Dark and Moist Fruitcake

My version of a traditional fruitcake, with anything I thought would taste particularly good added in. I found that it was the best after about 9 weeks of aging, so plan ahead, and be prepared to buy a lot of alcohol! The basting really helps make it moist and makes the flavour complex. To stick with a dark colour theme (to complement my "light" fruitcake) I used dark rum, coffee liquor, molasses, brown sugar, and lots of figs and dates. And for a bit of crunch, some walnuts!

You can use different dried fruits, and next time I make this cake I think I'll add more, including some dried apricots and cherries. Still, this cake turned out really well! It was especially popular, I think, because of the copious amounts of coffee liquor that complemented the taste of the molasses and spices really well. I suspect that, if you wanted to try something really unorthodox, you could eat it with soft cheese... something I plan to try myself.

Dark Fruitcake
adapted from chowhound

3 Eggs
3/4 C. Butter (About 170g)
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Cocoa
1 1/2 C. Flour
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1/2 Tsp. Each cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice
Zest of one lemon and one orange
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 C. Dark brown sugar
1/4 C. Molasses
2 TBSP. Apricot jam, smooth
1 C. Dates
1 C. Figs
1 1/2 C. Mixed golden and dark raisins
1 C. Walnut pieces
1/2 C. Mixed diced peel
1/3 C. Currants
1/2 C. Dark spiced rum
1/4 C. Brandy (I used apricot brandy)

To Baste:
A generous amount each of dark spiced rum, (apricot) brandy and coffee liquor

Soak snipped fruits in rum 2-5 days in advance.

Prepare two 9'' loaf pans with butter and baking parchment.

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
Beat the butter, sugar and molasses together until smooth. Add the vanilla, jam, zest and molasses. Beat in the eggs and mix until homogeneous.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Next, add the fruit and nuts and stir in until well-mixed.

Bake at 160℃ for 1 1/2 hours. Let cool before removing from pans and brushing with a mixture of the basting alcohols.

Wrap up in alcohol-soaked cheesecloth and plastic wrap and let ripen for 6-9 weeks in a cool well-ventilated place, unwrapping and brushing with the basting alcohol about once a week. If you check on them and they're already very moist with alcohol (this occurred after 4 weeks of the basting process for me) you can leave them be.

Serve on its own or covered in marzipan once ripe.

Vegan Stollen Rolls (Stollen-Schnecken)

Check out the cute edible gold stars I got. Totally festive, right? Even though it's autumn...

For when Christmas is taking too long to arrive, I like to have something with its characteristic flavours- dried fruit, nuts, marzipan, spices and lots of butter- but enough of a twist that it doesn't make you feel bad that you aren't on winter break yet.

That's why I love these rolls- they really taste like Christmas come early. And, to make the deal sweeter, they're actually vegan! I was skeptical, since butter is one of the predominant flavours in the Stollen that I know and love, but a little butter-vanilla essence (I used Dr. Oetker brand) goes a long way. The copious amount of vegan butter (I used a coconut-oil based brand called Melt that was very nice, but any that's marketed for baking will work)... or just plain baking margarine. After all, my Oma's old DDR cookbooks all call for it in their Stollen, making them inadvertently vegan as well.

These are nontraditional on more fronts than just animal product content, though- they also have a pudding-marzipan filling that tastes creamy and delicious despite being made with soya milk. You can also use almond milk, of course- it might be even better, so long as it's not reduced-calorie/fat.

I have but one warning- even when completely cooked through, the pudding-marzipan filling and marzipan in the dough makes these buns really, really moist- too much for some, I suppose- and you might want to make them a little drier by removing the marzipan in the dough (I went crazy because the blocks I had were getting close to their expiration date, and I didn't want them to go to waste) and not squishing your buns together when baking them like I did. I love it when baked good are really moist, though, so for me it's perfect the way it is.

One more thing- very, very rich. It may be tough to get through even one bun in one sitting. I still think it's worth is, since the taste is glorious. They're not tricky to make, so don't let the long instructions scare you- there's only a few simple components that you need to put together and then assemble. Like flatpack furniture but less aggravating!

