Fruit cake?????
 

Fruit cake?????
Anyone ever make the darn things?
My mom did and they were killer.
I have no idea how she did it but this year I am going to try for the first time ever.

Any advice will be appreciated I cant afford to buy one from the place I used to get them.
I love fruit cake big time.
My motto there is no such thing as a bad fruit cake some are just better.:D

Worth

they take a long time. let them sit for months for the best flavor according to my mom.

[QUOTE=clkeiper;717664]they take a long time. let them sit for months for the best flavor according to my mom.[/QUOTE]

Goldie where I used to work in Alaska made them for me months in advance.
But she left one time and never came back.
She passed away, cancer.:(
God speed Goldie.:)

Worth

Aww, that's sad.

I get annoyed when people aren't willing to share a recipe... Because it is a secret family recipe.... And if they pass away no one then has it... had you known she was sick and If you had asked her she may have shared it but you never know.. might have been a secret...I wouldn't have my mom's to share if she hadn't put it in the school cookbook. Cuz I am never eating it or even making it...

I used to make fruit cakes and panettone every year for Rob, he loved both a lot. Didn't care for those leaden heavy fruit cakes much, but liked mine, LOL.

I went and dug out the old cookbooks to take pics of the recipes. I'm sure these are some of the originals considering the date of the books. It's a good starting point!

Fruitcake - you have my interest. It's my favorite.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;717695]Fruitcake - you have my interest. It's my favorite.[/QUOTE]

Me too and every country seems to have one. :yes:

Worth, if you have an Aldi close by check their dried fruit selection. I have used their their dried cherry/blueberry and cranberry mix and it was very nice which I have no idea if you can use dried but they aren't dry... if that makes sense. I have never seen candied there though... so I went looking no, you can't substitute dry for candied.
[url]https://www.cooksinfo.com/candied-fruit[/url] ... here is the page.....

You are here: Home / Fruit / Candied Fruit
Candied Fruit
There is a distinction between candied fruit, crystallized fruit (aka frosted fruit), and glazed fruit (aka glacé fruit)Candied fruit is fruit that has been candied. Crystallized fruit is fruit frosted with caster sugar. Glazed fruit is fruit that has been coated or shipped in a sugar syrup.
The term “candied fruit” is often used casually as a catch-all for all three.

The great candied fruits are figs, mandarin oranges, melons, pears, plums and pineapple. The French call these candied fruits the “fruits nobles”. The bulk of the industry, however, is candied cherries.

In making candied fruit, it is better to use fruit that is just ripe. Dried fruit can also be used. Starting from dried fruit takes 2/3 less time, but it does need to be rehydrated first. The candying process can take 6 to 14 days, or even several months. You put whole small fruits, or chopped larger fruits, into a sugar syrup, and gradually day by day increase the strength of the sugar syrup. The sugar syrup pulls the water out of the cells in the fruit, because sugar attracts water, and the water that leaves the cells gets replaced by the sugar. The process must be gradual or the fruit will shrivel and toughen.


Limes cannot be candied successfully at home; an enzyme in their rind will darken them and break them down. Commercially, though, it can be done, and both candied lime slices and candied lime peel (or zest) are available.

Candied fruit is sold in tubs and sealed boxes, mixed or as separate fruits.

Cooking Tips
When dicing candied fruit, scissors can be used for a change of pace. Or the fruit can also simply be purchased already diced.

Should you have fruit frosted in sugar (crystallized fruit) that you want to use in a recipe that calls for plain candied fruit, you could rinse the sugar off. It seems like a bite of a waste, however, and it may be better just to purchase plain candied fruit.

Substitutes
Other Candied Fruit. Not dried fruit. If you want or need to use dried fruit, look for a fruitcake recipe which calls for it. The recipe will likely have additional liquids or steps in it to compensate for the fruit being dried. Do not substitute maraschino cherries for candied cherries.

Literature & Lore
“Candied, Crystallized and Glacé Fruits. All three types of preserved fruits are based on the same basic method of preparation and the difference is in the finish. Candied fruits are dry and they are often given a crystalized or glacé finish. A crystallized finish is achieved by rolling the fruit in sugar and a glacé finish is produced by coating the preserved fruit in a fresh syrup which is then carefully dried……

The fruit is covered with a diluted hot syrup, which is gradually increased in sugar content on a daily basis until it becomes a heavy syrup. In this way, the fruit is slowly impregnated with sugar which acts as a preservative. It is recommended that glucose or dextrose is used in place of part of the sugar, particularly when preparing candied peel.



It is essential that the process of slowly increasing the concentration of sugar in the syrup is followed as this allows the water which is present in the fruit to diffuse out slowly as the sugar penetrates it. Unless the process is gradual the fruit will become shrivelled in appearance and tough in texture.”1

Language Notes
Candied fruit is occasionally also referred to as semi-dried, or semi-moist fruit.

Jones, Bridget, Ed. Home Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables. London: AFRC Institute of Food Research. 1989. 14th edition, revised. Page 130. ↩

Primary Sidebar

OTHER NAMES
AKA: Crystallized Fruit, Frosted Fruit, Fruit Cake Mix, Glacé Fruit, Glazed Fruit
Italian: Frutta candita
French: Fruits confits, Fruits nobles
German: Kandierte Früchte
Dutch: Gekonfijte vruchten
Spanish: Fruta confitada
Portuguese: Frutas em açucar


RANDOM QUOTE
‘When you flip anything, you really to you just have to have the courage of your convictions.’ — Julia Child (Source: The French Chef)

Fancy that there is an Aldi 4.5 Miles from where I'm at now.:lol:
Worth

To each his own. I've always considered them doorstops. I would taste a small piece from time to time to see if improvements had been made, but, alas, my taste buds wouldn't find any improvements.

So, one day someone asked if I liked something called "Friendship" cake or "30 Day" cake. I don't like most things cake, but I tried it this time and "WOW". It was not hard as a brick and it tasted like it was fermented.

So, we got the recipe and made some and now we have it every fall and winter. I don't mean to hijack the thread, so if anyone is interested, I'll post the recipe.

I just can't get into the brick hard molasses dominated doorstops for sale all over the holidays seasons.

Worth, depending on the kind of fruitcake you're interested in I'd be happy to share my grandma's icebox fruitcake recipe with you. There's no baking involved. She's the best woman I've known. She couldn't cook much but the icebox fruitcake and her coconut cake recipes are awesome!

Love fruitcake. Especially my mothers, and luckily, she is still with us. She was just telling me yesterday she is shopping for the ingredients. She also likes Aldi's. For me the best part of hers is the dried apricots she puts in it, and the nuts. The tartness of the dried apricots, and the nuts break up the sweetness of the rest of the candied fruit. It is a dense cake because it is mostly fruit and nuts. But a slice with a cup of tea or coffee is amazing.

You all that replied go ahead and post recipes as you please but I have no promise of making every one of them.:lol:
Sorry but I am feeling a little down in the dumps and battered right now.

Worth

Didn't make it to Aldi it would have been 10 miles out of my way and I wanted to get out of the sea of rush hour humanity and back to my country solitude as fast as I could.
Almost fell asleep driving home as it was.
HEB Plus has lots of dried fruit of all kinds anyway.:lol:

Worth