I've already posted my fruitcake and oatmeal (mock pecan) pie recipes, which are the two biggies, but I also like to make these ridiculously-easy date treats. Blend together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, a little very-finely-grated orange or lemon peel (or both, to taste) and a pinch of salt, and put it in a piping bag. Slice extra-large pitted dates lengthwise, partway through, pull open the slit to get a boatlike shape, and set them aside. (A regular 8-ounce brick makes enough filling for around 4 dozen "colossal" dates.) Toast some pistachios, chop finely, and set those aside as well. Pipe some of the cream-cheese mixture into the date and dip the surface of the cream cheese into the pistachios. Chill until firm and store refrigerated, but remove from the fridge about 10 minutes before serving. DH is utterly MAD for these so I don't make them often, he once polished off a dozen in a sitting!

I also like to make shortbread cookies, and here's one recipe I use (closest one I had handy LOL):
1 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature (the absolute best, freshest butter you can get, because the flavor of the finished product is almost entirely dependent on the quality of the butter)
3/4 cup sugar (vanilla sugar is a nice touch)
1/4 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups flour (I always get a fresh bag of King Arthur unbleached organic flour which comes in little 2-lb bags)

Thoroughly cream butter with sugar and salt and work in flour 1 cup at a time. Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour but no longer than two days (with all that butter it picks up refrigerator funk fast). Take the dough out of the fridge and let stand on the counter 10 minutes before rolling to about 1/2" thick and cutting either into 1"x4" "fingers" or 2" squares with a fluted pastry wheel or into round cookies with a round biscuit cutter (I use the fluted ring from my 4" tart pans), or press the dough into a single large circle (a 10" removable-bottom tart pan is perfect) and use a fork or fluted pastry wheel to cut/perforate dough into wedges, but don't separate them. I roll right on baking parchment taped down on the countertop so I can slide the whole thing right onto my sheet pan for baking. (If you're lucky enough to have a Silpat, by all means use it!) It didn't quite feel right to my purist side :-) but I have occasionally sprinkled the top with coarse "sparkle sugar" or Demerara sugar for a fancier appearance. Put the pan in the fridge while preheating oven to 375F; bake for 15-40 minutes depending on the size of the cookie. The cookie is done when it is firm but not rock hard, and just barely golden. Cool on a rack and store airtight at room temperature.

I'm having too much fun with a miniature Bundt pan set that I received last year. It has 4 designs and each are probably 4-5 in. I'm making all flavors, so people can have more than one. The lemon is the best, no, maybe it's the pineapple coconut or maybe.....

Natal, I hope you don't mind me asking Johnmari a baking question...?

JM, your recipes always sound fantastic. Your kitchen must be a sight to behold at this, or any time of the year! My question is this. When it says to "cut in" the sugar w/the butter how do you do that? I was attempting to make crumbly topping for a sweet potato casserole & I obvioulsy didn't do it right as the topping was not crumbly at all. It just kind of melted into the sweet potatoes...not a disaster, but more texture on top would have been better. Does "cutting in" require a special tool? I just used a fork. Thanks, if you have the time to respond, & thanks Natal, for starting this thread!

Nana, I haven't used my bundt pan in years except for the Monkey Bread I make every Christmas Eve to eat on Christmas morning, but do you make homemade bundt cakes? I haven't seen any bundt cakes in ages, and I don't think they sell the mixes anymore, do they? I haven't looked for them but it seems like they went out of style!

Oh, I do make Pound Cake in a bundt pan sometimes, but realised the crust is much better baked in one of those "tin foil" pans.

No Martha here! For bundt cakes, I use boxed cake mix. Add instant pudding mix and an extra egg, 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of oil. I made lemon,pineapple coconut,banana nut,chocolate chocolate chip and carrot/raisin mini bundt cakes. Drizzled with glaze and placed on a small red styrofoam plate and wrapped with clear plastic wrap. They are so cute! I made 2 dozen today for my husband to take to work tomorrow.

Stinky, I use my food processor on "pulse" for crumb/streusel toppings, and use ice cold butter. It sounds like your butter was probably too warm and you had too much butter in proportion to the dry ingredients. If you don't have a food processor, there's a great gadget called a "dough blender". You want one with hard blades rather than wires IMO. Put it in the freezer for an hour or so along with your butter, your work bowl, and even your dry ingredients (which you can and IMO should premix) if your kitchen is hot.

I don't get as much chance to cook as I would like to just because of physical inability, but often I sit down and direct DH to "be my hands" in the kitchen. I/we tend not to cook a lot at one time, but rather spread things out over a few days when possible, cooking things that will hold rather than go stale immediately - for instance, I made the fruitcakes before Thanksgiving (they need to age for the flavors to blend). If we make something labor-intensive like a lasagna, we don't make anything else that day.

