French Fruitcake

Welcome back!

Today, we have a recipe for fruitcake! Yes, it's a fruitcake, but it's not the classic American kind with the strangely colored fruits; this is actually what a fruitcake should be like - completely natural-looking, full of fruit, and delicious. If you're one of those fruitcake-haters (which is reasonable considering how weird they are), this recipe is certain to change your mind about the dessert!

French Fruitcake

Ingredients:

1 stick butter
1/4 cup sugar
10 grams honey
2 eggs
120 grams cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
200 grams mixed dried fruit (raisins, prunes, black currants, peach, apricot, cherry, etc.)
1/4 cup rum (or brandy/Grand Marnier)

Directions:

The day before, prepare your dried fruits by cutting the bigger pieces into even chunks and then soaking them in rum.
In a bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until it is fluffy and pale.
Add in the honey and mix it in.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix evenly.
Sift the cake flour and baking powder into the batter and mix.
Add in the mixed dried fruits and the rum and mix evenly.
Pour the batter into a loaf tin.
Bake at 325°F for 40 minutes.

What's great about this dessert is that you can really use any mix of dried fruits that you have - we tend to always have a pretty wide assortment of dried fruit so we were able to fill this dish with all sorts of fun stuff! Traditional American fruitcakes also have a variety of spices, in particular cinnamon and nutmeg, that give it the Christmas vibe. It's not especially necessary because of the innate flavor of the fruit, but if you're going for that all-out holiday feast, you can add that in too!

-Chefpo

Comments

Fig Crème Fraîche Cake

Welcome back! Today, we have a cake featuring an interesting fruit: the fig! Figs are typically eaten dried or in some processed form because they don't stay fresh for long, so making this dish out of fresh figs was quite nice. Once completed, the fig flavor blends in very well with the rest of the cake and creates a dessert that is flavorful but not overly rich. Fig Crème Fraîche Cake Makes a 9" cake Ingredients: 1/2 pound figs, quartered (if you have big figs, maybe 6-8 slices) 120 grams cake flour 50 grams almond flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 50 grams sugar 60 grams honey 120 grams crème fraîche 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier 1/2 cup melted butter Directions: In a bowl, sift in the dry ingredients (cake flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt). Mix this together. In another bowl, put in the sugar, honey, and crème fraîche, and mix them together. One add a time, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add in the vanilla ...

Brownie Cheesecake

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo! Today, we have a delicious treat that combines two wonderful desserts into one! If you like brownies and cheesecake, you're going to like this too, as the two flavors really balance and complement each other. It also goes well with some fresh fruit and is a good final course of a meal. (In fact, you got a sneak peek at it in our Pasta Salad recipe!) Brownie Cheesecake Makes a 9" round pan Ingredients: Brownie: 6 ounces dark chocolate 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 tablespoons brown sugar 6 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 75 grams cake flour 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Chocolate chips (optional) Cheesecake: 8 ounces ricotta cheese 8 ounces cream cheese 4 ounces plain greek yogurt 2 eggs 50 grams sugar 1/4 cups dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries) soaked in rum/brandy/Grand Marnier Lemon zest (optional) In place of the ricotta cheese, you could use another 8 ounces of c...

Pearl Meatballs

Welcome back! Today, we have a unique recipe that comes from Central China: Pearl Meatballs! The name is quite interesting but makes sense: they're meatballs, but the translucence of the sticky rice that coats the meatball mirrors the luster of a pearl. It's often served on special occasions, like Lunar New Year, where everyone gathers for a feast and can enjoy this delicious dish. Plus, it's not even that difficult to make! Pearl Meatballs Makes about 30 meatballs Ingredients: For the meatballs: 1/2 pound ground pork 1/4 pound shrimp 80 grams (about 1/2 can) water chestnuts, finely chopped 2 tablespoons green onion, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon rice wine 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 egg white For the rice: 1 cup glutinous (sticky) rice Directions: Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in water for 2 hours. In a bowl, place all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix until even. The mixture...

Search This Blog