NATIONAL FRUIT CAKE MONTH

December is National Fruit Cake Month and I am going to start if off by soaking my fruit for our Annual Fruitcake, something my husband loves.  All the years of my Childhood and into Adulthood, my Mother made Fruitcakes every single year.  She made enough so that my Father could take some to his Co-Workers and we still had more than enough for our consumption.  I have actually never been a great fan of Fruitcake, but like Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving, I still make Fruitcake and I still do eat it.  So here goes.  My Fruit Cake Making Saga!

Day One – Sunday December 1st – gather together all the Fruit that I am going to use and cut up what needs cutting – place them all together in a large bowl and pour some Wine over them.  Brandy is the usual Liqueur to use but I have Marsala Wine and think I will use that.  Strike that – went to the Beverage Store and purchased Gran Marnier – Brandy but Orange flavored and not too strong.   For Non-Alcoholic Fruit Cake, try using Orange Juice or Sparkling Apple Cider.  Both work quite well!  I added just enough Gran Marnier to moisten the Fruit and then covered the Bowl and let it sit overnight.

Day 2 – I prepared the Batter and baked the Cakes.

Make sure the Fruit is in a LARGE BOWL so that you have enough room to incorporate the Batter into the Fruit.  Before preparing the Batter, prepare the pans.  Cut parchment paper or waxed paper to fit the bottoms of the pans.  Spray the bottoms of the pans with a Vegetable Spray and then insert the prepared paper. 

Lined-Pans

Next prepare the Batter and add it to the Fruit.

Fruit-Mixture and Batter

Once all the Batter is evenly mixed with the Fruit and the Fruit is evenly distributed throughout the Batter fill the pans about 3/4 full.  As you can see from the Photo I used loaf pans.  One 10″ TUBE PAN can be used instead.

Fruit-Cake-ready-for-Baking

Bake in a slow oven for approximately 1 1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on wire racks;  be sure the cakes are completely cool before removing from the pan.  Turn the pans over and the cakes should come right out.  If the don’t, gently loosen with a straight-edged spatula and then try again.

Cooling the Cakes

Wrap the Cakes tightly in plastic wrap and allow to age for several days or weeks before serving.  If liquer on the cakes is desired, place the each cake on a large piece of cheesecloth placed on plastic wrap. Lightly douse with Gran Marnier, Brandy or Rum.  Wrap tightly with the Cheesecloth and then the plastic wrap.  Finally wrap the whole thing in Aluminum Foil.

Foil Wrapped Fruit Cake

If desired, more Liquer can occasionally  be added through the Cheesecloth.  JUST REMEMBER, THE MORE YOU ADD, THE STRONGER TASTING THE CAKES WILL BE.  HOWEVER, THE LIQUER DOES KEEP THE CAKE MOIST AND ALLOW IT TO LAST AND TASTE GOOD THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS.

For the complete recipe go to  /holiday-fruit-cake/

NATIONAL FOOD DAYS ‘National Cherry Tart Day’

                                             Plated Cherry Tarts

June is the perfect month for ‘National Cherry Tart Day’. Cherries are ripe and ready for picking, at least in California! Cherries are delicious to eat out of hand and are also delicious in whatever dish you decide to incorporate them into.  The three main varieties of Cherries available in Southern California are Bing (the sweetest), Mt. Rainer (also sweet) and Queen Anne (in recent years not so easy to find) which are a tart cherry that is perfect for making pies or jams and jellies.

To make a Cherry Tart you will need several components, namely a base for your tart, a custard filling and your cherries.  Let’s start with the base.  You can use a standard pie crust or a sweet tart crust which is perfect for tarts, large and small. The tart crust will consist of flour, sugar, salt butter, eggs and water and vanilla.

The next component would be the custard filling which consists of eggs, milk, sugar, butter and again vanilla or better yet, almond extract which will enhance the flavor of the cherries.  Almonds, Cherries, Peaches and Nectarines all have similar enzymes which contribute to the flavor of the fruit.  Adding Almond Extract to Cherry, Peach or Nectarine pastries will enhance the flavor of those fruits.