Obviously you don't have to make them vegan, especially if the ingredients are hard to find- I had them available and I wanted to play with them and see how good they'd taste in pastry and if anyone would miss the dairy. Nobody did!

Vegan Stollen-Rolls
Makes 9-12
Adapted from Veganer Kuchen

For the dough:
500 g. Flour
150 ml Soya or almond milk
200 g. Marzipan, finely chopped or grated (or use 80 g. sugar)
1 Packet vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade
A few drops butter-vanilla extract (or 1-2 Tsp. if it's not the super-concentrated type in tiny glass tubes)
1/2 Tsp. Almond extract, optional
Zest of 1 orange or lemon
2 TBSP Rum, or 1 Tsp. Rum extract
2 Tsp. Stollen spices (or, mix 1/2 Tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cardamom)
42 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/2 Tsp. Active dry yeast
150 g. Margarine or vegan baking-suitable butter, in cubes

Warm milk and dissolve yeast. Let sit 15 minutes.

Whisk together the flour, spices, zest and vanilla sugar. Add the milk mixture and all the extracts (and rum) being used. Knead until smooth, then add the chunks of marzipan one by one and knead until all are completely mixed into the dough. Repeat with the margarine. 

Let rise in a greased, covered bowl for about 1 hour, or until doubled. After about 45 minutes, begin preheating the oven to 190℃. Then, roll out on a floured surface to form a large rectangle and prepare as in the following filling instructions.

For the Filling:
200 g. Marzipan, finely chopped
2 TBSP Rum, or 1 Tsp. Rum extract
250 ml. Soya or almond milk, plus more as necessary
1 (43 g.)  Packet Dr. Oetker vanilla, almond or cream flavoured pudding powder (or, use corn/potato starch)
1 Packet Vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade
100 g. Margarine or vegan baking-suitable butter (you can cut this to half or even omit it)

Whisk together pudding powder, soya/almond milk and vanilla sugar. Bring to a boil and let thicken. Stir in the margarine and marzipan and whisk until thoroughly combined. add the rum and more of the milk to thin as necessary to get a pastey, spreadable consistency.

Let cool slightly until just warm, then spread across the dough rectangle, leaving about 1 inch of room on one of the long sides of the rectangle. Finish with the dried fruits, as following.

For the Dried Fruit:
150 g. Raisins, sultanas and/or currants
50 g. Candied orange peel, chopped finely
50 g. Candied citron peel, chopped finely
75 g. Almonds, chopped or slivered
1/4 C. Rum, optional

Cover the fruits with rum, if using, and enough hot water to cover them up in a bowl. Let sit at least 30 minutes, then drain.

Sprinkle evenly across the filling and roll the whole thing up like a jelly roll, finishing so that the long side with the clean edge is rolled up last. Use this clean end to stick the roll together and seal the "seam". 

Using a sharp knife, wire or floss, cut the resulting log into 9-12 pieces. Arrange on a baking tray lined with parchment, or in a greased baking dish.

Bake for about 1 hour, covering with aluminium foil after about 20 minutes to avoid overbrowning. They are finished when they reach 190℉ or 90℃ inside.

To Finish:
50 g. Margarine or vegan baking-suitable butter, melted
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract, or a few drops butter-vanilla extract
Powdered sugar

Mix melted margarine and extract. 

While the rolls are still warm, brush with the margarine mixture. Once cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Hot Cross Buns

While not traditional for my family, hot cross buns are very popular in the area where I live- so they make a guest appearance at the easter table. Some are more breadlike and some are more sweet with crosses made of icing, so mine are a kind of intermediate that's not too sweet, uses a pastry cross, and has lots of spices, orange zest and currants. 

I glazed mine with an Azerbaijani white cherry jam, but any light-coloured jam can be used. you can also skip the crosses and just make these any-occasion buns. I imagine they'd make really good bread pudding. 

