The Song Fight Bulletin Board

nothing happened. never mind.

It's ok, we can still post...it's November 20th in the only place in the world that counts. The United States of America.

(Of course I jest)

qotd: Bread pudding, rice pudding, oatmeal cookies, toast. Should there or should there not be raisins involved?

Roll Call: I'm still not in Australia. But I wouldn't mind. More details tomorrow. Er, later today. Er, what?

QotD: Raisins are okay in moderation. Excessive use is worthy of an intervention by friends and family.

QOTD:
Raisins in bread pudding just looks wrong, as does runny bread pudding. But walnuts make for bread puddin' magic.
Rice pudding needs nothing but a quick nuke to warm it up, and drizzle of maple syrup.
Cinnamon raisin bread toasted and slathered with butter....yeah!

Raisin bread is yummy.
Rice pudding and bread pudding don't score very high at all on my table.
Raisins in oatmeal cookies don't score high, either.

You know what's really good? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Those are really good. But for some reason there's this unwritten law that if you make oatmeal cookies, you reach for the raisins. Chocolate chips are what should be used in those oatmeal cookies.

I'm glad I could finally get this off my chest. Thanks all!

Ya gotta love raisin bread, toasted, of course. Not a big fan of those puddings but a few raisins work. Oatmeal cookies can contain raisins, chocolate chimps or both. Just this weekend my friend made oatmeal cookies with sunflower seeds as a main ingredient - very excellent!

EDIT: What is wrong with me? How could I have spelled raisin wrong, and more than once to boot? (fixed now) Please - somebody punch me if you see that happen again!

Raisin bread rocks, especially toasted. Raisin-cinnamon YES. However M does not like raisins, weirdo.
-bill

röymond wrote: Raisins in oatmeal cookies don't score high, either.

You know what's really good? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Those are really good. But for some reason there's this unwritten law that if you make oatmeal cookies, you reach for the raisins. Chocolate chips are what should be used in those oatmeal cookies.

I'm glad I could finally get this off my chest. Thanks all!

I updated the question to reflect oatmeal cookies. I HATE Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

I'm 100% with you. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies are my favorite cookies ever. Hard to find a good one though.

If you are ever visiting Atlanta, go down to The Flying Biscuit. They have large Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies freshly baked. Never more than a day old.

HeuristicsInc wrote:Raisin bread rocks, especially toasted. Raisin-cinnamon YES. However M does not like raisins, weirdo.
-bill

Raisin Toast slathered in butter is the ONLY thing I can deal with raisins IN.

Raisins are fine on their own...but I hate bumping my teeth into them in ANYTHING else.

<font size="1">no @ rice pudding, no @ bread pudding, no @ oatmeal cookies, just no @ anything they are IN</font>

Quick Recipe
I came up with this one because in my house, 1 dozen donuts aren't enough, and 2 dozen are too many. So I tend to always buy too many donuts. In my house, if they aren't eaten the first day, they are considered too old and will not get eaten unless someone is really stoned.

Chris' Drunkin' Donuts
note: these are rough measurements. I recommend using a standard bread pudding recipe, but with day old donuts instead of bread. The older and dryer the donuts, the better.

Mix together, a couple shots of dark rum, 2 cups milk, 2 eggs slightly beaten, 1/2 stick melted butter, a couple teaspoons of cinnamon, a couple teaspoons of vanilla extract, a quarter cup each of sugar and brown sugar, a couple pinches of salt, a pinch of nutmeg, and a couple dollops of sour cream, which isn't a must, but it helps my standard 2% milk in the fridge to become more like a heavy cream to add richness. You can use yogurt as well. note: depending on how many donuts you are using, you may want to increase or decrease the milk and eggs. A good rule is 1 egg for each cup of milk.

Indiscriminately break up about 10 to 12 donuts
Use them all, sprinkles, maple bars, jelly filled, bear claws, half eaten, it doesn't matter
Butter the bottom and sides of a Casserole dish or around a 9in X 9in pan. Don't use a pan that's too shallow, because it rises.
Add the torn up donuts
Pour the milk mixture over the top, trying to get all the donuts wet
Press the donuts down into the milk mixture
Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top as you like...or not.
Cover with foil and bake in a 350 oven for about 45 minutes
Uncover and let it go another 10 minutes to brown the top a bit
Let it cool for about 15 minutes before serving so it can set

Ive found that a dozen donuts is about the same as a loaf of bread. So you can use that as a measuring tool and cut the recipe in half for a half dozen donuts, etc. The milk mixture should completely soak all of the torn up donut pieces.
A good tip is to let it cook a little longer if it still looks too wet after 45 minutes, or take it out early if it looks fine.
In my opinion, its done when you insert a butter knife and it looks custardy. I like mine a bit dryer than most people, more like a thin cheese cake consistency.

