The Great Raisin Adventure

It was a Costco-sized package of raisins that we bought the other day, and it's going to take some time to use them all. Here's the round-up of recipes we've tried, some of them more unusual than others. How do you like to use raisins?

Other than snacking on them plain, one of the more obvious ways is to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. There was a recipe on the back of the package, so that's the one we used. It was pretty close to our usual Famous Chewy Oatmeal Cookies recipe, so we knew we'd like them, and we did. I think we'd like them even better, though, if we dipped them in chocolate first!

Chocolate-Covered Raisins - Melt 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil together. Stir in 1 cup soft raisins to coat, then spread on a lined cookie sheet, separating into individual raisins as possible. Chill for 15 minutes. (Experiment with different types of chocolate, oil and dried fruit!)

• Serve with popcorn
• Add to a trail mix
• Stir into yogurt or sprinkle on ice cream
• Add to oatmeal cookie dough

Melt, mix, spread, chill, and stir - super simple!

Here's another unique recipe. Although they called it Raisin Butter, we'd call it Raisin Jam.

Raisin Butter (or Raisin Jam) - Combine 2 1/2 cups raisins, 2 medium pears (peeled, cored and diced - about 2 cups), 1/2 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until pears are soft and raisins are plump. Cool. Pulse in food processor until mixture is smooth. Store in refrigerator. Makes about 2 1/2 cups. 

Combine, cook, cool, then smash and spread!

How to use it? Try these ideas:

• Serve on toast with peanut butter (or ricotta cheese)
• Spread on a cracker
• Stir into oatmeal

You can also add just the plain raisins themselves to your cereal!

Side Dishes - 

• Add raisins and sliced almonds to rice pilaf
• Sprinkle on top of curried rice
• Stir onion, garlic, ginger, shredded carrot, raisins, sliced almonds and orange juice into couscous (find the recipe here)
• Stir into roasted Brussels sprouts (see here) or sweet potatoes (which is how we used the ingredient from our second shopping trip):

Toss diced sweet potatoes with olive oil, honey, cinnamon, raisins and pecans; then roast until carmelized. (Wayne thinks the recipe could use some butter and brown sugar as well!)

Bread Recipes -

Muffins - I used this recipe - Raisin Apple Muffins - but just adding raisins to our tried and true Whole Wheat Apple Muffins would have worked as well. Today I liked the idea of adding a little streusel topping.

Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins - We added some raisin butter/jam (see above) to these delicious homemade English muffins.

Pumpkin Raisin Bread - We added raisins to our favorite pumpkin bread.

Well, time to post this, but there are still more recipes I'm interested in trying. Here are some of them.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread - Maybe I'll add raisins to this Cinnamon Swirl Skillet Bread or to this Challah Braid or try a new recipe from King Arthur Flour, or Taste of Home, or Pioneer Woman.

Chicken Salad Sandwich. Mix diced chicken with mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip), chopped celery, raisins, and diced onions in a large bowl. Maybe add some nuts as well. Serve inside a warmed pita or on whole wheat bread.

Side Salad - Use instead of craisins in one of these salads - Apple Carrot Slaw , Broccoli Salad, Poppyseed Pear Salad.

More Dessert Options -

• Add to the filling for apple pie 
• Or apple strudel - This strudel recipe doesn't use store-bought pastry; it's worth a try!
• Rice Pudding
• Carrot Cake - Here's a tropical version to try.
• Cranberry Orange Rugelach
• Apricot Raisin Rugelach
• Lebkuchen - Not my favorite list of ingredients, but it is German - and maybe it would be a good recipe to try when we buy the giant package of dates!
• Cuccidati - An Italian cookie recipe - also uses dates and dried figs
• Apple Cinnamon Raisin Bars
• Martha Stewart's Filled Raisin Bars (maybe use raisin butter for filling?)

Snacks - 

• This one looks quite intriguing: Rosemary Raisin Pecan Crisps. And it definitely deserves its own post.
• Granola or Granola Bars
• Trail Mix