the Fife town.
Raisin Weekend dates far back into St Andrews’ history, so called because “children” traditionally gave their academic “parents” a pound of raisins to thank them for welcoming them to St Andrews. These days the parents would probably prefer a bottle of wine, but some first-year students still stick with tradition!
Raisin Weekend for 2020 has been moved from its traditional date in October to the start of Spring Break in March 2021, because of Covid-19.
I’m sure American readers will have stories to tell about Spring Break?!
Sultanas, now you’re talking! Even better than raisins and as you say sweeter and generally larger.
I myself do not like raisins. It’s a texture thing for me. I love my Chocolate Chip over
a raisins any day. So I would be on Rudi and Lisa side on this one.
That reminds me of my brother and fruit cake. He’s the only one who could stand the stuff with raisins and dried fruit. If my mom put raisins in the vanilla cake, there could have been a revolt. ???? With the fruit cake I started warming up to it years later but in small portions. I prefer chocolate chip to raisins. ????????
Looking forward to the live stream. Awesome!
Jung. Raisins are much healthier than chocolate. Continue your quest to the promised land!
I have to admit I like raisins in bran muffins and breakfast English muffins. They just dont belong in my cookies and cakes. ????