Oakley - Any cake recipe that makes two layers will fill a standard size (10-12 cup) Bundt pan very nicely; 1/2 the recipe or a recipe intended for a 9" square will fit a 6-cup pan. Make sure you grease it well even if it's teflon coated (I use Pam For Baking or Baker's Joy sprays, both of which have the flour already mixed in rather than fooling around with shortening and flour). I use my Bundt pan more often than I make regular layer cakes because it's just so much easier, and you don't get dry corners like you can with a square or rectangular pan.

Another cool thing you can do with a Bundt pan is make meatloaf because it cooks evenly due to the ring shape - make twice as much meat mixture as you would for a regular size loaf if you have a 10-12 cup pan, great for a crowd or a potluck supper.

Nana, so I buy a regular cake mix and add the extra ingredients, or do I follow instructions on the cake mix and just add an extra egg?

OR..do I use cake mix ONLY, extra egg than is recommended, 1 c. water, 1/3 c. oil and small pudding?

Maybe you should write it out for me. lol.

I have had a really lazy baking season so far. Here is a surprisingly good recipe that uses rolls of readymade cookie dough!

Here is a link that might be useful: White Chocolate Macaroons

Thanks so much, Johnmari! I knew you'd have the answer!!
Yes indeed, the butter I was using had been sitting out for a while as I thought it would be easier to "work" with. Ah, it should have been icy cold & the work bowl & tool should have been as well. Good to know!

That tool looks great. I appreciate the link.(I like shopping at Amazon--good deals there--perfect!)I can see how it would really do the trick.

Armed with that, & your tips, I know I will be able to make a mean crumbly topping which makes all the difference. Isn't that the best part? Thanks again!

Hope you're feeling better & able to cook up all the things you like. It is clear that you have advanced culinary skills, a real appreciation of good food, & a sophisticated palate. I'm glad your dh is so much help, & assists you in your kitchen creations.

JM, why do many cake recipes call for flouring the pans after you grease them? I never do it, I just spray Pam or use Crisco and grease it. I don't like the dry taste of the flour around the edges.

Is there a reason they call for flour?

And can you make a regular box mix cake in a bundt pan? Will it be too "floppy" once it's inverted? I would love to use my bundt pan more. How long would I cook the cake in it?

I like the idea of cooking meatloaf in one! I love meatloaf. Best.comfort.food.ever. :)

I have Red Velvet Cake that's to die for if anyone is interested. It's won blue ribbons at a fair..when someone else cooked it. lol.

Everyone ask me to bring it at Christmas. It's a heavy, moist cake, it reminds me of an old fashioned "bakery cake."

Stinky, I use the pastry blender that Mari linked. Works like a charm.

It also comes in handy for chopping the eggs in an egg salad recipe. Just don't chop too long.

Oakley, dh loves Red Velvet! It was my favorite as a kid. I remember the year my mom made it with blue frosting and decorated it with coconut for my 'almost' 4th of July birthday. She always called it the Waldorf Astoria cake.

I made one once. Hated the mess with all the food coloring.

I did a trial run today with a new spiced nut recipe. Not bad. Have a definite kick.

Here is a link that might be useful: Honey Chipotle Pecans (scroll down a bit)

Almond puff is always appreciated by those who receive it. It is 2 layers. The first layer is a lot like pie crust and the second layer is very, very similar to cream puff dough (except it is supposed to collapse). Glazed and then sprinkled with almonds. A definite hit. I can also give you a kringle recipe if you are interested.

Almond Puff

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon milk, or as needed
Sliced almonds

Directions
Place 1 cup of flour in a medium bowl. Mix in butter using a fork or a pastry blender. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of water over, and stir with a fork until dough comes together. Divide into two balls. Pat dough into two long strips on an ungreased baking sheet, about 14 inches long and 3 inches wide. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of butter and 1 cup of water. Bring to a rolling boil. Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract and remove from the heat. Immediately stir in 1 cup of flour until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Gradually stir in the eggs until well blended. Divide evenly, and spread over the two crusts on the baking sheet.
Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Allow to cool almost to room temperature before frosting. The topping may collapse, that is okay.

To make the frosting, mix together the confectioners' sugar, 1 teaspoon of almond extract and a splash of milk in a small bowl until smooth. Add more milk if necessary to make a pourable glaze. Drizzle over the Danish puffs, and decorate with sliced almonds.

I have seen some recipes where jam is spread over the dough and then glazed and sprinkled with almonds but that is a little too much for me.

Stinky, before I owned a food processor, I would use my hands to cut the butter into flour. The dough blenders always felt awkward too me and they often bent when I did not want them too. If the butter was softening too much, I would just throw it in the freezer for a few minutes.

