Several Fruitcakes & Tips
Source of Recipe
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***Cherry-Walnut Fruitcake
2 cups dried cherries
2 cups chopped, pitted dates
1 cup cream sherry
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 egg
2 egg whites
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Lightly spray or wipe four 3 x 6 x 2" loaf pans with vegetable oil. In a large bowl, combine the cherries dates, and 1/2 cup of sherry; set aside for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a separate large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the nuts. Add the egg and egg whites, and mix well. Stir the flour mixture into the fruit mixture. Place 1 cup of batter into each loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately pour the remaining sherry over the loaves. Keep in a tin, well wrapped with plastic wrap, for up to 2 weeks.
***Tiny Christmas Fruitcakes
from the kitchen of Dora Grimm
1/4 pound candied cherries (quartered)
3 candied pineapple slices, chopped
2-1/4 cups chopped nuts
1/2 cup flour
1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
Grand Marnier for soaking baked cakes
Grease tiny muffin tins very well. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place pan of boiling water in oven (bottom rack) when baking. Chop candied fruits and toss with the flour. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from tins when done and put on a rack to cool. Spoon Grand Marnier over each fruitcake (repeat each day for three days). Store in an airtight container. Makes 3 dozen.
***ORANGE SLICE FRUIT CAKE
This cake has a light colored batter, so the cake is not as dark as most fruitcakes. I sometimes reduce the sugar content by reducing the amount of orange slice candy and the sugar in the mixture I pour over the cake. * I have also made this same recipe and added chopped figs, white or red raisins, extra nuts, candied pineapple & cherries to the flour mixture while cutting back on the orange slice candy pieces. Adding this extra stuff all worked out with the main recipe and made it a richer, prettier and more
nutty-fruity cake. I NEVER add citron. I have always thought that is what ruins store bought fruitcakes. This cake is good kept frozen. I just slice it frozen and have it with a cup of coffee or milk. (If you add all these extra ingredients, it usually makes 2 cakes.) Bakes at 250° for 2 1/2 hours. (Baking time may increase if you add all the other ingredients I mention.)
1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
pinch of salt
1 tsp. Soda
4 cups flour
2 cups chopped pecans (or more)
1 lb. Dates (cut up)
1 lb. Flaked Coconut
1 lb. Orange Candy slices (or less, cut in small pieces)
Melt butter, cool it an cream with sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add 1 cup of your buttermilk - then to remaining buttermilk, add the soda, stir and add to egg mixture. Mix, nuts, dates, orange slice candy (all items cut up) and coconut with the flour, then add to egg mixture. Blend well and pour into a large tube pan and bake at 250°F for 2 1/2 hours or until done. While cake is
still hot, pour a mixture of 1 cup orange juice & 1 cup (or less) sugar over cake (mix juice & sugar while
cake bakes).
***Fruitcake Haters Fruitcake
3 cups chopped pecans
l lb pitted dates, coarsely chopped
l cup halved maraschino cherries
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
l/2 t baking powder
l/2 t salt
3 eggs
l t vanilla
In a mixing bowl, combine nuts, dates and cherries. In another bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; add to nut mixture, stirring until nuts and fruit are well coated. Beat eggs until foamy. Stir in vanilla; fold into nut mixture. Mix well. Pour into a greased and waxed paper lined 9x5x3 loaf pan. Bake at 300° for l hour and 45 minutes. Cool l0 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack.
***Festive Fruitcake
2 eggs
2 cups water
1/4 cup oil
2 pkg. Pillsbury Date or Nut Quick Bread MIx
2 cups pecans (halves or chopped)
2 cups raisins
2 cups (12 to 1 oz.) candied cherries
1 cup cut-up candied pineapple
Corn syrup, if desired.
Heat oven to 350º. Grease and flour bottom and sides of 12-cup Bundt pan or 10-inch tube pan. Combine eggs, water and oil in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients except corn syrup stir by hand until combined. Pour into greased pan. Bake at 350º for 75-85 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center come out clean. Cool in pan 30 minutes; loosen edges and remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap or foil and store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks or freeze up to 3 months. Glaze with corn syrup before serving. Decorate with additional candied fruits and nuts, if desired. 24 to 36 servings.
Tips:
Recipe can be baked in the following pans:
Two (8x4 or9x5-inch) loaf pans: Grease and flour bottom and sides pans. Bake 65-75 minutes. 2 loaves.
Fruitcake Fundamentals:
It's time to begin thinking about Christmas food gifts. Pre-packaged fruitcakes have made many of us fruitcake-haters, but a rich homemade version can be a welcome and delicious gift! This week enjoy six recipes for fruitcake, some baking and storage hints, and links to several more cakes on the Web.
The South, with it's great love for baking cakes, has offered many fruitcakes through the years. In Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife (1824), there is a recipe for "A Rich Fruit Cake" with a pound cake batter and 9 pounds of assorted raisins, currants, almonds, and citron. Mrs. Hill's New Cookbook (1872) gives recipes for five, including a "Cheap Fruitcake", "Confederate Fruit Cake", and "Black Cake."
Generally, fruitcake is a mixture of fruits and nuts with just enough batter to hold them together. When wrapped in cloth and foil, saturated with alcoholic liquors regularly, and kept in tightly closed tins, a fruitcake may be kept for months or even years.
Have It Your Way...
If there are certain fruits you don't like, you can always include more of another, or some of your own favorites. Dried fruits cooked in juice can take the place of candied fruits, and seeds can replace nuts. To convert a favorite "dark" fruitcake recipe to a "light" fruitcake, leave out the dark spices, use light colored fruits (golden raisins, dried apricots, etc.), and replace dark corn syrup or molasses with light corn syrup.
Fruitcake Tips:
To prevent over-browning, line the bottom and sides of the pan with foil. If you leave extra foil overlapping the sides, it will be easier to remove the cake.
When baking, set the fruitcake pan in a baking pan (13x9-inch) half-filled with water to prevent burning around the edges.
Let fruitcake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
For long-term storage, bury the linen and foil wrapped fruitcake in a tin filled with powdered sugar.
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