Anyone else baking fruitcake this year?

[psfred]

Got my first batch of fruitcake started today, couple weeks late this year. Old family recipe my grandmother found some years ago (1930's probably) for English dark fruitcake.

Uses applesauce, so it's always moist, none of that rock hard stuff people pass off as fruitcake (which of course can be fixed with brandy or rum, eh?), even people who profess to dislike fruitcake often find it good.

This year I'm using my own candied peel, saved all the orange, lemon, and lime peels this summer and cooked them up, also a pile of tangerine peel from last year's crop. Like so many other things, it doesn't take much time and the final product is vastly better. That home made peel provides delightful bursts of lemon, lime, tangerine, and orange flavors as you chew the cake, unlike the commercial "fruitcake mix" which appears to be mostly flavorless.

 

[Homer]

I haven't made any for two years running, it's just soooo much calories... The prep is not a problem , I do soak the cherries in whisky for 3-5 days and after all is done, I soak the fruitcake in more whisky for a couple of weeks (if I can let it go uneaten that long).

 

[Homer]

Here's my recipe, notice it's quite different from your typical ones.

 

[psfred]

I guess my grandma won't mind if I post the basic recipe:

1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups hot applesauce (unsweetended)
2 cups sugar
4 tsp baking soda
1 lb currants
1 lb raisins
1 lb candied peel (Fruitcake mix)
1 cup coarse nut meats
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt (more if you use unsalted butter)
5 cups flour

Optional:
4-8 oz of candied cherries, dates, candied pineapple, any other dried fruit. We use cherries,dates, and candied pineapple, up to 1 lb each.

Cream sugar and butter, add spices, baking powder, and salt. Mix in hot applesauce and flour, then mix in the dried fruit and mix well. A large Kitchen Aid works well, otherwise mix the dried fruit in by hand (this batch won't fit in the small KA).

Line baking pans with parchment or waxed paper (else you will never get the cakes out!) and fill about half full to account for expansion, they will overflow if filled too full before the cake sets.

Bake at 250 F with a pan of water in the bottom of the oven until a tester comes out dry, this will take up to six hours. Do NOT bake at higher temps, they will turn to glassy boulders. Do not underbake, they will be very gummy.

Remove from oven when done, invert on a rack, and remove paper. Allow to cool completely, then wrap (or put in ziplock bags) and allow to ripen a few weeks -- the crust is very hard initially and will soften nicely after a few weeks. If you wish, spritz them with brandy occasionally when ripening, but this is not our family tradition -- all dry Methodists.

If the peel or dried fruit are hard, steam a few minutes or dribble some hot water on it and cover tightly and let it sit overnight to soften. I've also soaked the dried fruit with a few ounces of brandy, that works out very well too.

This is very much a traditional English fruitcake (also used for wedding cake there), not the super sweet sticky mess often sold on this side of the pond. I have several other recipes too, but this is the traditional one.

 

[davent]

Baked my 'Free Range Fruitcake' on Friday but started it in July drying sour cherries and apricots. Two weeks of brandy spritzing and it should be ready to sample.

dave

 

[TexLaw]

Those look and sound great!

 

[psfred]

Got the white fruitcake in the oven tonight, the one even people who claim to dislike fruitcake will eat. Probably over-did it this year (again) -- cookies start next weekend. I've acquired the family job of Christmas baking, although I've cut way back. We just don't eat all that stuff so much anymore....

 

[simon1]

I hate fruitcake.

But the only stuff I've had was the brick like stuff...felt like a brick and tasted like one.

I would re-gift it to someone I didn't like.

I guess my grandma won't mind if I post the basic recipe:

1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups hot applesauce (unsweetended)
2 cups sugar
4 tsp baking soda
1 lb currants
1 lb raisins
1 lb candied peel (Fruitcake mix)
1 cup coarse nut meats
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt (more if you use unsalted butter)
5 cups flour

Optional:
4-8 oz of candied cherries, dates, candied pineapple, any other dried fruit. We use cherries,dates, and candied pineapple, up to 1 lb each.

