Recipes from Cooking with Doyle Moore on Focus 580
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Cooking on Focus 580: Recipes for December 2008
December 3, 2008: Fruitcake
David is a booster of fruitcake. It’s possible to make a fruitcake that is really good, and it’s particularly appropriate at this time of year.
Why has fruitcake gotten the reputation that so many people don’t care for it? People make jokes about it being a good doorstop, and so on; but obviously they never ate it, or had it as part of the gentility of the season. The cake is very old; originally cakes made by Egyptians and Romans were simply a lot of dried fruit with something to hold it together. Maybe what people are reacting to the idea that you have to let it sit and ripen. But this white fruitcake is good right out of the oven, if you don’t want to season it with the brandy or bourbon. If you do wrap the cake, you don’t have to put it in the refrigerator or freezer; it will keep at room temperature because of the alcohol: whisky, sherry, red wine will do as well as brandy or bourbon.
BEST WHITE FRUITCAKE ON EARTH
Doyle got to thinking about fruitcake because of Truman Capote’s story, A Christmas Memory, where a fruitcake made by Buddy and Cousin Sook has an important role in the story. He set about to make one with a similar recipe. He found four recipes that were almost identical, all from the southern part of the U.S. You don’t seem to find these recipes very far north. This recipe is also a favorite of Eudora Welty’s; the quantities are sometimes a little different depending on whether you make a larger cake or a smaller one, but the proportions are the same.
Strangely enough, this fruitcake doesn’t have any spices in it, so it lacks that heavy fruitcake “zing.” Also, Eudora Welty doesn’t like red cherries in her cake, and this cake uses only green cherries. It’s also very fast and simple to make, you can make it with a spoon without a mixer.
Mrs. Harvey Tampa Tribune 1950
“Best White Fruit Cake on Earth”
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½ pound butter creamed together with 1 cup sugar
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5 large eggs, beat in one at a time
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1¾ cups flour (coat fruit with a bit of this)
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½ tsp. baking powder
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¾ pound glacéed cherries, diced
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1 pound glacéed pineapple, diced
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4 cups chopped pecans
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½ oz. each of vanilla and lemon extract
Bake at 250º for 3 hours in a tube pan, less for a smaller pan.
A caller reports that he has a lot of holiday memories about fruitcake. His mother would bake the fruitcake in early December; then take several layers of cheesecloth or a clean towel and soak it in some sort of inebriant (sangria or red wine) and delicately lay it on top of the fruitcake as it weathered in the extra fridge out on the porch. So the wine gently seeped into the first half inch of the cake.
Lots of people have these memories. There is a ritual to a fruitcake, where you make it at one point, but you can’t have it then, you have to wait, and baste it, and so on. And it gets better and better as it ripens and soaks in whatever you put on it, and then the time comes when it’s ready.
Part of the enjoyment is the anticipation of when it will be ready. You don’t eat large quantities of it. You might eat it often, perhaps every day, say in the afternoon with a cup of tea; so the cake is going to lie around for a long time.
FREE RANGE FRUITCAKE
This is a recipe from Alton Brown of the TV Food Network that David likes.
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1 cup golden raisins
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1 cup currants
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½ cup sun dried cranberries
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½ cup sun dried blueberries
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½ cup sun dried cherries
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½ cup dried apricots, chopped
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zest of one lemon, chopped coarsely
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zest of one orange, chopped coarsely
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¼ cup candied ginger, chopped
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1 cup gold rum
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1 cup sugar
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5 ounces unsalted butter (1¼ sticks)
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1 cup unfiltered apple juice
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4 whole cloves, ground
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6 allspice berries, ground
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1 tsp. ground cinnamon
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1 tsp. ground ginger
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1¾ cups all purpose flour
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1½ tsp. salt
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1 tsp. baking soda
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1 tsp. baking powder
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2 eggs
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¼ to ½ cup toasted pecans, broken
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brandy for basting and/or spritzing
Combine dried fruits, candied ginger, and both zests. Add rum and macerate overnight, or microwave for 5 minutes to rehydrate fruit.
Place fruit and liquid in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, butter, apple juice and spices. Bring mixture to a boil stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for at least 15 minutes. (Batter can be completed up to this point, then covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before completing cake.)
Heat oven to 325º.
Combine dry ingredients and sift into fruit mixture. Quickly bring batter together with a large wooden spoon, then stir in eggs one at a time until completely integrated, then fold in nuts. Spoon into a 19-inch non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, bake another 10 minutes, and check again.
Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack or trivet. Baste or sprit top with brandy and allow to cool completely before turning out from pan.
When cake is completely cooled, seal in a tight sealing, food safe container. Every 2 to 3 days, feel the cake and if dry, spritz with brandy. The cake’s flavor with enhance considerably over the next two weeks. If you decide to give the cake as a gift, be sure to tell the recipient that they are very lucky indeed.
WHITE FRUITCAKE WITH RAISINS
A caller from Urbana’s Mom had a recipe that was her wedding fruitcake in Ireland. She would bake it at Christmas time, not only for Christmas dinner, but also to give to friends as presents. When she and her sister got married, her mother pulled out this recipe and said I have to bake this for your wedding. She didn’t do this every year, but you can put almond paste and royal icing on top, which seals it all in and keeps it fresh. At Christmas time if she was in a rush, she would use a buttercream icing instead. Now the caller has the recipe and bakes it every year at Christmas and gives it to friends and relatives who enjoy the experience; there’s nothing like a piece of fruitcake with a big steaming hot cup of tea.
It’s a white fruitcake, and it uses more raisins and golden raisins than any other type of fruit
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raisins and golden raisins
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mixed peel
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chopped dates
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slivered almonds
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ground almonds
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1 pound butter
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1 dozen eggs
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1 cup sugar
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5 cups flour
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spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger)
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juice of one lemon
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rind of one lemon
Soak the fruit overnight in whisky or rum to plump it up. Also add whisky or rum to the batter.
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add most of the flour and spices and the eggs to make a batter. Coat the fruit with some of the flour (this keeps the fruit from all falling to the bottom). Mix in the fruit and the remaining ingredients. Bake at 300º with a pan of water in the oven (for moist heat) in baby loaf or bundt pans or even cupcake pans 30-40 minutes; up to two hours for larger pans. You can marinate the cakes in alcohol after baking, but she finds that the whisky in the fruit and batter is really enough.
A caller from Sidney reports that her parents had a wedding cake like that with the top layer taken away by them on their honeymoon. Her mother kept a little piece of that cake in the car glove box for years, with the frosting and everything. They carried that fruitcake everywhere!
A caller from Champaign has another fruitcake memory. Her English mother used to make a rich, moist batter fruitcake which, after baking, would live in the walk-in pantry for a few weeks; then she would douse it periodically with something alcoholic, she doesn’t remember what, perhaps sherry. She put a pastry cloth over it while it would sit. It would get a thick layer of marzipan and then royal icing. It would be crunchy and hard on the outside (the icing itself was almost like hard candy), but that kept the cake itself moist. The cake didn’t have any of the “neon” fruit. Doyle says that the English make a “Simnel” cake at this holiday season, which this might be. For information on Simnel cakes, see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simnel_cake
The caller’s grandmother on the other side of the family would send a different kind of cake more like those people make jokes about; it was long and narrow and really sticky and frighteningly sweet with bright-colored fruit.
NO-BAKE GRAHAM CRACKER FRUITCAKE
A caller from Olney many years ago found a fruitcake recipe she liked on a box of dried mince. After reconstituting the mincemeat (“Nonesuch” brand), you added crushed graham crackers and the fruit, and you didn’t have to bake it. She can’t find that recipe any more and gets no response from the company. Has anyone heard of this? You don’t need to bake it because the graham crackers are already baked and the mincemeat will be moist when reconstituted. It almost becomes like a little truffle.
Perhaps she was thinking of the recipe found at the following link: http://www.eaglenonesuch.com/detail.asp?rid=1249
A caller from Bourbonnais’s mother used to make a graham cracker fruitcake. It tasted buttery and melted in your mouth. But she couldn’t find it in her recipes. She doesn’t remember whether this cake was baked or not; Mom only said it was “special for Dad.”
A caller from Georgetown is a recipe collector and found a recipe that has a cup of graham cracker crumbs in it. It includes orange juice, nuts and grated orange rind, but not really any fruit. She has never made it, so she can’t vouch for it; and it’s baked, so it’s not like the recipe the first caller was looking for. It is cooked in a bundt cake or angel food cake pan. It doesn’t really have the fruit of a fruitcake. You pour a glaze of heated brown sugar, butter and milk over it. It’s called Nutty Graham Cake, and the recipe can be found at this link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Nutty-Graham-Cake/Detail.aspx
FRUITCAKE WITHOUT EGGS?