Hot Cross Buns
Adapted from I Love Bake

500 g. Bread flour
1 1/2 Tsp. Gingerbread spices
1 Tsp. Salt
75 g. Demerara or regular sugar
21 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/4 Tsp. Active dry yeast
300 ml. Milk
50 g. Butter
1 Egg
Zest of 1 orange
1 TBSP Oil
50 g. Candied orange peel
80 g. Currants

For the Pastry Crosses:
1/2 C. Water
75 g. Flour

Apricot jam or marmalade, to glaze (optional)

Sift together flour, salt, spices and add sugar.

Bring milk to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and add butter to melt. Add orange zest and let cool until lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in milk mixture and add to the flour mixture, along with the egg and oil. Knead until smooth, then add currants and peel and knead until well incorporated. Let rise in a covered, greased bowl for 1 hour.

Divide into 12-15 round balls. Shape into buns and cover. Let rise 30-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200℃.

Mix pastry cross ingredients well with a fork and pour into a pastry bag with the tip cut off. Pipe the mixture in a cross shape onto each bun.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Glaze with warmed jam or marmalade, if desired.

The Best Classic Carrot Cake

The two kinds of cake side-by-side: this recipe is for the one in the foreground.

For my birthday this year I made two kinds of carrot cake- one classic and one with an Indian dessert theme (that I'll post the recipe for later). This one is pretty much what I believe a carrot cake should be- some people are purists who prefer less mix-ins, but I like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of carrot cake with all the spices, pineapple, coconut, walnuts, and sultanas... of course, you can skip those if you wish, but I believe that they all contribute to the deliciousness of this cake.

I decorated it with marzipan carrots and walnut pieces, but if it isn't a special occasion you can still make this cake with less frills and have it taste just as good. I suspect I'm going to make it again come spring- you don't need a reason for cake this good!

Classic Carrot Cake

Adapted from Moje Wypieki

2/3 C. Flour
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Baking powder
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp. each nutmeg, allspice and cloves
1/2 C. Sugar
1/3 C. Vegetable or nut oil
1 C. Walnut pieces
1/2 C. Pineapple, finely chopped/shredded
1 C. Carrots, grated and packed
1 C. Sultanas
1/2 C. Shredded unsweetened coconut

Grease a 9" round cake pan with butter and line the bottom with a circle cut out of baking parchment. Grease the parchment and preheat the oven to 180℃.

Sift together flour, baking soda and powder, salt and spices. Separately, beat the oil, eggs and sugar until well-blended and add the dry ingredients until a homogenous mix forms. Mix in the pineapple, coconut and carrots until well-combined.

Stir in the sultanas and walnuts last. Pour into the pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

300 g. Cream cheese (not low-fat!)
90 g. Butter, softened
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 - 1 1/2 C. Powder sugar

Beat the butter, vanilla and cream cheese until well-combined. Add the powder sugar spoonwise until the consistency and sweetness is to taste.

Spekulatius Biscuits

It's good to have spekulatius biscuits on hand, not only because they're delicious on their own, but also because they're the type of crisp, crumbly biscuit that makes ideal crumb crusts and crunchy garnishes when crushed. You can easily buy them in most big supermarkets, but I find that they almost always lack the spicy element, tasting more like regular digestive biscuits than spice cookies. So, I made some of my own as an experiment, and was pleased to find that they were both delicious as tea biscuits and as a crumb base for tarts. They also go well with ice cream, as a substitute for graham crackers in s'mores, and anywhere else you want a spicy, snappy cookie. 

Spekulatius Biscuits
Adapted from Moje Wypieki

250 g. Flour, all purpose
1/8 Tsp. Baking powder
140 g. Muscovado (light brown) sugar, or 2/3 dark brown and 1/3 white sugar
150 g. Butter, cold (substituting half of this with vegetable oil makes a less flavourful but crisper biscuit more similar to the store-bought ones)
1 1/2 Tsp. Spekulatius spices (1/2 Tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 Tsp. ginger, 1/4 Tsp. cloves, 1/8 Tsp. nutmeg, 1/8 Tsp. mace, 1/8 Tsp. cardamom, pinch each of white pepper, coriander and anise)
60 ml. Milk, cold
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla extract, optional
Pinch of salt
Demerara sugar or almond slivers to sprinkle (optional)

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, spices and salt. In a food processor or mixer, add butter/oil and milk and mix until cohesive.

Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 4 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 170℃.

Roll out thinly (about 4 mm) between two sheets of baking parchment and stamp with cookie cutters in preferred shapes. Add any sugar or almonds onto the top if desired.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool well and store in an airtight container.

Classic Apple Pie

The expression "easy as pie" has been somewhat misleading to me. I've only tried making apple pie once before this one- it didn't go so well (the apples inside were partially raw, as was the bottom crust...) and I swore off of fruit pies for a long time, sticking to the banana and coconut cream pies that kind of became a signature of mine. Nonetheless, I wanted to go back and set right what had gone wrong in my more inexperienced baking days, and restore my honour as a baker.

So, I took precautions to ensure no more abysmal failures. I precooked the apples a tiny bit in the microwave, softening them and also causing them to release some of their juice, which I could mix with the thickening agent (cornstarch), sugar and spices to create a paste that's easier to coat the apples with. The precooked apples are also shrunk down, so you can pack up the pie more fully.

The finished product is just as I'd hoped- a flaky, buttery crust stuffed to the brim with slightly gooey, spiced appley goodness. A mixture of tart and sweet apples ensures the right mix of flavours in the pie, and the extra sugar sprinkled on top both adds visual appeal and texture. I like to use brown sugar as a sweetener versus white, because I feel like it's an important part of the classic "apple pie" flavour, but white will also work.

For my next pie, I think I'll try a different blend of apples, and of spices- I'm thinking that allspice would make a good addition to the mix. I'd also try making a larger quantity of dough so it's easier to work with, and therefore to create a decorative crust with, like the edges of the pie. In any case, I think I've successfully redeemed myself as a maker of pie, if the quick disappearance rate is anything to go by. I made some vanilla ice cream to go with it to complete the piexperience, but it's plenty good on it's own.

Classic Apple Pie
Adapted from The Candid Appetite

1 Pie crust dough of choice, enough for a double crust (such as the All-Star Pie Crust)

8 large baking apples, peeled and thinly sliced, preferably half tart and half sweet (e.g. Granny Smiths and Russets)
2/3 - 3/4 C. Light brown sugar, depending on sweetness of apples (or a mix of equal parts dark brown and white sugar)
1/4 C. Cornstarch
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp. Ginger
1/4 Tsp. Cardamom
1/4 Tsp. Cloves (Note: 1 1/2 Tsp. of apple pie spice mix may be substituted for this mix.)
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 TBSP Lemon juice
2 TBSP butter

1 Egg white, to brush
Raw/Demerara sugar, to sprinkle

Preheat the oven to 180℃.

Roll out about 2/3rds of the pie crust dough and line a 9" pie pan. Set aside the remaining dough.

In a large heatproof bowl, microwave apples on low power for 15-20 minutes (mixing after 5 and 10 minutes), until apples are slightly tender. This will also shrink the apples down a bit so they pack together better in the pie. Stir well to help release the juices and strain off the liquid. Alternatively, use a large skillet over low heat, stirring constantly.

Combine cornstarch, sugar, spices and lemon zest. Add the liquid from the apples and lemon juice, and mix until smooth. Add the mixture back to the apples and stir to coat.

Fill the dough-lined pie pan with the apples. Cut the butter into small pieces and scatter over the top of the apples. Take the remaining dough and roll out until it forms a circle large enough to cover the top of the pie. Drape over the apples and trim the edges. Use a fork or knife to help press the dough from the sides and top together.

Brush the pie with the egg white and sprinkle on the Demerara sugar. Cut a few slits in the pie to help release steam during baking. 