If you love streusel, you can make a large batch and store it in the freezer to use as the mood strikes.

Natal - I haven't made the spicy nuts yet for my hubby this year. Yesterday I baked - peanut butter blossoms (cookies), decorated sugar cookies, a new recipe for me - peppermint melts - kind of like a wedding cookie but with peppermint flavoring and glaze, then you can garnish with crushed peppermint. The cookies were mostly to give away. I made a batch of *turtles* for my hubby - which are simply a pretzel (small) topped with a piece of rollo candy. You put in the oven just for a couple of minutes, then squish the rollo down with a pecan half. They are pretty good!

Oakley - you can use a bundt pan for any cake you would use a tube pan for. I always make my chocolate chip pound cake in a bundt pan, just because I think they are prettier. I'm not much for cake mixes, but the choc. chip pound cake uses a cake mix with several add-ins. If you do the flour and shortening correctly, it won't leave flour on your cake. Some cakes just do better with that instead of pam. Especially some chocolate cakes. Shake your pan out very well after using the flour.

Oh, I forgot, I also did thumbprint cookies - they are a yearly request around here.

I'm going to do homemade hot chocolate mix for a few friends, put a bag full in a pretty mug, garnish with ribbon and a candy cane.

tina

Tina, I love thumbprint cookies! And they're so versatile. Fill 'em with whatever.

I made the Rolo "turtles" last week. Dh liked them; me not so much. Tasted like a melted Rolo on top of a pretzel. ;)

I've eaten a few more of the chipotle pecans and really like them, but I need a milder honey. I think the locally-produced stuff I have is wildflower and it has a fairly strong taste. I need clover or orange blossom.

I have so many! Two things I'm always asked to bring to get togethers are the pretzel turtles (what natal mentioned above, only instead of Rolos I use Dove chocolate covered caramels). Even better than those is the "fancy" caramel corn. It uses two bags of microwave popcorn, peanuts and cashews, which you cover in the caramel, then you drizzle with white and dark or milk or semisweet chocolate. That stuff is addicting - makes a great gift, too.

I also make a cookie called Raspberry Strippers - Cooking Light recipe. You can find it on their web site.

Sugared pecans or almonds are delicious. Cranberry bread, cranberry cookies, biscotti, pecan tassies and pistachio bread are a few others my family enjoys.

stinky, you are very welcome. FWIW, a small food processor (4 cups or so, big enough to make a topping for a fruit crisp or suchlike) can be had for around $20 in the big sales this time of year, or I'll betcha you could get one on Freecycle if you put out a request. I love mine, enough that I have three sizes *sheepish grin* (a mini-chopper - for which I paid $10 at Walgreens of all places - a smallish one like the aforementioned, and then the big 12-cup one I gave DH for his birthday last year, along with a blender for Yule LOL - hey, he asked for them!).

I did graduate (top in my class! *preen*smirk*) from culinary school, but I have to admit that I actually don't have a terribly sophisticated palate as most people would consider it - I couldn't give a rat's rump in a rainstorm about truffles (the fungus, although I'm not that much into chocolate either), sushi, or most "fine dining" concoctions that I had to be elbows deep in when I was cooking professionally. I'm happier just as a good homestyle cook rather than doing any of the fussy stuff. I do hope that someday I can get back to my "mad thrashes" in the kitchen, because I do love to cook and especially cook for those I love.

oakley, the grease keeps the cake from sticking but the flour gives the cake something to "grab onto" so it will climb up the sides of pan well, and so you're less likely to get the all-too-common tall middle with short sides. If you bang off the excess flour (turn the pan upside down and give it a couple good thumps on the counter; if it's a Pyrex pan, fold up a kitchen towel and thump onto that) you should have no flour left on the baked cake, but if you do you can just wipe-and-brush it off with a dampened paper towel. If you're making chocolate cake or another dark cake, use sifted cocoa powder instead of flour and you won't have any white flecks, and if you're using a boxed mix take out a couple of tablespoons of the dry mix and use that in lieu of flour or cocoa. But I'm a schlub and like the baker's spray, which has never left a residue on my cakes.

You can use a regular-size boxed mix in a 10-12 cup Bundt pan. I don't care much for boxed mixes, though, I think they taste rather "chemical-y" (too much leavening, I think), are usually loaded with artificial this and imitation that, and we prefer our cakes rather less fluffy and squishy (just like we don't care for those puffy-soft commercial breads, which we call "baled fog") but each to her own, said the lady as she kissed the cow. :-) Although the inside tube speeds baking, it is a deeper cake so it takes a little longer to bake - I usually start checking at the time recommended for a 9x13 pan, using the skewer/toothpick test or my instant read thermometer, aiming for 198-200 degrees. Higher than that tends to result in a miserably dry cake. Turn the pan around halfway through the estimated baking time. IMO every kitchen should have a digital instant read thermometer, they're cheap (under $15) and SO useful, especially from a food safety standpoint.

