Slice of Life: Father’s Day

Please note: Eileen Goltz is a freelance kosher food writer. The Orthodox Union makes no endorsements or representations regarding kashrut certification of various products/vendors referred to in her articles, blog, or web site.

My dad loves raisins. In cereal, in bread, in cookies, covered in chocolate and even, in a pinch, plain right out of the box. As a kid one of the bestest sweet treats he could give us was mixing up a bowl of sweet black and golden raisins with cashews (he’s a dentist so this was as crazy as he’d go in the sugar department). It was only later when I discovered his deepest darkest secret. While he was passing the bowl of these “good for you” natural treats he was stuffing his face with the chocolate covered ones.

While I’m planning on giving him a pound or two of the primo milk chocolate ones this Father’s Day I’m also going to go all out and create a couple of other “raisin-centric” recipes just to let him know how much I appreciate all the wonderful stuff he taught me all the years of my life, especially about sharing.

I love you daddy, Happy Father’s Day.

Applesauce Raisin Nut Quick Bread (dairy or pareve)

Yields 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup butter or margarine, melted
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon each salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup raisins
• ¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9×5″ loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl combine the applesauce and egg. Mix to combine. Mix in the melted butter, brown and white sugars and then set the mixture aside.
3. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture. Mix just until blended.
5. Gently fold in the raisins and nuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
6. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before removing the bread from the pan. Cool the bread on a cooling rack for at least ½ hour before slicing.

Raisin Coffee Cake (dairy)

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sugar divided
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2¼ cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1½ cups raisins
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon powdered sugar
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• Powdered sugar for topping

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9×9-inch pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter. Add 1½ cups of sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until light and thoroughly mixed.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into another bowl. Add to butter mixture one-third at a time alternating with sour cream and beating well after each addition. Mix in raisins.
4. In small bowl mix the remaining sugar with the cinnamon.
5. Spread about 2/3 of the batter on the bottom of the pan.
6. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top and then top with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the top.
7. Bake in middle of oven 55 minutes to 1 hour until pick inserted into centers comes out clean.
8. Cool for ½ hour and then sprinkle the top with powdered sugar.

Modified and submitted by Arthur Parsons, Trenton, NJ

Cashew and Raisin Cookie (pareve)

Yields 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1-2/3 cups flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup chopped cashews
• ¾ cup golden raisins

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Grease a cookie sheet.
3. In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and baking soda. Mix to combine.
4. In a bowl of an electric mixer combine the sugar, vanilla, and eggs and beat until the mixture thickens.
5. Add the flour mixture, cashews, and raisins to the egg mixture and mix to combine.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 6 or 7 times and then shape it into a 12 to 14 inch roll.
7. Place dough on the prepared baking sheet and then pat the roll down until it’s about an inch thick.
8. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack.
9. Place the cookie roll on a cutting board and cut the roll diagonally into 24 (½-inch) slices.
10. Place the slices back on the cookie sheet and bake for an additional 20 minutes (the cookies will be sort of soft in the middle but harden as they cool).
11. Cool on a cooling rack.

My Version of Quaker Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (dairy or pareve)

This is the recipe is the first one I made myself as an 8 year old!!

Yields about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

• ½ lb. (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped apricots
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
3. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir together until no streaks remain.
4. Stir this into the butter mixture.
5. Stir in oats, apricots, pecans and raisins; mix well.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.

Modified from the Quaker Oats web site

Oatmeal Chocolate and Raisin Mufffins (dairy or pareve)

Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ½ cup white sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup milk or non dairy substitute
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup oil

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin pan or line with 12 paper muffin liners.
2. In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Add the oats, sugar, raisins and salt.
3. Add the milk, egg, and oil, mix until just blended. The batter will be lumpy.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, about 2/3’s full.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
6. Remove from muffin cups to cool on a wire rack.

Rum Raisin Chocolate Brownies (dairy or pareve)

8 to 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raisins
• ¼ cup rum
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter or margarine
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• ¾ cup flour
• 1 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Place the raisins in a bowl and pour the rum over them, let them sit for ½ hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan.
3. In a sauce pan combine the butter and unsweetened chocolate and heat, stirring until the chocolate and butter melt together. Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes.
4. Whisk in the sugar and eggs. Mix in the raisins (with the remaining liquid) and then add the flour and chocolate chips.
5. Spoon the batter to pan.
6. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached.
7. Cool brownies in pan on rack.
8. Cut into squares.

Modified from Bon Appétit | December 1999

Curry and Raisin Veggie Salad (pareve)

Yields about 12 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 head broccoli, chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
• ½ lb. kosher breakfast beef, cooked, drained and crumbled
• 1 cup Sun-Maid Natural Raisins
• ½ cup red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 shredded carrots
• 1½ cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons apple cider or rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• ¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted

Instructions:

1. In a bowl combine the broccoli, cauliflower, shredded carrots, breakfast beef, raisins and onion, mix and set aside.
2. In another bowl combine the mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar and curry powder. Mix to combine and then pour the dressing over the vegetable mix.
3. Mix to coat, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Modified from sunmaid.com

© Eileen Goltz

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Eileen Goltz is a freelance kosher food writer who was born and raised in the Chicago area. She graduated from Indiana University and the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris. She lectures on various food-related topics across the U.S. and Canada and writes weekly columns for the Chicago Jewish News, kosher.com and the OU Shabbat Shalom Website. She is the author of the Perfectly Pareve Cookbook (Feldheim) and is a contributing writer for the Chicken Soup for the Soul Book Group, Chicago Sun Times, Detroit Free Press and Woman’s World Magazine. You can visit Eileen’s blog by clicking: Cuisine by Eileen

The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.