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Original message sent by cakebaby2
Thank you Dayti for sharing that family recipe. Its lovely that all over the world the solstice gets us all baking and "laying down" the fruits of the season.
Indeed. And although I have lived in Spain for 18 years I am a true Brit, but they don't go for fruit cake over here at all (or most places in contintental Europe as far as I can see), so it's nice to share a proper family recipe with people who appreciate it!
NANA'S MINCE TARTS
1 pound raisins
1 pound currants
1 pound sultanas
4 ounces mixed peel
1 cup rum (dark)
2 pounds green cooking apples, vitalised or grated
Mix all the ingredients together ( and Nana's words "Maybe it will taste better if it is allowed to stand for a few days"). As I said earlier I still have some in the fridge that is 12 months old and it is delicious.
Nana had a really fine, short pastry on the top and bottom but I can't reproduce it. A biscuity pastry tastes good or whatever takes your fancy. All measurements are British.
Delicious.
Well here is flaky pastry to melt in your mouth to enrobe those fruity little divas,
8 oz of plain (all purpose?)flour ..or 00 to our Italian cousins
6oz of frozen...yes.. frozen fat of your choice ( I prefer butter for sweet pastry)
sift flour, grate...yes grate frozen fat into it and add 1 tablespoon of iced water
.
mix to a smooth dough with a knife (handle briefly to knead to a ball)
chill in clingfilm (saran) in fridge for 30 mins
roll out, fill, and brush with egg wash and bake in hot oven, turning down if overbrowning.
Cuts out all the rolling chopping re rolling and chopping cold fat into pastry.
Sausage rolls, mince pies, strudel and I've done Danish this way by the Swiss Roll method and then slicing those pinwheels down.
Forgot to add to salt to taste !
ASounds interesting cakebaby. I always thought that making flaky pastry was a bit of a pain bit this seems much easier and quicker!
I'll confess I prefer my mince pies made with shortcrust pastry, with an egg wash and granulated sugar on top to get them crunchy. No icing sugar or arty stars on top, I love pastry too much to be only given half the portion on top! And served warm with vanilla ice cream preferably.
You're with the "short" queen here babygirl .
(The home of shortbread...weaned on the stuff lol!)
But this is a nice alternative to make gorgeous light flakey pastry without the hassle of the (3) times folding of puff pastry.
You can add sifted icing (powdered) sugar to enclose fresh or dried fruit...or a little mustard powder to a savoury pie.
Its delicious and I raised 5 strapping kids on leftovers by making pasties or "rolls" with this. Just handle the pastry as little as possible, keep it cold and enjoy.
As a sidenote...I used to wonder why on Sundays...our "roast" days the kids didn't ask for seconds quite so much.
I since learned that the Monday "pastry night" was much anticipated xx
Sorry Gerle, been a bit lax , but here is the recipe for an Aussie Meat Pie. This is better than about 100% of the pies you will taste in a shop but I think it is extremely important that you make the lard pastry and not use a normal shortcrust as it adds its own unique flavour and is actually really short and delicious. I buy the lard from the supermarket.
AUSSIE MEAT PIE
PASTRY
250g plain flour
pinch salt
60g butter
60g lard
4 tablespoons cold water
Chuck everything except water in food processor and process until fine breadcrumb texture
Add water and mix till it just comes together
Knead gently
Chuck in the fridge for awhile
This freezes exceptionally well so I use up the entire block of lard (as I don't use it for anything else) and then just pull it out as I need it.
FILLING
1 onion, finely chopped
30g butter
250g minced beef
1 tablespoon plain flour
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons water
pinch salt
Fry onion in butter for 5 minutes
Chuck in mince and brown over high heat
Turn down heat, add flour and cook for 1-2 minutes
Add everything else and cook until it comes to the boil
Remove from heat and cool
I generally am very heavy handed with the sauce and the worcestershire so just add to taste.
I usually multiply the recipe by 4 (1kg mince) as this will make me 12 pies with the tins that aI have and the pies freeze really well (I cook them before freezingYou could of course make a big pie but being aussies we like to have our own and not a slice.
Gosh I got lost looking for this thread ! A thread about rum soaked fruit cake should be Titled " RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT!" ha
It was a big surprise today to find one single box of golden raisins (sultanas) sitting all alone on the grocery store shelf. I grabbed it right up. The internet said that 'Glazed Mixed Peel' is a diced combination of orange peel, citron peel, lemon peel, cherries, and pineapple. Ideal for fruit cakes. The store had put out some little containers of glazed orange peel, lemon peel, cherries, & pineapple. Grabbed those also.
So now I have a big bowl of fruits, with marmalade, and rum soaking. My first Australian Fruit cake is in the works. wahoo.
Interestingly I don't think that the golden raisins that we get at our shops are actually sultanas. i will have to inspect more closely next time I am there and think about it. Must confess MB I have never heard of glazed mixed peel but I have no doubt that it will work just fine. Hmmm I wonder if that is what we call glace fruit.
All of the candied fruits were in their own little separate tub. http://www.paradisefruitco.com/
And somebody definitely would have had to wrestle me for that very last box of golden raisins. ha
but I didn't chop anything. 
I guess that's why my hubby looked at that huge bowl of fruit and said that it would fill 2 cake pans without even adding the batter. I'll do some chopping later.