Bake for about 45-55 minutes in the bottom half of the oven, covering with aluminium foil once the desired brownness of the crust is achieved.

Let cool about half an hour to help the pie set before serving. Best served warm with vanilla ice cream on the side!

Gingerbread Trifecta- Croatian Medenjaci, German Lebkuchen and American Gingerbread

Medenjaci(top) and Lebkuchen (bottom) with royal icing.

My family has never made gingerbread cookies for Christmas traditionally, so I took it upon myself to try some recipes out and evade having to buy them for relatively high prices from local bakeries (or in the case of honey-based gingerbread, not being able to buy them at all). These cookies are great because they last ages without losing their flavour or texture, are easy to roll out and cut (provided you use enough flour and some baking parchment) and are great fun to decorate. We used two types of frosting, the regular decorative royal icing and also the more "American" icing made with shortening. Both work well for gluing sprinkles, candies, and other tidbits.

American gingerbread with the thicker, soft frosting.

Each kind has its distinct advantages. The medenjaci had a milder gingerbread flavour while still being well-spiced, and could easily be made any time of year (then again, there's no law against off-season Christmas baking...). Its ingredients are also more accessible than many other honey-gingerbreads for Canada. 

While the lebkuchen requires natron (hard to come by in Canada), lebkuchen spices (which one can make themselves using an online recipe- I used some from my grandmother) and white rye flour (available in Eastern European stores and some health foods stores), it's well worth the effort to gather the ingredients if you can- it's got a unique flavour and makes great ornamental cookies- and it's eggless, and can even be made vegan if shortening is used. 

The American gingerbread is also as good as any I've ever bought, and is different from the other two due to both the higher fat content and use of molasses. I would say that every one of the recipes was a keeper.

Medenjaci- Croatian Gingerbread
Adapted from Tara's Multicultural Table

3 C. All-purpose flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/8 Tsp. Baking soda
2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Ginger
1/4 Tsp. Cloves
1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg
1/8 Tsp. Mace
Pinch each of coriander, white pepper and cardamom
1/2 C. Butter
1/2 C. Sugar
2/3 C. Honey, preferably wildflower
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 Egg

Sift together the flour, spices, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add honey, vanilla and egg. Incorporate the dry ingredients in spoonfuls until all is added. Once smooth, wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 180℃. Roll out between sheets of baking parchment or plastic clingfilm until thin and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Bake for 10 minutes on parchment. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Lebkuchen
From Chefkoch.de

400 g. Honey, preferably wildflower
100 g. Water
100 g. Light brown sugar
60 g. Clarified butter, or shortening
300 g. All purpose or type 550 flour
300 g. White rye flour
6 g. Baking powder
1 Packet Lebkuchen spices
16 g. Natron

In a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, heat together the honey, water and brown sugar until homogenous. Add butter/shortening and allow to dissolve. Let cool to room temperature.

Sift together dry ingredients and add the wet ones. Knead until a homogenous mass forms and refrigerate 6 hours, or overnight.

On a well-floured surface, roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake at 180℃ about 15 minutes, or until just beginning to brown at the edges.

American Molasses Gingerbread
Adapted from Moje Wypieki

750 g. All purpose flour
15 g. Baking powder
5 g. Ginger
3 g. Nutmeg
2 g. Cloves
2 g. Cinnamon
2 g. Allspice
1 g. White pepper
113 g. Butter
113 g. Shortening
235 ml. Molasses
180 g. Brown sugar
120 ml. Water
1 Egg
2 Tsp. Vanilla
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Mix dry ingredients. Heat together the sugar, water, and molasses until dissolved in a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl. Add the butter and shortening and allow to dissolve. Let cool.

Add to dry ingredients along with egg and vanilla, and mix until homogenous. Refrigerate 6 hours, or overnight.

Roll out on a well-floured surface and cut into shapes. Bake at 180℃ for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool and harden on sheets before removal.

