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Tired of Fruit Cake? Try an Update— I fall somewhere in the middle of the fruitcake
fondness spectrum. I don’t bake fruit cake and haven’t
for decades because there are just too many other favorites my
family prefers. And the dense, dry loaves full of artificially-colored,
candied fruit produced by many modern commercial bakeries are
at the bottom of my list for sampling from holiday buffets. (In
fact, the stale, poor-quality bought fruit cakes are partly what
have given this classic its bad name.) But a slice of honest,
homemade fruit cake plumped with fresh nuts and brandy- or rum- Still, I think a better tact is to take
the original fruit cake concept—using nature’s bounty
to create special sweets for holiday gift-giving or serving—and
create a treat more appealing to modern tastes. With that in mind,
I devised this festive, naturally colorful fruit- and nut-studded
quick bread. It’s lighter, tastes fresher and is more subtly-flavored
than many typical molasses-based fruit cakes, yet is still in
the spirit of the classic ones. In place of the molasses and spice,
I use honey, almond extract, and orange juice, which bring out
rather than overpower the zingy apricot and cherry flavors. I
finish the bread attractively and with just a touch of sweetness
by drizzling over the simple lemon-powdered sugar glaze. The loaf
is always enthusiastically received, whether served or given as
a gift. In fairness to authentic heritage fruit
cakes, I should mention that they were not universally dark and
pungent with molasses, nor were they all leaden. Some of the very
early American recipes were actually rather airy raisin- or currant-studded
yeast breads, and later versions often relied on well-beaten eggs
and butter for leavening the batter. By the nineteenth century, chemical leavenings
such as baking soda and baking powder likewise occasionally aerated
our fruit cakes, and some were even vaguely reminiscent of the
fruit quick bread presented here. While some receipts were heavy
on molasses—they were often called black fruit cake or just
“Black Cake” to suggest the dark hue—other versions
were light in color and more gently flavored with rose water,
wine, brandy, almond, or orange. On occasion, the fanciest of
the latter type appeared under the name “Wedding Cake.”
Both the black and the light fruit cakes were sometimes topped
with royal icing or powdered sugar glaze. The garish red candied cherries that are
the hallmark of today’s bakery fruit cakes are nowhere to
be found in the old receipts. (Red dye number 2 hadn’t been
invented yet!) Ingredient lists routinely include large quantities
of washed and pick-over currants and seeded and chopped raisins,
but the only candied fruit I’ve seen mentioned is citron,
a pale yellow, candied puckery citrus rind product that cooks
were usually advised to cut up “thinly but not too fine.”
Another surprise is the lack of nuts in fruit cake recipes; only
a few eighteenth and nineteenth century recipes called for them,
though they are nearly always added today. Apricot-Cherry Holiday Fruit Bread
(Printable) Tip: I prefer dried sweetened cherries
in this recipe, but cranberries will work fine if that’s
what you have on hand. I also like almond extract, but in a pinch
lemon extract can be substituted with good results. 3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried apricots Place a rack in the middle third of the
oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Generously coat a 8- by 4-inch
(or similar large) loaf pan with nonstick spray. In a large saucepan combine the apricots
and orange juice mixture over medium heat. Bring to simmer and
cook, stirring for 3 minutes. Stir in the cherries, oil, honey
and sugar until well blended; set aside until cool. In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together
the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Vigorously stir
the yogurt, then the egg and extract into the apricot mixture
until very well blended. Gently stir the apricot mixture and the
nuts (if using) into the flour mixture just until thoroughly incorporated
but not over-mixed; excess mixing can cause toughening. Immediately
turn out the batter into the pan, spreading evenly to the edges.
Bake on the middle oven rack for 35 to
45 minutes or until well browned and a toothpick inserted in a
center comes out clean. It’s normal for the top to crack.
Let the pan stand on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a table knife
around the pan and under the loaf edge to loosen it. Then remove
from the pan and place on a rack set over a sheet of wax paper. For the glaze: Stir together the powdered
sugar and lemon juice-water mixture until blended and smooth.
The glaze should be fluid enough to drizzle, but not so thin it
will all runs off the bread, so adjust the consistency with a
little more powdered sugar or water if necessary. Drizzle the
glaze over the cooled loaf top, allowing it drip attractively
down the sides. Any glaze that drips onto the paper can be scraped
from the paper and reapplied to the top again, if desired. Let the glaze firm and the loaf cool completely
before wrapping airtight. It keeps airtight at room temperature
a day or so and can be frozen up to a month for longer storage.
Makes one medium-sized loaf, 14 or 15 slices. |
Good Things Happen When She's in the Kitchen!
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American
Heritage Baking—Let’s Bake and Learn
Die-hard
fans and defenders of the old-fashioned fruit cake can rightly
brag that it has been a beloved holiday menu item for at least
six centuries. The British are given credit for devising the rich,
heavy, fruit-studded recipes we now know as fruit cakes during
the Middle Ages, though the practice of forming simple yet special
goodies from luxury ingredients like dried fruit, nuts, honey,
and spice dates back to ancient times. On the other hand, fruit
cake detractors—and there seem to be many these days—sometimes
unkindly call these heritage sweets door stops and even retort
that they taste like they were made six centuries ago! 
soaked
dried fruits (neither candied nor dyed) does have its charms.
