8 Cool Uses for Craisins (Dried Cranberries)

1. Ice Cream with Craisins

If you want to try something different, put Craisins on your Ice Cream Sundae.

The sweetness with a touch of tart is an awesome compliment to vanilla ice cream.  Cranberries also have more health benefits than most of the regular ice cream toppings. You won’t find this many anti-oxidants in chocolate sauce.  There is also fiber and some healthy vitamins--almost enough to convince you that an ice cream sundae is going to be healthy this time.

2. School Lunch Snack

Raisins are a staple for school lunches.  Sometimes your kids need a variety. Cranberries can be a real treat for your kids; they are sweet, tasty, and have that tart flavor kids crave in some of those popular sour candies.

3. Oatmeal with Dried Cranberries

Instead of brown sugar, try adding some Craisins this time.  Oatmeal doesn’t have much flavor on its own.  Craisins will add lots of flavor to your boring oatmeal.

4. Cereal with Craisins

People like cereals with raisins, but Craisins are just as good.  It may turn your milk a happy shade of pink, but that could be fun too.

5. Salad Topping

The typical salad has dressing that adds bit of salty flavor . Vinegar is one of the primary ingredients to a lot of dressings and often chefs will add some sweetness to cut that sour vinegar flavor.  The chewiness of dried cranberries will also add a nice contrast to the crunchy vegetables. It’s a win-win.  Try dried cranberries with a bit of goat cheese in your next dinner party salad so your friends think you are super fancy.

6. Cookies

Who wants a boring oatmeal raisin cookie when you can have an oatmeal CRAISIN cookie.  Dried cranberries work really well in a cookie.

7. Nut Breads

A walnut banana bread would be awesome with dried cranberries.  The bright red would also be a wonderful color contrast for those that like food to be visually appealing.

8. Fruit Spreads

Putting dried cranberries in hot water for a few minutes and then in a food processor will make a lovely cranberry spread.  We like it on top of brie cheese and then spread on crackers. Yummy!

What are some of your favorites? Share in the comments section.

100% Committed to Quality

Here at Napa Nuts, we strive to deliver the best tasting nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and confections.   If you haven't tried our products yet, we see no reason for you to wait.  What many of you can't taste or see is all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure you are getting consistently excellent products.

Taste testing

Every time we start working with a supplier we have our entire team meet to do a side-by-side comparison.  We decide as a team which products look the best, taste the best, and have the best "mouth-feel."  We sort though anything that is less than the highest quality so that our customers are only getting our favorites.  Honestly I have never had a better cashew, almond, dried apricot, dried pear, etc. I could go on, but I don't know how much time you have.

Our trail mixes are made by our in house chef

In addition to being our manager here at the shop, Geoff is also a trained chef.  He personally uses his expertise to blend the right products at precise proportions to ensure that our customers get a unique flavor profile with each one. Here at the shop, we get to taste each iteration; to be honest, we all enjoy watching (and tasting) the products go from good to great.  You only get the best of the best.  Try some of our mixes!

In compliance with new laws

A few years ago, the federal government came out with new food safety laws that hold everyone to a higher standard.  We are proud to be in compliance with these laws ahead of schedule.  This means that we have a third party certify our food safety standards, regularly check our warehouse for cleanliness, have food-grade cleanliness standards for anyone touching a food product, and rapid recall protocols if we get word of a recall from one of our suppliers.

Napa Nuts is committed to providing the highest quality products to our customers. For more information about our food safety program, please email bonnie@napanuts.com.

Do you know what to do with hazelnuts?

I bought some Hazelnuts at wholesale,  what do I do with them?

Well, the obvious answer is to make something delicious. But how?

Some suggestions from the experts here at Napa Nuts:

Buy hazelnuts that already have already been shelled and blanched

Shelled hazelnuts make it is easier to see the quality of each individual nut. While most stores and bulk packages already have their quality control in place and you are most likely going to get something that tastes like a hazelnut, why waste the time processing your own food?

In addition, Shelling hazelnuts can be a pain. As you shell them, there is the possibility of getting hurt, breaking the nuts, and your arms getting tired.

It is going to take a long time and then you still have to blanch them to remove the hazelnut skin; another whole process. We suggest that you just get blanched hazelnuts, and then you can get right into cooking. Napa Nuts is, of course, our favorite place to get wholesale blanched hazelnuts.

Hazelnut Lacies

These delicious and delicate cookies often have just a drizzle of chocolate on them. Hazelnuts compliment the flavor of chocolate really well and are one of the ingredients that makes Nutella so popular.

Use your favorite recipe for lacies, then chop and add some of our wholesale, bulk  blanched hazelnuts for a rich flavor that is sure to please your taste buds.  You can also try to toast them a bit first to release more of the hazelnut's natural flavors.

Try hazelnuts on a salad

With just a light toasting to release some of the natural flavors and add just a bit of crunch, hazelnuts can be a wonderful salad addition.  We wouldn’t be bold enough to endorse any specific hazelnut salad recipe, but you will thank yourself if you try a few of them.

Hazelnuts are going to add some of those healthy nut fats that your body craves.  Any nut is going to make your healthy salad feel more filling while adding healthy proteins, vitamins, and minerals.  

Many scientific research studies are now proving that there are many health benefits of eating nuts. Harvard Medical says “nuts—are healthier than red meats “ (“Harvard researchers continue to support their healthy eating plate”).

Put hazelnuts in a trail mix

Everyone has peanuts and almonds in their trail mixes, but why not make yours a bit more special?

Experiment

We know people are creative and would love to hear some of your trials.  It’s hard to go wrong with something delicious like a hazelnut. Leave us some of your comments with what you did and how it went.