Lastly, you will need the Cherries.  For my Cherry Tart, I used sweet Bing Cherries.  First place the Cherries in a colander and rinse the under cold water.  Shake out as much of the water as possible and then put them in a bowl that has been lined with paper towels or a clean dish towel.  Set the Cherries aside while you prepare the other components.

The first component that you want to prepare would be the Tart Crust as it is easier to roll when it is chilled.  For the complete recipe please see the recipe section of this blog. sweet-tart-and-pie-pastry/ Once your tart crust has been prepared, flatten it to disc about 1” thick, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you prepare the Custard for the filling.

For the Custard filling, please see the recipe section of this blog. pastry-cream/ When you have finished cooking the Custard, place it in a bowl; let stand until it stops steaming and then cover with plastic wrap, being sure to place the plastic wrap directly on top of the Custard.  This will insure that a skin does not form on top of the Custard.  Refrigerate the Custard until you are ready to prepare the tarts.

The next step would be to roll out and bake the Tart Shell.  If you are making a large tart (8 or 9”) you can roll out the dough in one piece.  Be sure and lightly dust your rolling surface with flour.  Flatten the Dough into a round disc and roll out to approximately ¼”, using a stockinette covered rolling pin.  You can rub flour into the stockinette which will prevent the rolling pin from sticking to the dough, without adding additional flour to your dough which would toughen it.

If you are going to make individual tarts, divide the dough into several sections, depending on the size of your tart pans.  In the photo below, the pan I am using has 12 tiny tart indentations.  The dough should have been divided into 12 pieces.  In the case of the tiny tarts, you can just flatten the dough and then minimally roll it out to fit the pan.  Once you have fitted the dough into the pan, take your rolling pin and run it around the rim of the pan to cut off the excess dough.  Many tart pans come with removable bottoms which makes it easier to remove the tart from the pan, especially in the case of the larger tart.  With the smaller tart, you can easily lift the baked crust right out of the pan.

To bake the crusts, first poke holes in the bottom with the tines of a fork and then place a piece of foil into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.  Place some pie weights on top of the foil.  Pie weights can be aluminum weights that you buy in your local culinary shop or dried beans that you keep just for this purpose.  Once the beans are used for weights they can no longer be cooked.

Bake the Crust at 325 F.  with the weights for about 15 minutes.  Then remove the weights (you can easily lift out the foil as it doesn’t get too hot – and then just dump the weight back into their container.

Brush the Crusts with an Egg Yolk beaten with a little cream of milk and then return to the oven until they are a light golden brown – about 10 more minutes.

Remove the baked crusts from the oven and once they are cool enough to handle place them on a serving plate.  This would be for the individual ones.  If you are making a large tart, remove the sides of the pan but leave the crust on the bottom or if you can easily remove it without breaking it, place it on a serving plate.

While the crusts are baking, you can finish preparing the Cherries.  You can use the Cherries uncooked, but cooking them slightly, brings out the flavor and add a natural syrup to them which coats them and preserves them.  The first thing you have to do though is to remove the pits.  There are several ways to do this.  The easiest is to use a Cherry Pitter that will remove the pits from multiple Cherries for you.  If you don’t have this type of Cherry Pitter, then you can use one that remove the pits, one Cherry at a time.  Barring that, you can do what we used to do when I was small and that was to use a large tapestry needle to remove the pits individually from each Cherry.  That was always my job after we had gone Cherry Picking and my Mother made Jams, Jellies and Pies.  Today, though if you have the proper tools, it is much easier to do.

Heat a sauté pan and add about half cup of wine (I used Marsala but you can also use Madeira, Burgundy or even Kirsch, which is a Cherry Liquer. Bring the liquid to a simmer and then add the Cherries.  Cook until the Cherries release their liquid and continue cooking until the liquid becomes syrupy.  This will take from 5 – 10 minutes but no longer.  Transfer the Cherries to a shallow bowl and allow to cool.

Place the Custard in the bottom of the Tart(s) and then add the Cherries to the top.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  In the case of small tarts, one per person (depending on the size) should be sufficient for each person.  The Tiny Tarts pictured would be perfect for a Dessert Buffet which would allow each person to sample several desserts without becoming too overloaded with sugar.

Try this version of Cherry Tarts or try creating your own.  Whichever you do, you should enjoy making them and your family and/or friends will enjoy eating them!

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