Nutty As A What?

I made fruitcake yesterday. Awright, awright, pipe down, nobody’s going to make you eat any of it. In fact, good luck wrestling any away from us. We all love fruitcake in my family, and I don’t want to hear any cracks about “You are what you eat,” either.

Here’s my recipe, in case you care, adapted from one I got from a fellow Recitopian in World Wide Recipes:

FRUITCAKE BITES (again, no wisecracks)
makes several dozens

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 cup orange juice with bits in
  • 2 Tbs bourbon (at least)
  • 3 cups pecan and walnut pieces
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups fruit cake mix, blond raisins (sultanas), chopped dates, other candied fruit

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (better than foil). Measure everything out, nuts in one bowl, fruit mix in another bowl. Stir the bourbon into the fruit mix while you do everything else.

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Add the flour, cinnamon and baking soda and mix well. Add the orange juice, bourbon-and-fruit, nuts. With you hands–Wait, go wash them first. Go on, I’ll wait. Let me see them–Okay, with your hands, mix all together. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how big you made the blops.

When they’re done, let them cool on the pan for 10 minutes but, while they’re cooling, sprinkle them with bourbon.

Line an airtight container with paper towels. Sprinkle them liberally with bourbon. Put the cooled cookies into the container. Place more paper towels over them and … Do what, children? … That’s right, douse with bourbon. Cover with cling wrap and put the cover on.

Put that in the fridge and don’t open it for a week. Then check to see if the towels are still damp. If dry, add more bourbon. Cover again and don’t open until the week of Christmas.

This is why I made these so early in the month: they need to steep and age.

WRITING PROMPT: What–or whom–does your main character like which or whom nobody else does?

MA

About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “Nutty As A What?

  1. Carol Preflatish

    December 5, 2010 at 6:45pm

    I like fruitcake, just not a lot of it. I saw a recipe in a Taste of Home magazine yesterday that was for something close to a fruitcake, but much easier.

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      December 5, 2010 at 6:51pm

      This recipe of mine is SUPER easy, and takes next to no time to make. No, one can’t eat a lot of fruitcake at a time, because it’s so rich and sweet. But one can lay with it until it’s gone, a bit at a time. ::grin::

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply
  2. Enid Wilson

    December 6, 2010 at 2:22am

    I had a baking disaster over the weekend. Tried to bake some savoury biscuits but they were too salty. Have to throw them away. Big sigh.

    Fire and Cross

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      December 6, 2010 at 9:43am

      Oh, Enid, how sad! I hate to have to throw anything away, but sometimes you have to. 🙁 If it should happen again, maybe you could soak them in water and mush them up and use the slurry to thicken a soup, adding salt and body to it.

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply

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