Royal Icing:
1 Egg white
2/3 C. Powder sugar
Pinch of salt
1 Tsp. Lemon juice

Beat all at high speed until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Soft Piped Icing:
1 1/3 C. Powdered sugar
3 TBSP Shortening
1 Tsp. Vanilla
About 1 TBSP milk

Beat all at high speed until smooth, adding just enough milk to achieve a pipable consistency.

Marzipan-Stollen (with Milk Roux and Preferment)

I really, really, really love making Stollen. I have many fond memories of doing it with my mother following an old recipe from my grandmother, soaking the raisins and proofing the dough, rolling out the marzipan for the centre and brushing it with butter when it was done. It was a sure sign that Christmas was on the way- Stollen is to be made weeks before, at least three to four, but for us it was usually early or mid-November when we started to give it optimal time to age. Even though there's over a month to the holidays, the fact that there's a stollen in the pantry wrapped up and ready meant the promise of Christmas right around the corner.

The unbaked Stollen, ready to go.

There are many recipes for Stollen, and none are right or wrong- though for my family, the ultimate stollen has got to be a buttery yeast dough full of raisins, currants, citrus peel and almonds, and the marzipan core is a must. I plan to make another batch closer to Christmas with a baking powder-egg-quark dough that's nothing like what we usually have, but there's got to be something traditional there, too- it's Christmas, after all.

Powdered up and ready to lie in wait until Christmas...

While this isn't my Oma's recipe, I think this is an improvement- more butter and less sugar in the dough, with copious amounts of fruit and nuts and lots of different spices. There's a roux in the dough to keep it soft and moist until Christmas, and of course plenty of my beloved marzipan. It's crusted thickly in two types of sugar along with the butter, and is less breadlike and more dense than what we usually have. I think it helps that we didn't use a high-gluten flour this year, instead opting for type 550/all purpose flour, and didn't overdo it with the resting times. I've seen a lot of bread-like stollen recipes, but it just doesn't seem right to me- but hey, to each their own. Stollen is a very personal business.

After baking, I always pick out the burnt nuts and fruits that get totally carbonized on top (it seems you can't avoid that) before brushing on the butter and powdering it up. Next, the loaves get wrapped in baking parchment and aluminium foil and placed in the cabinet above the range for a nice, long time. I'm always a little nervous letting them sit, although I know they've got to- then again, I've heard of fruitcakes that sit for a full year (or more) before consumption. 

And after a long wait... fantastic stollen that's moist and soft but not too much so, crusted in vanillaey sugar and complete with a marzipan centre.

Marzipan-Stollen
Adapted from Hefe und Mehr

For the Fruit and Nuts:
225 g. Mixed yellow, green and dark raisins/sultanas
75 g. Currants
100 g. Slivered/chopped almonds
70 ml. Dark spiced rum
Boiling water, to cover

Mix all and cover with just enough hot water to almost top off the fruits. Leave overnight in the refrigerator to absorb.

(NOTE: I forgot to presoak my fruits overnight, so mine only got about 3-4 hours in the rum mixture... if you want a strong rum flavour, though, go for the full 12-14 hour soak, or add a few drops of rum extracts to the fruits to boost the flavour as a quick fix. I also went a little overboard with the sultanas- but that's a matter of personal taste. The amount given is already very generous.)

For the Roux:
30 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
150 g. Milk

In a small saucepan, cook on medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until 65℃- or until it forms an almost translucent, pudding-like paste. Place in a cool bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let cool to room temperature before using.

For the Preferment:
100 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
100 g. Milk, cold
35 g. Fresh yeast

Mix all and let rise until doubled.

Final Dough:
400 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
5 g. Salt
0.5 g. Each mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom (approximate with the amount on the tip of a knife!)
Half a vanilla bean, scraped
75 g. Sugar, plus one or two sachets vanilla sugar (optional)
Zest of half a lemon (optional)
250 g. Butter
50 g. Candied citron, diced
50 g. Candied orange peel, diced
150-200 g. Marzipan

Cream butter and sugar (including vanilla sugar, lemon zest and scraped-out vanilla seeds, if using). Sift together flour, spices and salt, and add to the butter mixture, along with the roux and preferment. Knead until homogeneous, keeping the dough cool. 

