The Hits: Raising the question of raisins

The Hits DJs, Megan Banks and Adam Green

Raisins. What do we think? This was a hot cross topic this week with hot cross buns on the menu.

I know hot cross buns have been on the menu since candy canes moved on in January, but I usually like to reserve this particular indulgence until Good Friday.

However, due to numerous kind people delivering fresh hot cross buns early, I have found myself with no willpower, staring at a packet of hot cross buns and duly popping them in the oven for a bit of a grill.

My waistline has expanded over the last few days due to the amount of butter I slather on my buns, and I blame the humble raisin.

It is in my humble opinion that you need at least 2cm of butter covering on your bun to mask the raisins and other fruit that bakers delight in adding in!

A little bit of cinnamon and spice in a hot cross bun is all you need, right? That, or maybe just a little bit of say, I don't know, 500g of melted chocolate!

Well, boy did the phones go crazy on this little topic. To raisin or not to raisin. It pretty much came down to this… are you even a kiwi kid if you weren't brought up on a packet of Sun-Maid raisins in your Hudson Cookie Bear tin lunch box?

That's also how your parents knew at an early age if you had any kind of musical whistling talent. You learnt to whistle through a raisin box!

But since being a child, and nailing the whistling raisin box, I haven't eaten them since.

Just like Dr Seuss bemoaned on the Green Eggs and Ham story, I do not like them Readers-I-Am. I do not like raisins in a bun, I do not like them on the run, I do not like them in carrot cake, I do not like them in a pasta bake, I do not like them in a curry, I do not like them in a hurry, I do not like raisins at all, I do not like them that is all!

And unlike Guy-Am-I, I haven't changed on my mind on this one. Unless of course the raisins are picked before they are dried and then stomped on and then fermented and then magically turned into a bottle of Radburnd Cellars Syrah, then I like raisins very much indeed! - Megan Banks