Sourdough Fruitcake Recipe - real food style and fabulous

[Guest guest]

I thought I would share this recipe for those sourdough lovers who may be

looking for a real food treat/dessert to enjoy or share over the holidays.

I copied this from my blog, sorry if it's hard to read. You can always head to

the original post to see what I had to say about this recipe and see it more

nicely laid out. The link is at the bottom.

Enjoy!

What You'll Need

2 medium size loaf cakes

1 cup organic golden raisins

1 cup organic dried currants

½ cup organic dried cranberries

½ cup organic dried blueberries

½ cup organic dried cherries

½ cup organic, dried, unsulphured apricots

1 cup golden rum or brandy

Zest of one organic lemon

Zest of one organic orange

1½ cups organic whole wheat flour

1½ cups organic apple juice or cider (not to all be used at once)

½ cup sourdough starter, fed in the last 12 hours

1 cup organic, unsalted butter

1 cup rapadura or another unrefined sugar (no honey or maple syrup)

¼ tsp. ground clove

½ tsp. ground allspice

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. unrefined sea salt

1 tsp. aluminum-free baking soda

3 free-range, organic eggs

1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

Extra butter for buttering loaf pans

for basting

Getting Started

The day before:

1. In a medium size bowl combine dried fruit, lemon and orange zest and 1 cup of

golden rum. Cover and allow to sit overnight.

2. For your sourdough sponge, combine flour, 1 cup apple juice and sourdough

starter. Cover and allow to ferment overnight or for at least 8 hours, but

preferably no longer than 12.

Baking day:

1. Mix together macerated fruit, including liquid, butter, sugar, the spices,

salt and the remaining half cup of apple juice in a large, non-reactive pot.

Heat over medium, to medium high heat until mixture begins to boil. Reduce heat

and allow ingredients to simmer for approximately 15-20 minutes or until you

have a thick syrupy mixture. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 300°F. Butter loaf pans and line bottom with parchment

paper.* While the oven heats up, allow the fruit mixture to cool for at least

15-30 minutes. Alternatively you could do this step a day ahead of time and then

reheat the mixture to room temperature when you are ready to use it.

* I've used a variety of different shape dishes to bake my fruitcake in. My

favorite being small, 4 " wide ramekins to make individual size fruitcakes. The

smaller dishes require less baking time. In the case of the ramekin size that

you can see in the pictures, the cake was done baking at about an hour. I

always line the bottom with parchment so I'm guaranteed the cake won't stick and

will easily come out. There is nothing worse than going through all the baking

effort only to have your end product stuck in the baking pan.

3. Add the sponge to the cooled fruit in the pot and then sprinkle the baking

soda over top. Quickly stir everything together, making sure to well incorporate

the baking soda and evenly distribute the fruit.

4. Stir in eggs one at a time until completely incorporated, then fold in the

toasted nuts.

5. Pour half of batter into each prepared baking pan.*

*If you are experimenting with different size dishes you can fill them to about

1/3 " from the top. This cake does not rise much.

6. Bake loaf pans in preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minute. Check for doneness

a little over an hour, but most likely they will take longer. They are done when

a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. Immediately baste cakes with brandy, then allow to cool completely before

removing from pans.

8. Store in an airtight container. Check on fruitcake every couple of days, if

it feels dry baste with more brandy. These cakes are best if allowed to age for

2 - 3 weeks before eating.

http://artistta.blogspot.com/2011/12/real-food-christmas-basket-

sourdough.html

Therese A

www.artistta.blogspot.com