Fruitcake is one of those food that people either love or hate. Like most food, there are the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unfortunately, it has an unfairly infamous reputation for being the butt of holiday jokes because of the proliferation of horrible mass-produced rendition of this holiday treat. I have been lucky enough to grow up eating excellent fruitcakes every Christmas. Over the years, they made their appearances at my home in various cultural guises be it traditional aged brandy fruitcake, plum pudding with hard sauce, Trinidad black cake, huzelbrot, panforte, and on and on. So yes, I definitely count myself a fan. Guess what? I'm not the only one with a soft spot for fruitcake.
One variation that I had not try until this year is stollen. After seeing them often sitting lonely at supermarket shelves long after post-Christmas sale, I'm convinced that a homemade version is probably my best bet for introduction. Some time last year, I came across David Lebovitz's post on his stollen. I mentally filed it on my to-bake list but of course, like most seasonal recipes, it was quickly forgotten. I would not dream of making stollen after Christmas. It's just not right. The stars must have aligned this year and I actually thought of making stollen a week before the big day. I quickly dug up Lebovitz's recipe and its original source from Melissa Clark's New York Times column. Unlike other fruitcakes, this one doesn't require planning weeks or months in advance. It is exactly what I want for a special Christmas breakfast with a steaming cup of tea.
I took a quick look in my pantry and realized there were only a few missing ingredients to procure. I got the raisins and almonds from the grocery store and got to work. Imagine my disappointment when I opened that fresh box of golden raisin and it smelled faintly rancid! It was already late at night and I did not want to wait another day. Rather than risk ruining a whole batch of expensive ingredients, I adapted. My stollen contains a lovely mix of rum-soaked currants, apricots, cranberries, toasted almond slivers, candied orange peel, and candied ginger. I actually prefer the slightly tart apricots over raisins. No fossilzed glacé fruit in this one! Speaking of candied orange peel, it is one ingredient that I hoard. High quality ones are hard to come by in Toronto so I snap them up throughout the year to reduce my holiday baking panic. I love the warm spicy note of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom used in this recipe. Rubbing ginger sugar all over the baked loaves is a clever touch yielding delicious results.
I made my stollen into four mini loaves as per Lebovitz's suggestion. The texture is slightly crumbly because of all the goodies inside the loaves. However, it is by no means dry. The dough itself is enriched by melted butter and then imbibed with more butter after baking. To me, they taste like a cross between cookie and cake especially since I like them in thin slices.
The mini loaves look so festive packed in cellophane bags, ready to be given out as gifts...which I am reluctant to do. There is so much cliché surrounding the dreaded holiday doorstop that I'm afraid the recipients would handily toss them aside as "ewww-one-of-those". I know for certain that they are delicious. Besides, what if it goes to a fruitcake-hater? This all sounds like I invest way too much emotions into my baked goods than what's healthy. But hey, it's a real dilemma!
This is part of my holiday gift 2010 series. See what other goodies I came up with this year!
