Christmas In July Day 30: Nutty As A What?

This post is part of Teagan Geneviene’s Christmas In July blog hop. https://teagansbooks.com/ #Christmastime

#ChristmasInJuly #recipe #fruitcake #writingprompt

Originally posted in December 2010.


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 “Christmas In July Day 30: Nutty As A What?

  1. Anonymous

    July 31, 2024 at 6:53pm

    This sounds almost but not quite like the Australia plum pudding, also steeped in some kind of alcohol, but I believe ours is steamed then steeped. Or something. I’m afraid plum pudding has never been one of my favourites. I guess it’s what you grow up with. Enjoy yours. 🙂

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      August 1, 2024 at 9:01am

      No plums in fruitcake, and baking would give a different texture than steaming. But fruitcake costs too much to experiment with and then end up not liking it. If you’re ever in my neck of the woods, give me a month’s notice and I’ll make fruitcake for you to try. 🙂

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  2. Teagan Riordain Geneviene

    July 30, 2024 at 1:48pm

    Great looking recipe, Marian. I’ve never tried to make a fruitcake. Now that I think about it, I’ve never sampled a real one. (The cheap packaged one doesn’t count. Ick.) Thanks for keeping Christmas in July going. My Internet has been awful since the “global outage” and I haven’t been able to get to blogs much. Won’t load on the computer… All my devices are the same. Same old story, different excuse from the companies. Hugs.

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 30, 2024 at 2:14pm

      My #1 Daughter and my late husband likes(d) fruitcake with more cake, but I like just barely enough cake to hold the fruit and nuts together and to soak up the bourbon. I think you’re traditionally supposed to soak it in rum or sherry, but I come from Kentucky.

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