[Sca-cooks] Fruit cakes - gluten free

[Sharon Palmer]

My friend Tien makes a very large batch of fruitcake every year, and 
I asked if I could share her recipe.  Not Gluten free, although you 
could substitute GF flour, or pulverized almonds.
She makes the candied cherries and five kinds of candied peel herself.
The exotic citrus comes from here   http://ripetoyou.com/index.php
A picture of the prepared fruit
http://www.tienchiu.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/chopped-fruits-for-fruitcake.jpg


Tien Chiu's Fruitcake recipe

Adapted from a recipe given me by Jeanne Hoff, an old family friend, 
which was itself adapted from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe.
8 oz Dried papaya
16 oz Dried apricots
16 oz Dried (not glace) pineapple slices
12 oz Dried Calimyrna figs
16 oz home-candied sweet cherries
16 oz home-candied sour cherries
16 oz Crystallized ginger  chunks
16 oz Pitted chopped dates
32 oz Golden raisins, seedless
16 oz candied bergamot peel
16 oz Candied diced citron peel
16 oz Candied diced Seville orange peel
16 oz Candied diced lemon peel
16 oz candied diced orange peel (lime peel, etc.)
1.5 14-oz packages (8 cups) Bakers Sweetened Angel Flake Coconut
32 oz Slivered blanched almonds

2 lb Unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups Sugar
4 tbsp Orange blossom water
1.5 tbsp Vanilla extract
20 Extra large eggs, room temperature
8 cups + 1 cup for sprinkling Unbleached flour, sifted
2 tbsp Baking powder
4 tsp Salt
18 oz Pineapple juice

10 8" x 3-7/8" x 2-15/16" aluminum loaf pans
Large container to make batter in
VERY large container to mix cakes in.  I use a round plastic storage 
container, about 20 gallon capacity.
2 Aluminum baking trays, each of which can hold 5 of the cakes
Shallow pan for boiling water, placed on the floor of the oven and 
with the water topped up as the cakes bake.
2 Racks in the oven for the trays.  Rotate the trays front to back 
and up and down in the oven about every 20 minutes so the cakes are 
evenly exposed to heat during the long slow baking process.

Amaretto and Southern Comfort to soak the finished cakes (or Maker's 
Mark bourbon whiskey, or Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum)

Prepare the fruit, nuts, etc:

Drain any extra thick sugar syrup from the candied (glace) fruits. 
 Some of  the fruits will be pre-chopped but most things will have to 
be cut up into small cubes, no larger than a half inch cube.  Cut 
cherries in half.  As you complete chopping up each species of fruit, 
dried or candied, sprinkle on a few tablespoons of flour, just enough 
to very lightly coat the sticky cut surfaces, and stir with a spoon 
or your hands until the pieces are quite separate.  It should take 
about a cup of extra flour to do all the batches, which should be 
combined one at a time after flouring.  Add the raisins, coconut, and 
almond slivers at the end and mix the whole thoroughly in the very 
large container.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Thoroughly cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and the orange 
water with a hand-held mixer in the large container.  Beat in the 
eggs one at a time.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with the pineapple 
juice, beating well after each addition.

Pour batter over fruit mixture in very large container and mix the 
stiff dough thoroughly.  You will have to use your spotlessly clean 
hands to do this job, and it is hard work.

Spray the disposable aluminum loaf pans with non stick spray.  Then 
fit a piece of aluminum foil into the pan just the size of the 
bottom, and spray again.  This will help the cakes release when 
cooled.  Place a large spoonful of batter on the middle of the foil 
in the bottom of each baking pan, and gently spread it to the edges 
so the foil is correctly positioned and weighted down.  Then fill the 
pans, dividing the batter evenly among the 10, and pressing the 
batter down, especially in the corners, so there will be no voids or 
empty spaces.  The batter should come almost to the top of the pan. 
 Smooth the top of each cake with the back of a spoon.  Place 5 pans 
on each aluminum tray, and put the trays on the rack in the oven.

Bake cakes in preheated 275 degree oven, approximately 2.5 hours, 
rotating every 20 minutes as mentioned, until the tops are medium 
brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool 
on racks uncovered overnight.

Next day, one at a time, tip the cooled cakes out of the baking pans. 
 usually they come out easily because of the high butter content, but 
if they stick a bit, tug gently on the flexible sides of the baking 
pans and push gently on the bottoms.  Peel the aluminum foil off the 
bottom of each cake.  Tear long strips of plastic wrap, and lay each 
one down on a flat surface.  Set each cake crosswise on the plastic 
and bring up the cut ends over the top of the cake.  Allow enough to 
overlap generously.  Put the cakes back into their respective baking 
pans.

Pull back the plastic wrap exposing the tops of the cakes, and 
sprinkle a full tablespoon of amaretto on top of each cake.  Replace 
the plastic wrap and cover the cakes with an additional layer of 
plastic or clean kitchen towels, and let them rest at cool room 
temperature for a week.  Each week thereafter, uncover the tops of 
the cakes and sprinkle evenly a full tablespoon of Southern Comfort 
on top, re-wrapping and covering the cakes, until you have done this 
5 or 6 weeks in a row.  (Whiskey or rum can also be used.)



Ranvaig