A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [207]
8 ounces dried figs, stemmed and cut into ¼-inch dice
4 ounces glacéed lemon rind, cut into ¼-inch dice
4 ounces glacéed orange rind, cut into ¼-inch dice
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour (for dredging)
Batter
3¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 scant tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 scant tablespoon ground allspice
1 scant tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
12 large eggs
Decorations
5 glacéed red cherries, halved
20 small fan-shaped pieces of glacéed pineapple
40 perfect pecan halves (saved from the 7 cups above)
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly butter a 15½ × 10½ × 1-inch jelly-roll pan—a bright aluminum one—and set aside. Also butter the bottom of a 20 × 14 × 10-inch turkey roaster and set aside. Finally, butter ten 5 5/8 × 3 × 2-inch loaf pans and set aside.
2. For the fruits and nuts: Reserve 40 perfect pecan halves for decorating the fruitcakes. Coarsely chop the rest, spread half of them in the jelly-roll pan, and bake on the middle oven shelf for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, or until lightly toasted; do not overbrown. Transfer to an ungreased large roasting pan. Toast the remaining pecans the same way and add to the roasting pan.
3. Add all of the prepared fruits to the pecans and toss well using your hands. Sprinkle the dredging flour evenly over all, then again mix thoroughly with your hands. It’s important that all fruits and nuts be lightly coated with flour.
4. For the batter: Sift the flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves onto a large piece of wax paper and set aside.
5. Cream the butter in a large electric mixer bowl at medium speed for 1 to 1½ minutes or until light and fluffy. With the mixer running, add the sugar gradually, creaming all the while. Beat the eggs in one by one, then, with the mixer at low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three batches, beating only enough to combine. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop the batter—it’s quite stiff—over the surface of the fruit and nut mixture, distributing evenly. Then, working in sections and using your hands, mix thoroughly until all fruits and nuts are well coated with the batter. Transfer the mixture to the turkey roaster, spreading to the edge.
7. Bake uncovered in the lower third of the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, close the oven door, and stir the mixture thoroughly, scooping it again and again from the edge to the center and from the bottom to the top. Repeat the process three times, baking in 15-minute increments, removing the pan from the oven, closing the door, and stirring the mixture as thoroughly as before. Total baking time: 1 hour. Stir the finished mixture well; it should be uniformly moist and crumbly.
8. Turn the oven off and pull the shelf and the turkey roaster most of the way out of the oven. Now working fast, pack the hot crumbly mixture firmly into the prepared loaf pans in layers (this is a three-person job: one scooper, two packers). Ida packs in a layer about ¾ inch thick, then adds another and another until the pan is full. Note: For packing, I use a same-size loaf pan spritzed on the outside with nonstick cooking spray and press down as hard as possible; I then tamp the mixture firmly into the corners with a tablespoon. It’s essential that you pack each layer into the pan as firmly as possible; otherwise your fruitcakes may crumble when you remove them from the pans. Tip: If the fruitcake mixture becomes too dry to pack, Ida suggests drizzling in just enough wine to soften it. I used a little dry white wine (but dry sherry or port would also be good).
9. Once all pans have been packed with fruitcake, let stand right side up for an hour or two before unmolding.
10. To unmold her fruitcakes, Ida Friday runs the pans briefly over an electric stovetop burner. Lacking her experience and afraid that I might burn the cakes, I used a simmering water bath instead—a half-filled 13 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan set over low heat. Here’s my technique: Working with one pan of fruitcake at