Let rest covered for 30 minutes. In the mean time, shape the marzipan into two long rods.

Drain the fruits and nuts and mix with the diced peels. Knead into the dough until just incorporated, and divide into two parts. Let rest covered and preheat the oven to 200℃.

Flatten each piece of dough into an oblong oval. In the centre, form a dent and place in the marzipan roll, folding the dough over it. Bake right away for 40 minutes, covering with foil if browning too quickly.

To Finish:
50 g. Melted butter
80 g. Superfine sugar
100 g. Powder sugar

Brush with melted butter and coat thickly in sugar. Dust all over with powder sugar once cool (after a few hours, or the next morning) and roll up in aluminium foil. Store in a cool, dark, dry place for at least a week before eating.

Mincemeat Fruit Mix

This is entirely my improvisation on what I thought ought to be in a mincemeat mix, and what I happened to have in the cupboard that looked like it could use a bit of livening up with rum and spices. Some citron and orange peel from Easter, various half-finished containers of raisins, some currants... the dates and cherries are new, though. I like the honey-like stickiness that date bits add to things, and I love the tartness of dried cherries (I got lucky and found unsweetened ones) in contrast to the raisins. 

The whole thing is doused in a mixture of alcohol remnants from the bottom of several mini-bottles, with the traditional rum, some brandy (it seemed right) and Grand Marnier for some extra orangey flavour. The spices are also all wild guesses on what goes into a mincemeat- I used a lot of allspice and cloves since that seems to be characteristic of mincemeat to me, but it's all a matter of preference. There's plenty of brown sugar to create a thick layer of alcohol-spice-goo and moisten everything, some lemon juice for acidity, and a bit of hazelnut oil in the place of suet just to coat all the components and add a little complexity of flavour. Later on when using the mincemeat, some extra butter or flavoured oil for further enrichment would be a good idea- I use butter-cooked apples in my mince pies, so I didn't use much fat here. The apple variant is included at the bottom, and is in my opinion better for filling pies as it tempers the intensity of the dried fruit while adding moisture.

Every once in a while I open up the container just to smell how fantastic this mincemeat is, and every time it's better than the last. It gets me excited for the prospects of my first-ever attempt at Christmas baking derived from the Anglosphere, which is kind of necessitated by the fact that I love mincemeat but the local bakery makes it the traditional non-vegetarian suet-enriched way.

I messed up the first time around with too many spices and too much alcohol- I ended up soaking half the mix in hot water to soak out some of the seasonings, then returned them to the rest of the mix to make a milder, better-balanced mincemeat. I've already changed the ingredients accordingly, but keep in mind that taking things out is a lot harder than putting them in- when in doubt, leave it out, and you can always readjust the seasonings before using later.

Mincemeat Fruit Mix
100 g. Currants
120 g. Dried tart cherries, preferably unsweetened
220 g. Yellow and/or green sultanas
220 g. Dark raisins
125 g. Candied orange peel, diced
90 g. Candied citron peel, diced
100 g. Chopped pitted dates
150 g. Brown sugar
1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp. Cardamom
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Ginger
1/2 Tsp. Allspice
1/4 Tsp. Cloves
1 TBSP Vanilla extract
2 TBSP Hazelnut oil
1/2 C. Rum, brandy and Grand Marnier- about 1/2 rum and 1/4  each of the others
1 Tsp. Lemon zest
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Mix all well and leave to marinate in a sealed container in the refrigerator for at least a month, preferably more. 

Variant with Cooked Apples

Half of above fruit mix
About 2 tart cooking apples- peeled, cored and grated
2 TBSP Sugar, preferably cane or light brown
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 TBSP Butter

Heat butter in a medium saucepan or skillet and add sugar. Add apples, and cook on medium heat until all the liquids have been released. Add lemon juice and keep cooking until most of the liquid is evaporated and the apples are soft.

Mix with the mincemeat.