Now, before you start giving me grief about posting a Fruit Cake recipe, let me give you a little background from my Aunt Carrie.

This is Grandma’s recipe.  My senior year of high school, Granddad was sick and out of work all year, so we had no money for Christmas.  Aunt Norvene gave Grandma this recipe and she made many fruit cakes that she sold for a little money.  Several of my high school teachers bought cakes because they knew what a good cook Grandma was.

Our family does not eat fruit cake or like fruit (except for Grandma) but everyone needs a recipe for fruit cake – this is ours.  Seriously, this recipe makes a good fruit cake – if you like it.

I’ve made a few tiny modifications to the recipe, but for the most part it’s the same recipe that helped save Christmas for my father’s family that year.

Ruby Lee’s Candied Fruit Cake

1 pound of pitted dates
1 pound of candied pineapple
1 pound of candied cherries
2 pounds of toasted pecans
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons of Myers’s dark rum, plus extra

First, sift the two cups of flour and two teaspoons of baking powder together and set aside.

Chop the dates, pineapple, and cherries.  This step is important because you’ll catch any of the pits missed by the machines, saving you from an expensive dental visit.  For whatever reason, I just could not find enough of the neon green and red candied cherries and pineapple to make this recipe.  I did however find these:

These “mixes” had some of the candied fruit I needed in them, and a lot of extra orange and lemon peel that I’m not a big fan of, so I’d suggest that you not use them yourself.  This fruit and peel “mix” is being substituted in only so I can show you the recipe step by step in pictures.  By the power vested in me by the Internet, I urge you to “do as I say, not as I do“.

Chop the two pounds of pre-toasted pecans.  I did mine in a food processor to save some time.

In another bowl, beat your four eggs well, then add the cup of sugar and two teaspoons of dark rum.

Combine the candied fruit, dates, pecans and sifted flour mixture in your biggest bowl.  I ended up using a medium sized pot.  Mix everything together until the flour covers every surface.  Pour the egg mixture on top of the flour covered fruit and nuts and start mixing again until all of the flour is moistened, like so:

Oh, and when you think you’ve gotten egg everywhere, you really haven’t.  Trust me.  It takes a lot of mixing to truly cover all of it.  While you mix, preheat the oven to 250ºF (121.11 ºC)

Grease two or three small loaf pans and fill with the fruit cake batter.  Place your loaf pans in the oven for two and a half hours.

Spritz the finished loaves with the extra dark rum to moisten them slightly, then wrap individually with foil or serve right away.

I wanted to share these recipe with all of you in an effort to honor my Grandmother.  I loved her dearly, and I’ll always cherish the fact that she taught me that cooking good food for your friends and family is another way to show them that you care.

Ruby Lee Adams
August 20, 1912 – June 1, 2009

Merry Christmas everyone!  I woke up this morning, ready to bake the last of my grandmother’s recipes for the post today when I found out that I had totally forgotten to buy one of the key ingredients.  I seriously doubt that any place that has candied dates are open right now, so the last post in the Grandmother trilogy will be a little delayed.

Instead, here are a few holiday cards that we’ve received this year.

This is my niece, Dylan.

This one is from Jennie Chen of MisoHungry.

And this card is from the extraordinary Andrew Zimmern and crew.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

This recipe is actually my Aunt Zelda’s, but my grandmother loved it so much I have no qualms with calling it hers.  As a matter of fact, the last few months of her life my grandmother would sneak a small piece every day.  She wasn’t allowed to eat sweets by her doctor, but she didn’t care.  The brittle was one of her vices and she wasn’t going to give it up for anyone.  Right after she passed away, my Aunt Carrie was cleaning her room when they found her stash of peanut brittle.  It turns out she was eating the brittle my wife had made for her as part of her Christmas gifts.

It makes me happy knowing that we were able to give her a little bit of comfort every day.

PEANUT BRITTLE

1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of white corn syrup
1/4 cup of water
2 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts
1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda

You should make peanut brittle on a clear, low humidity day or the candy won’t harden.

