Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Ooops! I Forgot About the Dates

... but I haven't made this thing since before my mom passed away. It is good, tho. More like a 'confection' than a 'cake'. I don't have a nice, pretty picture of it, like you have for yours, Jeannie, but I hope that won't stop you from trying it.

Brazil-Nut Sensation Fruitcake
Begin several weeks ahead
Makes one 3 pound fruitcake

3 cups Brazil nuts
2 cups whole pitted dates
1 cup maraschino cherries, well drained
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 9"x5" loaf pan; line with foil. In large bowl, stir nuts, dates and cherries. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; nix to coat nuts and fruits.
2. In small bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat eggs and vanilla until foamy; stir into nut mixture; mix well. Pour into pan; level top.
3. Bake 2 1/2 hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes. Turn out cake; peel off foil; allow to cool completely on wire rack. Wrap well; refrigerate.
4. Enjoy!

That's about it. It's not hard to make. I always made mine about 2 weeks before I gave them to my step-dad. I always made him two at a time and they would be gone within the week after he got them. The recipe says "begin several weeks ahead". I don't know what their idea of several weeks is, but mine never lasted longer than 3 weeks. I suppose it gets more dense the longer you keep it, I don't know. Perhaps the cherries and dates ferment? Maybe the sugar turns into alcohol? Who knows???

This is a recipe from that wonderful, old book: "The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook". What a wonderful gift for the new cook. My mom gave me my copy for Christmas in 1985 (the first in my now huge collection of cookbooks). It still gets frequent use. They still publish a new edition every so often. I've seen them in book stores. Some of the recipes are still the same as what's in my edition. I should get a new one for myself and retire my old one. The poor thing is falling apart.

Anyway, hope you like it, Jeannie. Since your fruitcake recipe made me think of this, I may have to make one for my family, too.

Take care.


1 comment:

Jeannie said...

I just printed out your recipe. Thanks so much for sharing. It'll be a great addition to our New Years meal.