It's already soaked up One whole cup of rum.
AI never used to chop the fruit for my cakes (just did what my mother used to do), but now I do, especially the actual raisins, because it means the outsides of the cakes don't have so many holes to fill before I cover them in fondant etc. I'm all for making jobs easier and filling all those little holes with tiny bits of fondant or marzipan is not really my idea of a good time. So my daughter and I each get a pair of kitchen scissors and chop fruit for a few hours and talk. It's like podding peas, something to do while you talk about the good stuff.
Mmmmm Glace fruit, I love glace ginger yum Ooooo and glace figs , Mmmmm now they are just heaven, they are in the pudding recipe I think .
I have to cut up fruit today to soak up another mix. I have already done two double mixes, and just don't have enough.
Winnie, Mum and I will sit together and chop up the fruit today , and solve all the world's problems as we do.
I sent out a Ten inch fruitcake yesterday for an 80th birthday. I did a wedding cake for the people that ordered it a few months ago , with a fruit tier. They actually wished they had ordered a bigger fruitcake as it was all eaten and they didn't get to take any home. Apparently it was delicious and they loved the rum flavoured choc ganache I had put under the fondant. Believe me it was way easier than filling all those little divots.
Now there's a new one Chelle. I would never have put ganache on a fruit cake. A question, though, before I jump in to try it. How long will the fruitcake last once the ganache is on. We can eat a fruit cake in a couple of weeks or in a couple of months, depending on what else I am cooking at the time.
Winniemog is you have any leftover fruitcake, or offcuts you can whiz it up with some alcohol to a paste and fill your holes with that. Much quicker, but you do have to be careful you don't make your paste too wet or it can move when you are applying your fondant.
MB, as winniemog said, if you don't chop your raisins you will have holes over the surface of your cake. I usually chop them to about the size of the sultanas, or slightly smaller. Mum had a friend make a cake one year but the friend insisted that Mum had to cut the fruit up. Mum's idea of cutting fruit (not being a cook) was to throw it all in the food processor, together. She reckoned it tasted fantastic but I thought that the texture was too homogenous and did not like it at all.
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".....MB, as winniemog said, if you don't chop your raisins you will have holes over the surface of your cake. I usually chop them to about the size of the sultanas, or slightly smaller. Mum had a friend make a cake one year but the friend insisted that Mum had to cut the fruit up. Mum's idea of cutting fruit (not being a cook) was to throw it all in the food processor, together. She reckoned it tasted fantastic but I thought that the texture was too homogenous and did not like it at all.
@cazza1 Whew, it's a good thing that you said that, as I was thinkin' of putting it in the food processor. I'll just give it a bit of a chop-chop by hand before I put it in the batter. I'm going to bake it in my small bread loaf pans, as I won't be making a fondant or royal icing covered cake. I just want to slice it like bread, same as if it were banana, date, or lemon bread.
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Original message sent by MBalaska
@cazza1 I'm going to bake it in my small bread loaf pans, as I won't be making a fondant or royal icing covered cake. I just want to slice it like bread, same as if it were banana, date, or lemon bread.
And then you have to try frying a good thick slice of the fruit cake in butter, it's like the most indulgent bread pudding/French toast deliciousness all mixed up together!
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And then you have to try frying a good thick slice of the fruit cake in butter, it's like the most indulgent bread pudding/French toast deliciousness all mixed up together!
Yummy.......with honey drizzled on top..... it's a good thing that I have a homemade beef stroganoff on the stove filling my savory desires, or I'd be digging into that bowl of rum-fruit right now.
Today I discovered that there are two old-fashioned American recipes for 'Yellow' fruitcake & 'Jeweled' fruitcake in my 1969 Betty Crocker cookbook. It's taken a trip around the world from Scotland to Australia to bring me back to my own cookbook. Small world. Isn't it delightful.
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Whoa girls, when I said chop the fruit I meant the glace ones that you make yourself or buy in luxury deli's. The peel specifically, which comes in long ribbons sometimes. I never meant little sultanas or raisins x
HA, Ok @cakebaby2 just cut the big monster pieces. I'm going to add some southern delicious pecans to mine also. Love love love pecans in holiday recipes.
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And then you have to try frying a good thick slice of the fruit cake in butter, it's like the most indulgent bread pudding/French toast deliciousness all mixed up together!
[email protected] takes me back to Sunday mornings chez grandmere who fried the fruit pudding...or clootie dumpling for breakfast. The most sinfully delicious concoction on the face of the planet...oddly wonderful with crispy bacon.
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HA, Ok @cakebaby2 just cut the big monster pieces. I'm going to add some southern delicious pecans to mine also. Love love love pecans in holiday recipes.
And of course pecans are the Queen of nuts I adore them. I made popcorn for my son and had exactly 7 of them left... I ate the rest and deprived the kids..I'm not perfect. Chopped the pecans sauteed in butter tablespoon brown sugar, carton of cream brought to bubble poured over popcorn..... I wont elaborate, think about it x
AYes pecans are divine, but they're so expensive in Australia I have to choose between a university education for my children and pecans for me.....
And as [@]cakebaby2[/@] says, don't get between a mother and her pecans....
And don't worry, I'm sure my kids will be fine, surely they can sell themselves to buy that fancy education!
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