This is a delicious fruitcake for winter holidays or anytime. It is very rich so it should be served in small pieces. Even the folks that say that they don’t like fruitcake will gobble up this one.
- butter for greasing pan (and parchment paper)
- 1 cup walnuts roughly chopped
- 1 cup almonds roughly chopped
- 1 and 1/2 cups roughly chopped, mixed dried fruit (I use apricots, apples, papaya, raisins, dates…use your favorite dried fruit)
- 1/4 ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 and 1/4 cup sugar
- confectioners sugar for dusting
Grease and paper an 8 inch round pan. Set oven at 350 degrees F. Toast nuts on a baking sheet in oven for 10 minutes. Turn down oven to 300 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine fruit, spices, flour and nuts. Set aside.
In a small, heavy-bottomed sauce pan stir in honey and sugar. Bring to boil. Cook until mixture reached 280 degrees F on candy thermometer or until a small drop forms a hard ball when spooned into ice water (about 4 to 5 minutes).
Immediately pour syrup into the dry ingredients and stir well until everything is evenly coated. Work fast. Pour into the prepared pan. Dip a spoon in water and use back of spoon to press mixture firmly into pan. Bake for 55 min. to 1 hour.
Cake will feel soft but will harden as it cools. Cool completely in the pan then turn out onto serving plate and dust with confectioners sugar before serving.