the ubiquitous fruitcake
This is not an expected pre-Christmas diatribe on the eternalness of the fruitcake, but that premise is what actually consumed a few months of my life and continues to draw me back to it.
Around 2002, a good friend wanted to play a joke on his colleagues and was looking for historical references to fruitcake. He was also trying to finish a PhD and do about 40 other things at the same time, so I told him that I’d pick up the research and bring him my findings, which is when I wrote “On The Trail of the Ancestral Fruitcake”. It’s kind of an embarrassing example of my early writing, but it still has some solid information in it. I’m still honoured by it being nominated for an award, but can’t imagine that it was for my writing, which is horrid and clumsy.
The fruitcake recipe has become one of my favourite things to make because it’s really messy to make and completely delicious. It will be made a couple of times to be given as gifts this Christmas.
Pampepato d’Odriana
Dry Ingredients:
200 gr. cake flour
2 gr. cinnamon
1 gr. ground cloves
½ a freshly ground nutmeg
1 t baking powder
75 gr. almonds
25 gr. pignola nuts
Moist Ingredients:
1 egg
½ cup of butter (one stick, at room temperature)
100 gr. honey
200 gr. chopped candied fruit (I used citron and candied orange peel)
Oven should be preheated to 350˚.
I measured and sifted together all of the dry ingredients.
Put the butter and honey into another mixing bowl and incorporate together using a fork or a hand mixer.
Put the chopped candied fruit into the bowl with the honey butter mixture and mix thoroughly.
Make a “well” in the centre of the dry ingredients and put the moist ingredients (except the egg) in it.
Begin mixing the ingredients together until almost all of the dry ingredients are wet.
Lastly, put in the egg. Use it to moisten the rest of the ingredients.
You will need to use your hands, and it’s a sticky mess.
When you get everything well incorporated, turn it out on a greased non-stick cookie sheet.
Shape into a dome (mine was kind of flattish on top).
Put in the centre of the oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
I have changed the mix of fruit and nuts and have dispensed with most measurement. I eyeball nearly everything now, so my current pampepato looks only kind of like the recipe here. I am using candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, citron, dates, and walnuts. I use the same mix in my liebkuchen, so it ends up being a conservation of ingredients while I’m doing my holiday cooking.