Dark, rich, chewy as well as moist, this may live the best Christmas fruitcake you've ever had — I tin dismiss tell it's yesteryear far as well as away the tastiest I've ever eaten. I've never been really enthusiastic close the store-bought fruitcakes that are e'er passed roughly at Christmas — loaded alongside sickly sweetness as well as artificially-preserved pasty fruit bits, as well as unremarkably dry out yesteryear the fourth dimension they're cut, they seem to neglect on the hope that a rich dried-fruit cake ought to live able to deliver, as well as deserve the fruitcake jokes that larn passed roughly alongside the same frequency. But I'm e'er willing to overcome my nutrient prejudices — developed inward so many cases inward reply to store-bought versions of diverse recipes — alongside a home-cooked edition using character ingredients along alongside a piddling twist of my own.
And so alongside the classic Christmas fruitcake. Starting alongside a highly rated recipe from Alton Brown of the Food Network, I looked out the window at the mutual coldness greyish tumble skies of southwestern Ontario as well as decided that a Christmas spent on a warm tropical isle would live far preferable than the local rendering — freezing temperatures, snowfall shovels, as well as dirt-smudged urban nitty-gritty snowfall aren't quite what the Irving Berlin measure had inward mind, I think. Using dried tropical fruits as well as nuts instead of the traditional currants, raisins, sultanas, glacé cherries as well as almonds seemed similar simply the twist I was looking for to permit a warm sunny breeze blow through the windows of my mind.
Like adept wines as well as cheeses, ane of the secrets to making your ain non bad fruitcake is to permit it age, tightly sealed as well as kept moist alongside periodic brushings of rum or brandy. If possible, conception to bake your fruitcake at to the lowest degree a span of weeks earlier sharing — but fifty-fifty cooled as well as served the same day, it volition nevertheless live delicious.
The 2d as well as most of import cloak-and-dagger to making your ain non bad fruitcake — as well as what makes this fruitcake such an peculiarly fresh-tasting process — is to utilisation character dried fruits as well as fresh home-cut citrus peels. Many commercial dried fruit products pick out added saccharide as well as preservatives — if saccharide has been added, it in all probability wasn't the best character fruit to laid out with, as well as the saccharide overpowers the natural sweetness as well as flavours of adept fruit, giving it that pasty as well as artificial gustatory modality that ruins most fruitcakes. You tin dismiss honor adept dried fruit without added saccharide or preservatives inward wellness nutrient stores, but this tin dismiss live an expensive option. Bulk nutrient stores often stock unadulterated dried fruit, but live certain to cheque the ingredients. But your best bets for cheap character dried fruit — peculiarly for tropical dried fruit — are often Asian or Chinese grocers. I constitute all sorts of exotic dried fruits — from pineapple, mango, as well as lychee to papaya, mangosteen as well as guava — without added ingredients as well as at really affordable prices at my ain local Chinese grocer.
Of course, you're non express to tropical fruits but solely to your dried fruit desires. The fruitcake requires iv cups of dried fruit, as well as my ain tropical version contained 1 loving cup each of dried pineapple, mango as well as lychee, alongside a 1/2 loving cup of golden raisins as well as a 1/4 loving cup each of dried papaya as well as bananas. But whatsoever assortment as well as ratios according to your ain preferences tin dismiss live used to construct a delicious fruitcake. You tin dismiss construct this recipe a traditional fruitcake yesteryear substituting currants, raisins, sultanas, glacé cherries or dried chopped apricots for the tropical fruits inward whatsoever proportion every bit long every bit yous goal upwardly alongside iv cups of dried fruit. Dried blueberries, cranberries or chopped dried apples tin dismiss also construct adept choices. For a traditional fruitcake, yous tin dismiss also omit the coconut, substitute apple tree juice or cider for the orangish juice, as well as brandy for the rum. See the notes inward the recipe below.
Icing or ornamentation for the fruitcake earlier serving is also optional, but volition construct the fruitcake a first-class visual process every bit good — non to lift adding extra sweetness. H5N1 traditional marzipan, fondant or regal icing topping is e'er appropriate, as well as volition proceed delineate of piece of occupation solid longer if you're expecting the cake to final to a greater extent than than a hateful solar daytime after serving. Otherwise, kokosnoot or banana flavored cream cheese frostings or whipped cream chantillys are first-class for same hateful solar daytime serving. But going alongside the topic of blending traditional as well as tropical, I iced my cake alongside a sparse layer of kneaded as well as rolled marzipan — unremarkably available inward European grocers or delis — as well as scattered a quarter loving cup of toasted shredded kokosnoot on top. Feel gratis to utilisation your imagination.
 Tropical Fruit Christmas Fruitcake | |||
| Recipe yesteryear Lisa Turner Adapted from Alton Brown Published on December 3, 2011 A dark, rich, moist as well as chewy traditional-style Christmas fruitcake alongside a twist provided yesteryear tropical fruits as well as coconut  Print this recipe
Ingredients:
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Other Christmas ideas from Lisa's Kitchen:
Nigella's Christmas Pavlova
Tropical Christmas Steamed Pudding
Rum Balls Sumber http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/