Blixa wrote:I may make some of this...aged in brandy:
This weekend, I'll start on a variation of this recipe from a dear friend. (She's one of a group of good friends I've never met in real life).
Grandma Laura's Brandy Fruit Cake
1 cup cooking oil 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 4 eggs 3 cups flour 1 1/2 cups candied cherries (sliced in half or diced. Save few whole ones to decorate the top of the cake) 1 1/2 cups candied pineapple 1 cup chopped dates 1 cup currants 3 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (or pecans or both) 1 tsp baking powder 2 tsp salt 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp ground cloves 1 cup (apricot, peach or unflavored) brandy
Heat oven to 275 degrees. Line loaf pans with lightly greased brown paper. Combine oil, sugar, eggs and beat two minutes. In a large bowl combine 1 cup flour with fruit and nuts. Sift rest of flour with baking powder, salt, spices. Stir into oil mixture alternating with brandy. Pour batter over fruit and mix well. Turn into pans. Place pans inside larger shallow baking pan filled with water and place this on the lower rack. Bake cakes 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Cool on wire rack before removing from pans and peeling off paper. Wrap each loaf in a large piece of cheesecloth soaked in brandy. Then wrap in foil. Store in a cool place for three weeks, each week take out and re-wrap with fresh brandy cheesecloth.
Awww.... You will not be sorry.
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
Gingerbread cookies. This is the first year in many years that my wife is not busy at Christmas so we will be baking again. And I need to master the gingerbread cookie. If anyone will share a recipe, I would love it.
H.
"Others cannot endure their own littleness unless they can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level." ~ Ernest Becker "Whether you think of it as heavenly or as earthly, if you love life immortality is no consolation for death." ~ Simone de Beauvoir
zeezrom wrote:Today is banana bread. What are you baking this fine, Christmas season?
Hey Zeezrom what's the crumbly stuff on top and do you put it on right in the beginning or later on. I had about 25 bananas given to me so there is banana bread in my future.
café crema wrote:Hey Zeezrom what's the crumbly stuff on top and do you put it on right in the beginning or later on. I had about 25 bananas given to me so there is banana bread in my future.
chopped walnuts put on at the beginning. The one on the right cooked about 15 minutes longer than the one on the left because it was larger. My usual mistake with banana bread is pulling out too early. I'm always poking with the toothpicks... "Still not done?!"
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)
I made strudel coffee cake for breakfast this morning. The strudel had chopped pecans in it and of course the kids complained. :(
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)
zeezrom wrote:I made strudel coffee cake for breakfast this morning. The strudel had chopped pecans in it and of course the kids complained. :(
I'm lacking that gene, too. The one that allows you to enjoy nuts in cakes and pastries. I like nuts of all kinds, but I don't care for the texture in baked goods.
This, or any other post that I have made or will make in the future, is strictly my own opinion and consequently of little or no value.
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true" Twain.
I love nuts in baking - a walnut buttertart is one of my favourite things. However, I am not fond enough of sweets to bake on a regular basis and would rather devote any baking time to bread.
H.
"Others cannot endure their own littleness unless they can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level." ~ Ernest Becker "Whether you think of it as heavenly or as earthly, if you love life immortality is no consolation for death." ~ Simone de Beauvoir
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
