A (Possibly ) Dumb Question About Raisins

Dear Nosey,

I made raisin bread last Sunday, and all the raisins were clumped up in the middle. Do you know of a way to distribute them more evenly?

Dear Karen,

As you are shaping your loaf, and I expect you are using the 'cakeroll' method, you have found that those slippery little devils, your raisins, or craisins or crushed nuts or whatever are all being rolled along ahead of your roll.

Try this. Use a rolling pin to get your dough as thin as possible. Use your handy-dandy spritzer bottle to spray a little water on the top surface of the dough. You can help things along by wetting your raisins in a small bowl. Now sprinkle or spread your raisins on the sheet of dough. Grab the rolling pin again, and smoosh them all down into the dough!

Roll up your dough as usual, tuck and seal your seams, and into the loaf pan it goes!

If you are an excessively lazy person, worried about cleaning extra implements and tools, and don't want to dirty your granny's old heirloom rolling pin, think about this.

*YOU DO NOT NEED TO WASH YOUR ROLLING PIN BETWEEN USES!*

Simply brush or wipe off any excess flour, or water, and stand it up to dry. Wooden rolling pins are very low maintenance tools, and do not require thorough scrubbing and sanitizing. Besides, you're going to use it again in another day or two anyway, aren't you? Why even stick it back in the drawer?