White Chocolate Fruitcake
1 cup diced dried figs
1 cup dried apricots, diced
1 cup dried pears, diced
1 cup golden raisins, diced
1/2 cup crystallized ginger
3/4 cup bourbon or rum or brandy
Mix these ingredients together in a bowl, cover, and let stand
overnight. Stir, if you can remember!
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
a few gratings of whole nutmeg or 1/2 tsp. ground
4 eggs, separated
8 ounces of white chocolate, melted
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup pecan halves (If you don't like pecans, use walnuts or almonds
or Brazil nuts...)
3 tbsp. flour
Prepare pans. (can use a mini-loaf pan which is a bit like a muffin
pan but has 8 small loaf-cups instead of muffin cups; there is
enough batter left for a small loaf pan too. Or use a tube pan or a
9x5 loaf pan instead. You can easily double the recipe or use 1 1/2
times the quantities given and fiddle around with various sizes of
pans to suit your needs.) You can just spray the mini-loaf pans with
non-stick spray and then add a skim of butter to keep the cake from
sticking. The larger pans are best buttered, waxed paper cut to fit
the bottoms, and then dusted with flour.
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and spices. Add the egg yolks, one a time, and beat
after each addition until the mixture is well-blended. Beat in the
chocolate and then the cup of flour. Stir the 3 tbsp. of flour and
pecans into the dried fruit and then stir into batter. In a clean
mixing bowl, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until they form
soft peaks. Mix half of them into batter and then fold the remaining
whites into batter.
Preheat the oven to 300 F. Put the batter into prepared pans. The
mini-loaves take about an hour. Check to make sure they aren't
getting too brown on top. If they are, put a tent of foil loosely
over the tops. The bigger loaves take longer -- check after an hour
and a half. A toothpick or skewer will come out clean and dry when
the cakes are done.
This is a delicious fruitcake which keeps well wrapped in a boozy
cloth and then foil or plastic. |