Old-Fashioned Fruitcake

A true family favorite here! This is "Aunt Stella's Fruit Cake," and it's delicious (and labor intensive). As with many old-fashioned recipes, you'll have to use some intuition and general cooking know how. I can find many of these ingredients in my local grocery's bulk section, so I "eyeball" some of the amounts. Photos of some of the steps follow the main recipe. It's also part of The Recipe Box Project.

Old-Fashioned Fruitcake

• 1 pound butter
• 1 pound sugar
• 1 dozen eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 pounds flour
• 1 t. nutmeg
• 1 t. cloves
• 1-2 t. cinnamon (we use 2)
• 1 t. allspice
• ~12-oz. raisins
• 1 pound candied cherries (we like a mix of green and red)*
• 1 1/2 pounds mixed candied fruit (pineapple, citron, lemon, and orange peel)*
• 1 "package" currants, optional (~6 ounces?)
• 1 "package" dried figs (~6 ounces?) or small jar fig preserves
• ~6-7 ounces dates, preferably chopped
• 1 pound nuts (we like pecans), preferably chopped
• cheesecloth
• bourbon

*you will need 2 1/2 pounds, total, of candied fruit. The more you can find already chopped, the better. Mixed fruit containers are fine, but you will want at least one small container of whole cherries if you want to use some to decorate the top.

Directions:

1. Prepare pans: line with parchment paper and spray thoroughly. We use aluminum loaf pans in various sizes. Preheat oven to 200-250 degrees (aim for the middle if you don't know your oven well).
2. Sift flour and spices together. Set aside.
3. Chop all fruit and nuts that aren't already chopped. You can combine them all in the same (large) bowl. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar together.
5. Beat eggs and gradually add to butter/sugar mixture, beating thoroughly as you go.
6. Gradually add in flour/spices mixture, beating thoroughly after each addition.
7. Add in preserves, if using.
8. Pour batter over fruit/nut mixture. Stir well with a giant, wooden spoon, or go ahead and use your hands! (This is what we do.)
9. Scoop batter into prepared pans.
10. Bake for around 3 hours in a "very low oven." Check after 2 1/2. You're looking for a clean toothpick, but also that the top looks done. 
11. Remove cakes from pans and let cool. When completely cooled, pour some bourbon over (you can poke a few holes in the top of the cakes with a toothpick for even more bourbon flavor).
12. Wrap cakes in cheesecloth. Place each cheesecloth-covered cake in a tin with a lid and let "cure" for a few weeks. It will taste best after a few weeks of this "curing" stage.
13. Fruitcakes may be frozen before the bourbon/cheesecloth stage. 

~Makes 3 standard loaf-pans.

Directions with some photos:

• Prepare pans: line with parchment paper and spray thoroughly. We use aluminum loaf pans in various sizes. Preheat oven to 200-250 degrees (aim for the middle if you don't know your oven well).
• Sift flour and spices together. Set aside.
• Chop all fruit and nuts that aren't already chopped. You can combine them all in the same (large) bowl. Set aside.

• Cream butter and sugar together.
• Beat eggs and gradually add to butter/sugar mixture, beating thoroughly as you go.
• Gradually add in flour/spices mixture, beating thoroughly after each addition.
• Add in preserves, if using.
• Pour batter over fruit/nut mixture. Stir well with a giant, wooden spoon, or go ahead and use your hands! (This is what we do.)

• Scoop batter into prepared pans.
• Bake for around 3 hours in a "very low oven." Check after 2 1/2. You're looking for a clean toothpick, but also that the top looks done. 

• Remove cakes from pans and let cool. When completely cooled, pour some bourbon over (you can poke a few holes in the top of the cakes with a toothpick for even more bourbon flavor).

• Wrap cakes in cheesecloth. Place each cheesecloth-covered cake in a tin with a lid and let "cure" for a few weeks. It will taste best after a few weeks of this "curing" stage.
• Fruitcakes may be frozen before the bourbon/cheesecloth stage. 

~Makes 3 standard loaf-pans. If you did it right, your kitchen will look something like this ;-) :

And, just for fun, a little peek into the recipe box archives:

Butterfudge Cooky Pie

In honor of Pi Day (March 14), we make a pie, naturally. This year's recipe was chosen from the Recipe Box. The spelling of this recipe title is what is on the card!

Full disclosure: there are a LOT of luscious looking pie recipes in that box. I forbid anyone choosing any fruit-based recipes because now is not the season for delicious fresh strawberries, peaches, and so forth. The kids chose this simple pie out of all the non-fruity ones. We could make a pie every week and it would be fall before we ran out of new recipes from the box! Sounds like a tasty problem to me.

Note: This is essentially a giant, richly chocolatey cookie as the crust with ice cream on top. The texture is reminiscent of shortbread, but not quite that crumbly. If you're not a butter pecan fan, other ice cream flavors that work with chocolate would be delicious (especially something like mint chocolate chip or a dark cherry).

Butterfudge Cooky Pie
~from my grandmother

• 1/2 c. soft butter
• 1/4 c. sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2-oz. melted semi sweet chocolate and cooled slightly
• 1 quart butter pecan ice cream (or other of your choosing)
• hot fudge topping

Directions

1. Mix butter, sugar, and vanilla thoroughly. Sift flour and salt together. Add to butter mixture and blend. Add melted chocolate and blend well. Chill 30 to 40 minutes (it's helpful if it's in a ball or flattened round--any stray bits will be hard to reincorporate). This step is important. I didn't chill mine enough, and the crust sank a little as it cooked, so you can't see a "fluted edge" or anything in my pictures.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pat dough in a 9-inch ungreased pie pan. Flute edge, prick, and bake 10-12 minutes. Cool.
3. Add softened ice cream and fudge sauce right before serving.

Serves 8

Recipe card in my grandmother's handwriting pictured below. 

Simple Slaw

Need a quick, lightly dressed slaw for a side dish? This one is simple, but delicious. The dressing isn't overpowering, the cabbage stays crisp for at least a day after it's made, and there are no complicated ingredients. 

There's a mystery behind this recipe from my grandmother's recipe box, though. It was placed in the "vegetables" category instead of the "salads" category, but the really interesting thing is this: no one seems to know who wrote the original recipe (the women of my family don't recognize the handwriting--and we're all old enough to have seen and used actual handwriting enough to know whose is whose. My grandmother's usual slaw recipe was a creamy style.)

Even stranger is the recipe on the back of this little slip of paper: it's for fried catfish, but the directions are downright intimidating. Since I live in the Northwest, I'm not likely to wrangle any fresh catfish anytime soon, so that means I'm a'gonna pass on this here gem. See the card pictured below if you're curious--would YOU try this recipe? ;-)

Simple Slaw

2 bags slaw mix

1 bell pepper, chopped (any color; original calls for green)

1 onion, chopped

Dressing

1/2 c. neutral oil (canola, vegetable, etc.)

1/2 c. white vinegar

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

Combine dressing ingredients in jar with a lid; shake to combine. Mix slaw ingredients together. Make a "well" or hole in the middle and pour the dressing in. When ready to serve, toss together. Add salt and pepper at the table as needed.

Makes about 8-10 cups slaw

Recipe from the Recipe Box pictured below. Handwriting/origin is a mystery!