Before you do anything, go ahead and spread butter on an oven safe sheet pan.  When you have molten hot, sticky sugar ready to spread out the last thing you want to do is try to set the speed record for greasing a sheet pan while your sugar continues cooking in the pot.  From personal experience, I seriously suggest you do this step first.

In a heavy, stainless steel pot combine the cup of sugar, the half cup of white corn syrup and the fourth cup of water.

Bring everything up to a boil, and keep it boiling for about four minutes.  Once I didn’t wait the whole four minutes and the recipe failed.  Four minutes, no less!

Add the peanuts, drop the heat down to medium and stir constantly.  The white blur in the middle of the picture is my wife whipping the spatula around the pot at top speed.  You’re looking for the mixture to start turning a golden brown.  It’s tough to see exactly when this happens, so make sure you have lots of light.  If you don’t cook the sugar enough, the candy won’t set at all, so make sure it’s golden brown! Remove the pot from the heat and continue stirring.

Add the tablespoon of butter and teaspoon of vanilla extract to the pot and continue stirring until both are integrated into the sugar.  I’m a big fan of Adams Extract, and ship it to my baking friends around the world.  I highly suggest using it in this recipe, but any good quality vanilla extract will do.

Now for the tough part.  Add the teaspoon of baking soda (make sure it’s fresh!) and per the instructions from my aunt, “Beat it like HELL!”  The sugar will start to foam a little bit and turn lighter in color.

Pour the mixture out immediately on your greased sheet pan and spread it out thin as quickly as possible.  Adding a bit of butter to the spreading device helps the brittle not stick to it.  Let the brittle cool.

When it’s done cooling, break the brittle into manageable pieces and eat right away.  To store it, keep the leftover brittle in an airtight container.  This will keep it fresh for a long, long time.

I hope you’re having a great holiday!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your loved ones!

This week I’m going to be sharing with you three recipes out of my grandmother’s cookbook.  She passed away this year, and I’ve been putting off writing about her because it’s painful to think about her being gone.  She was an important influence on my life and my cooking.  I suppose it’s easier now that some time has passed, and writing about some of her beloved recipes helps as well.  I’ll go into more detail about my grandmother with the last recipe.

As a fair warning, these recipes are very vanilla.  No complex techniques or outrageous ingredients here, just solid comfort foods.  And while there are tons of butter and sugar in each of them, these recipes aren’t about reducing your waistline, they’re all about tasting good.

We’re starting off with one that I’ve made dozens and dozens of times, my grandmother’s simple fruit cobbler.

FRUIT COBBLER

1 stick of butter
1 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup of milk

2 cups of any fruit, fresh or defrosted
1/2 cup of sugar

Preheat your oven to 350ºF (176.67 ºC).

In an oven safe baking dish, melt the butter.  Set dish aside.

Combine flour, 3/4 cup of sugar and baking powder.  Add the milk and mix until everything is blended together evenly.  If you find that you need more milk to achieve a decent batter-like consistency, go for it.  Just add a little at a time, until you’re happy.

Pour the batter into the baking dish over the butter.  DO NOT MIX THE BATTER AND THE BUTTER.  Combine the two cups of fruit with the 1/2 cup of sugar and pour that into the baking dish on top of the butter and batter.  DO NOT STIR.  You want to see something similar to the picture above.  Place the baking dish in the oven for 45 to 55 minutes.

Here’s what the cobbler should look when it’s finished.  A nice brown, crusty top with lots of gooey sweet goodness underneath.

Serve with a healthy amount of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, and you’re set!  Every time I’ve made this dessert, people end up asking for the recipe.  The best part is that you really can use any fruit in this, just make sure that bigger fruits such as peaches are cut into bite size pieces.  I have fond memories of watching cobblers bake in my grandmother’s oven, enjoying the kitchen magic when the batter would rise and encompass the fruit.  This might be my favorite recipe of all time.

Consider making a cobbler tonight for your family!