No Good, Rotten Raisins

Some of you out there have just been deeply offended simply by the title of this post!  For that, I am sorry.  But for the rest of us that have ever bitten into a chocolate covered nut, just to find out it was in fact a raisin in disguise, you understand the title completely.  Worse: to think you’re about to taste the delicious delight of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie only to have it all come crashing down at the realization you’ve been utterly duped once again by the sneaky sneak who substituted stupid raisins for the awesomeness of chocolate chips. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t actually mind raisins, for the most part.  But with few exceptions, they do not belong in baked goods.  Do not ruin a good bread pudding with needless squishy raisins.  Do not put them in a cookie meant only to be enhanced by chocolatey goodness.  Do NOT make a whole pie out of them!  You can sprinkle them in salads or eat a handful as a snack.  But don’t cook with them.  (This said, I actually don’t mind a good oatmeal raisin cookie when I know it’s supposed to be an oatmeal RAISIN cookie vs. a chocolate chip one.  However, if given the option, I will choose the chocolate chip one EVERY TIME.)

The only thing worse than a wrinkled raisin?  One that’s been replumped in the baking/cooking process.  Gross.  Nasty.  Wretched.

One of the only foods my mom hated was raisins.  She liked other kinds of dried fruit, like cranberries & cherries.  But I am so, so thankful that she abhorred the use of raisins.  Her cookies and baked goods were always safe from the above-mentioned mistaken-identity horrors.