Cream sugar and butter, add spices, baking powder, and salt. Mix in hot applesauce and flour, then mix in the dried fruit and mix well. A large Kitchen Aid works well, otherwise mix the dried fruit in by hand (this batch won't fit in the small KA).

Line baking pans with parchment or waxed paper (else you will never get the cakes out!) and fill about half full to account for expansion, they will overflow if filled too full before the cake sets.

Bake at 250 F with a pan of water in the bottom of the oven until a tester comes out dry, this will take up to six hours. Do NOT bake at higher temps, they will turn to glassy boulders. Do not underbake, they will be very gummy.

Remove from oven when done, invert on a rack, and remove paper. Allow to cool completely, then wrap (or put in ziplock bags) and allow to ripen a few weeks -- the crust is very hard initially and will soften nicely after a few weeks. If you wish, spritz them with brandy occasionally when ripening, but this is not our family tradition -- all dry Methodists.

If the peel or dried fruit are hard, steam a few minutes or dribble some hot water on it and cover tightly and let it sit overnight to soften. I've also soaked the dried fruit with a few ounces of brandy, that works out very well too.

This is very much a traditional English fruitcake (also used for wedding cake there), not the super sweet sticky mess often sold on this side of the pond. I have several other recipes too, but this is the traditional one.

I may try that. Give it another whirl with the homemade kind.

 

[psfred]

Definitely not brick-like. Better with whipped cream or butter spread cold (but then, what isn't?).

 

[mikelz777]

People actually eat fruit cake on purpose?! I always thought they were one of those things that were gifted and then people kept them for days or weeks out of guilt knowing that soon as they saw it they were going to throw it away. Lol!

 

[psfred]

Fruitcake is a fine family tradition with us -- but not everyone agrees. You have to like candied citrus peel for starters, and those flinty monstrosities people make can in fact be inedible. Ours is nice and moist even without brandy (and most fruit cake recipes specify adding brandy regularly, else they are like concrete.....) and delicious.

I also have a white fruitcake recipe, but the same caveats apply -- if you don't like candied citrus peel, you won't like that one either. Ditto for Stollen, for that matter.

 

[shavefan]

Baked my 'Free Range Fruitcake' on Friday but started it in July drying sour cherries and apricots. Two weeks of brandy spritzing and it should be ready to sample.

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dave

That looks fantastic. Bravo!

 

[Intrigued]

Baked my 'Free Range Fruitcake' on Friday but started it in July drying sour cherries and apricots. Two weeks of brandy spritzing and it should be ready to sample.

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dave

That is a real thing of Beauty, Dave!

 

[davent]

Thanks BT & Connie! My penultimate Christmas tradition, only surpassed by the tree.

Connie are you baking fruitcake this year?
dave

 

[Intrigued]

Connie are you baking fruitcake this year?
dave

Not this year.
The older I get, the less I can get away with calorie-wise.

I have to pick my sweet treats much more mindfully.

When I was younger, I could eat anything I wanted and not gain weight.

I remember when I was growing up, my mom would make/bake so many treats this time of year...
fruitcake, fudge, divinity, cookies, hard candy, church windows, pies....

I ate and loved it all... Now it's more like, pick one (and only one) and you're still going to gain a pound ...even if you do workout 6 days a week...

 

[davent]

Aging is unfair and unkind.

I'd happily pass, skip the Christmas meal savoury courses to offset things and just eat the desserts, a once a year indulgence.
dave

 

[CurtisB81]

I didn’t do this year, either most of the family is going to FL or HI..So I didn’t, I might next year.. I soaked the fruit with whiskey for two days..

 

[davent]

Finally cut in tonight, up 30g from the Brandy spritzing. Recipe hasn't failed me yet.

dave

 

[oc_in_fw]

People actually eat fruit cake on purpose?! I always thought they were one of those things that were gifted and then people kept them for days or weeks out of guilt knowing that soon as they saw it they were going to throw it away. Lol!

Good fruitcake can be good.

 

[davent]

Good fruitcake can be good.

And it's not going to be cheap, you get what you pay for.
dave