It's not that cutting it makes it less fattening, it's that the Bourbon makes it so you really don't care that it is!
Favourite Christmas foods
- Thread starter Rusty Blade
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Christmas cake, but a light one made to my grandmother's recipe, with crystalized pinapple, flaked almonds, cherries, candied peel and angelica.
On a completely different note, I've been enjoying some crisps (potato chips in US terms) made in Poland. They're like what I remember crisps being in the UK 40 years ago, really thin cut and crunchy.
On a completely different note, I've been enjoying some crisps (potato chips in US terms) made in Poland. They're like what I remember crisps being in the UK 40 years ago, really thin cut and crunchy.
Never having this before marrying the LOTH, close to 40 years ago, this is our favorite!
Wow! I haven't had these in years! They are divine!
Collin Street Bakery, in Corsicana TX, is the best fruitcake I have ever had. They ship too!Fruitcake, but I'm picky. Don't get me started; I will lecture.
Brioche. Maybe this year I'll make a pannetone. Turkey a hundred ways. Haggis. Mince pie. Hell, pie.
Mrs. Hippie lately found a nog recipe she can drink. I like it, too, but think it needs some brandy (which she can't have so oh well).
O.H.
My mom made a fantastic pound cake for holidays and special occasions. She passed some years ago, but others in the family circle still use that recipe. Divinity was another thing my mom liked to make for the holidays. Thanks for the memories!
That's funny to me. I've had it and thought it was good. What's funny is how I ended up with one.
Every Christmas I used to run a "Fruitcake Adoption Service" at work. I'd post flyers offering to take on any unwanted fruitcakes whether homebuilt or commercial. If people were a little guilty about fobbing off Granny's baking, I'd also provide them with a set of "fruitcake sensory keywords" so they could thank the old girl as if they'd actually eaten the thing.
It was all basically a joke but I always got a pretty decent haul. Safeway fruitcakes absolutely blow; I'll just get that off my chest. Many people make some very good ones, and I always made note of interesting ingredients. I had a number of fair-to-excellent commercial products. One of my coworkers had a wife who was a teacher, and she was from Texas. So she got a Collins cake one year and immediately handed it to Jack to bring to me.
I informed her that any time she got one of those I'd happily take it off her hands.
Some years later I instituted the "Friends of Fruitcake" mailing list, and every year I'd bake up a monster load of fruitcake from my extensive recipe collection and mail everyone a 500g loaf. When it got to the point that I was dropping a couple hundred dollars on ingredients and another three hundred on mailing, I decided that while I like my friends I need to think about my future.
O.H.
These are becoming a holiday tradition.
I hope my son-in-law’s aged egg nog becomes a tradition as well!!
New Year’s Eve 2021 and this Christmas Eve I made bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod fritters). This year’s version was better than last as I soaked the cod longer and used the best pound of 2 pounds of salt cod. I expect to make them again next Christmas Eve.
I hope my son-in-law’s aged egg nog becomes a tradition as well!!
New Year’s Eve 2021 and this Christmas Eve I made bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod fritters). This year’s version was better than last as I soaked the cod longer and used the best pound of 2 pounds of salt cod. I expect to make them again next Christmas Eve.
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I would love to try a real fruitcake, but don't know where to look or what to trust. Any reputable companies you can recommend, O.H.?Fruitcake, but I'm picky. Don't get me started; I will lecture.
Brioche. Maybe this year I'll make a pannetone. Turkey a hundred ways. Haggis. Mince pie. Hell, pie.
Mrs. Hippie lately found a nog recipe she can drink. I like it, too, but think it needs some brandy (which she can't have so oh well).
O.H.
(edit) I read the whole thread, and Collins will be the first I rry!
Rusty:
Although, the Mrs. and I haven't made any in years, we do like our Fruitcake 'soaked' in brandy (for at least 2wks)!
"A [x-mas] party without [fruit] cake is just a meeting". Chef Julia Child
Although, the Mrs. and I haven't made any in years, we do like our Fruitcake 'soaked' in brandy (for at least 2wks)!
Because they're from Texas they use a lot of pecans. I like that, but just be aware.
The crappy weather that's afflicting most of North America is keeping me from braving the roads to head into town just now. Right after Christmas there are often clearance sales on fruitcakes in the stores. Check around; I tend to visit the "better" groceries with actual in-store bakeries, small bake shops and even natural-food stores (which often have the best cakes).
Perversely, if they ordered them in you'll have a better chance of finding some on sale than if they made them as they needed them.
I thought yesterday I should be a little cranky about the weather, but not really. I can make fruitcake. I quit counting once my recipe file got around 200 fruitcake recipes. I just need to crank up the gumption to dive into that project.
O.H.
Danish shortbread cookies, Pfeffernüsse, tamales, and pizelles
Spotted dick?
The other day at work I called pecans the trailer park of nuts. I think I be Texas Rangers now have a warrant out on my butt.
Indeed all over the world!
I don't know why, because it started long before I was born, but the same fruitcake has always been a tradition in our house. In order to get one here in the UK an order form had to be sent via post to Texas in August*. And you can always tell the true start of the festive season around the second week of December when my mother or grandmother would start wandering about the place muttering to themselves...
"I wonder when the Texas Fruitcake will arrive, I do hope it gets here in time..."
It always does. Though there was considerable panic one year on Christmas Eve, before we discovered it had been delivered to a neighbour the previous week.
* I imagine international orders might be a little more high tech nowadays.
No. Pannetone
Yes, Collins Street bakery makes wonderful fruitcakes. Rich and filling, but really good. Think you will be impressed. There is a mail order bakery in Merriam, Kansas that makes dandy fruitcakes also. Several flavors too. It would be easy to find inferior cakes from other bakers.
Love those fruitcakes!
Surprising what a good dose of booze does to wake up a lacklustre fruitcake -- either applied to the cake or taken internally, or both.
There's fruitcake made at a number of abbeys here and there. I have had the product of the Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, for instance.
Stores around here always have ingredients, because people around here can eat fruitcake any time. Call it "Groom's Cake" and you'll find it on the platters at a tony wedding in August. I'll bake up a few kinds shortly, once all this ice either gets off the road or it gets cold enough I can get traction on the ice. My birthday is in August, and for decades a nice slice of fruitcake has been my way of celebrating another successful trip around the Sun.
My mother once "lost" a lard can full of fruitcakes in the back of the top shelf in her pantry. When it was discovered, we opened it and she realized the cakes dated from 1955. This was in about 1979.
A dribble of brandy and sitting a week or two, and that was some tasty cake. Well-aged; elderly, in fact. No plans to repeat the experiment but it was fun.O.H.
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- #60
If you can find a reasonably good commercial or artisan fruitcake, wrap it in cheesecloth give it a healthy dose of rum or brandy (and dont use the cheap stuff) then wrap that in plastic wrap and let it sit in a cool place (not the fridge or it will taste like leftovers) for a few weeks before you cut it. You can repeat the splash of rum or brandy every week.
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