A caller from Urbana is allergic to eggs and to nuts; what kind of fruitcake options are there for a holiday treat? Nuts can easily be avoided, but eggs are going to be difficult: they are very important in this kind of cake because there is no other moisture. Have you tried egg substitutes? Most of those have albumen in them, which he is also allergic to, with the exception of the powdered egg replacer. It works okay for binding meatloaf or something like that, but he’s never tried baking with it. Doyle’s gut feeling is that it has the same properties as a binder needed in baking. Other liquids won’t really work. Perhaps powdered milk would work with egg substitute and a little water. David has found a lot of hits when searching on the internet for “baking without eggs.” Some examples can be found at this following links:
http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_option_fruitcake
http://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/Cooking-For-Profit/681-Good-Fruit-Cake-Without-Eggs.html
http://theyumblog.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/eggless-rich-dark-fruit-cake-for-the-new-year/
A caller from Urbana has been using applesauce and banana as a substitute for eggs in baking for his vegan friends. If he uses store-bought applesauce, he needs to reduce it a bit so it’s thicker, and then increase the leavening by about 2 to 2½ times, to provide a nice moist cake that has the same leavening properties as egg. Also, it will stay moist.
MAKE YOUR OWN PEEL
A caller from Urbana ha a suggestion for people who don’t like mixed peel, and that is to try making your own. His Mom has done that for a while. You can control which citrus is used (kumqats, pomelos, grapefruits if you like those flavors). It’s quite easy to do.
JAMAICAN BLACK CAKE
Doyle has one more recipe which is very rare and exotic, made in a very large cake pan. It’s very rich, dark, and dense, and a little more involved to make.
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1 lb. raisins, minced
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1 lb. prunes, pitted; minced
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1 lb. currants, dried; minced
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1 lb. cherries, glacéed; minced
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6 oz. lemon peel, glacéed; minced
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6 oz. orange peel, glacéed; minced
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¾ liter Passover wine
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¾ liter dark rum
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2 lb. dark brown sugar
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4¼ cups cake flour
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4 tsp. baking powder
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½ tsp. nutmeg, grated
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½ tsp. cinnamon
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2 cups sweet butter, softened
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10 large eggs
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1 Tbsp. vanilla
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1½ cups almond paste, if desired
Icing:
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2 lbs. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
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6 large egg whites at room temperature
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2 Tbsp. lemon juice
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Dragees for decoration
In a large bowl, mix all the fruits thoroughly with the wine and the rum; let the fruit macerate, covered, at room temperature for at least two weeks.
In a heavy skillet combine one pound of the brown sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and gently boil the syrup, swirling the skillet occasionally, for a few minutes, or until it is reduced to 1 ¾ cups. Let the syrup cool; reserve.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together into a bowl. In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream together the remaining brown sugar and the butter until it is fluffy; then beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, the flour mixture, and 1 1/3 cups of the burnst sugar syrup, reserving the remaining syrup for another use. In another large bowl, combine well the flour mixture and the fruit mixture and divide the batter between two buttered and floured 10-inch springform pans. Bake the cakes in the middle of a preheated 350º F oven for two hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out with some crumbs adhering to it. (The centers of these cakes will be quite moist.) Let the cakes cool in the pans on a rack, remove the sides and bottoms of the pans, and wrap the cakes in foil or wax paper. Let the cakes stand at room temperature for a week.
Roll out half the almond paste between sheets of plastic wrap to form a 10-inch round, and remove the top sheet of plastic wrap. Fit the almond paste layer over one cake, trimming the edge if necessary, and remove the other sheet of plastic wrap. Roll out and fit the remaining almond paste onto the remaining cake in the same manner.
Icing: Using an electric mixer, beat 4 cups of the confectioners’ sugar with the egg whites and lemon juice until the mixture will hold a soft peak. Beat in the remaining sugar, and beat the icing until it will hold a stiff peak. Transfer two cups of the icing to a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip, spread the remaining icing on the tops and sides of the cakes with a long metal spatual, and pipe the icing in the pastry bag decoratively onto the cakes. Arrange the dragees on the cakes.
Makes two cakes.
STOLLEN
A caller from Champaign lived in Germany in the 70s and learned how to make crisp stollen. She can’t find the recipe. It’s kind of like a white fruitcake. They made it right on the table, not in a bowl. It makes at least two big loaves: you shape it into an oval loaf that you press down a bit, and bake it on a cookie sheet. The only liquid is the eggs and some suet. It uses cardamom as one of the spices; raisins and currants and candied fruit. Several recipes can be found at this link: http://www.garvick.com/recipesmm/stollen_recipes.htm
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