A nice addition around Christmas is to substitute a cup of left over eggnog for 1 cup of the milk.

I like to serve it with a simple rummy cool hhhwhip. About a half shot of dark rum to about a container of Cool Whip. Do this to taste, but too much rum and it will go flat on you. Which isn't bad actually, lol. It becomes, like, a rum cream if you will. I use the Cool whip and different alcohols as a desert topping quite often. Cool whip accepts flavors really well, alcohol or not.

I do not generally like raisins baked into things. I only like them on their own. When they are baked they get this nasty texture to them.

I agree with roymond cf. oatmeal cookies.

röymond wrote: You know what's really good? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

This just reminded me about a great oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe.
I cant remember where I got this from, probably a cooking show or something, and I think it was for some other recipe.
When you make Nestle Toll House Chocolate chip cookies, add a cup of ground up oatmeal in place of a cup of flour, in the standard 2 1/4 cups of flour for the standard toll house recipe. The trick is to put the dry oatmeal in a blender to get it pretty fine. Measure the cup of oatmeal AFTER it has been ground. A cup of ground down oatmeal starts out as about 2 or 3 cups. I have just added the 2 or 3 cups of oatmeal right out of the box without grinding it, which works fine. but grinding it lets the taste cut through much better in my opinion. Do not replace ALL of the flour. Ive tried it and it doesn't work very good.

By the way. For those that don't know this. The reason that Toll House cookies rock and don't puff up like other crappy chocolate chip cookie is because of the 3/4 cup of brown sugar with the regular sugar. I think real butter is a must also.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:

röymond wrote: You know what's really good? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

... delicious sounding cookie recipe....

I think real butter is a must also.

Cooks use real butter. Housewives substitute. Cooks use real butter.

NO RAISINS IN BAKED GOODS EVER

Hoblit wrote:
qotd: Bread pudding, rice pudding, oatmeal cookies, toast. Should there or should there not be raisins involved?

Yes, yes, yes, and no.

Man, am I full of sushi. Oh man.

Man.

Lord of Oats wrote:NO RAISINS IN BAKED GOODS EVER

clearly that is wrong.

Hot Cross Buns with fruit in them, for example, are delicious.

sausage boy wrote:

Lord of Oats wrote:NO RAISINS IN BAKED GOODS EVER

clearly that is wrong.

Hot Cross Buns with fruit in them, for example, are delicious.

Agreed. I love HCBs.

Well, I love "Hot Cross Buns," the song, and it's a staple of my live performances. I've never actually had the pastry.

And I suppose fruitcake is an exception. Although the nuclear fruit bits in there are much more fun than the raisins, anyway.

röymond wrote:
You know what's really good? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Those are really good. But for some reason there's this unwritten law that if you make oatmeal cookies, you reach for the raisins. Chocolate chips are what should be used in those oatmeal cookies.

That's absolutely right!!!

And the only good way to eat raisins is if they are covered in chocolate.


Steve

Lord of Oats wrote:NO RAISINS IN BAKED GOODS EVER

Spotted Dick would just be Dick without raisins.

.......and what in the world would you call Raisin Cookies without raisins? much better cookies

Yeah, mostly, just get the raisins the hell out of my cookies. It's an awful idea. Chocolate pieces are a much better idea. Or even other dried fruits. Like dried cherries rock my ass. Dried cranberries are good, even blueberries. Although they're all kind of textural anomalies, I'd much rather encounter those in my desserts. Raisins are just...cheap and plentiful, I guess...? Wine is a much better use of grapes...or just, you know...eating grapes. Honestly, I just don't think grapes dry well. I don't have to eat raisins just because they're around, you know. Like why do we have to find a use for them? They're bad all the time. Maybe once every three or four years, I see some raisins, and say, "Okay, well, I'm hungry, and those are technically food, so okay, fine." You know what I like to do with raisins? NOT BUY THEM.

my favorite cookies would be chocolate chip + dried cranberry + orange zest