For "cutting in" fat into the dry ingredients, you could use a pastry knife or you could go really low tech and use a couple of table knives. Holding one in each hand, move the knives in the 4 and 8 position towards you, cutting
the fat into the dry ingredients. Keep cutting until the particles are about the size of peas.

I just got done making my 3 favorite holiday cookies that I will take to my company's potluck. They are Nanaimo bars which I learned to make from my Canadian mother in law, Seven Layer Cookie Bars, which my grandmother called "Hello Dolly" cookies, some of which I will be mailing to my son in Spain, and what my grandmother called Snowballs, but are usually called Mexican Wedding Cakes or Russian Tea Cakes

Terriks, we love the hello dollys! I haven't made any this year, which is a good thing, because I will eat them!

Natal, I prefer icing in the thumbprints. We had a bakery here when I was a child that served the BEST thumbprints. They were always filled with icing in pretty pastel colors. I know some like jam, etc. in theirs, but we really like the icing (which is kind of like a thick glaze).

You didn't like the turtles? To me, you tasted the caramel more than just a piece of rollo. The dove caramel would probably be yummy too.

tina

Parma, Tish, & Suero, thanks for the tips!

JM, I think it's wonderful that you use your culinary talent to make really great homestyle food. That's what the world needs now! It's right up there with world peace. Who knows, maybe some great food shared could facilitate some world peace!

Last night I watched the best Iron Chef episode ever! It was a Holiday Desert competition! OMG, would I have loved being a judge for that one. Most everything looked so beautiful & yummy (though I would have had to say "no thanks" to Paula Deen's cheese "fudge"...)

There are some delightful looking recipes appearing here too. I'm feeling inspired to get baking!

"I couldn't give a rat's rump in a rainstorm about truffles (the fungus, although I'm not that much into chocolate either)"

Oooh, those are two of my favorite things. My chocolate must be dark, however.

It's interesting that even in Italian, truffles (tartufi) are translated as fungi (too expensive for my pocketbook but porcini are a close second) and the confection truffle (tartufo) mean a rounded sweet (usually made with chocolate and the majority with an ice cream base).

Now I'm hungry. Mushrooms and chocolate for breakfast?

Over the course of the past week I made the following cookies:

Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake cookies (5 dozen)
Cranberry-Orange Almond Biscotte (8 dozen)
Almond Jam Thumbprints (5 dozen)
Mrs. Barden's Bourbon Balls (5 dozen)
Rosemary-Citrus Wafers (4 dozen)
Florida Citrus Balls (4 dozen)
2 1/2 pounds of Peppermint Bark

We give them as "thank you's" to our veterinarian's office, mail carrier, my hairdresser, DH's old boss, my office mate and our lunch monitors, and our neighbors. I made extra dough for 4 dozen more of the Almond Jam Thumbprint cookies because they're DH and DS's favorites. After a quick pit stop at the market today (to pick up almonds and almond extract) I'll finish them off and bake them. They should have their fill of them after tonight...I can only hope LOL.

Oh, I'm an absolute hobbit when it comes to mushrooms in general - back a million years ago when we lived in Boston we shopped at Haymarket Square where most of the veggies were usually, shall we say, somewhat past their prime, but cheap-cheap-cheap. Once in a while we would come across a flat of "tarnished" mushrooms (O frabjous day when they were creminis, chanterelles or fresh porcini, although the latter were still too rich for our pockets most of the time) for very little money and then we would stop at one of the North End bakeries and beg an enormous loaf of day-old bread for a dollar or so, and we would gorge ourselves on mushrooms-on-toast for supper. (Amazing recipe for that in one of the two "Vegetarian Epicure" books, both of which give me the giggles because they recommend passing a doobie around as an aperitif! Very Seventies. But some dang good recipes, especially Eastern European ones.) But to me truffles just smell/taste like feet.

The only chocolate I'll eat is dark, the rest of it is just a waste of time IMO, but I'm just not inclined to go out of my way for it and if there's something else available (marzipan, lemon, good vanilla, cinnamon) I'm likely to go for that. We ARE blessed enough to live a couple of towns over from an incredible chocolatier, Byrne & Carlson, that Chocolatier Magazine ranked as #2 in the nation, after Jacques Torres' shop in NYC, right here in piddly Portsmouth NH. I'll contented eat their chocolate-dipped marzipan (although I do prefer plain) and fruits (incredible glaceed fruits part-dipped in dark chocolate) and cream disks (and DH is nuts for the chipotle-sea salt truffles, which actually had a nubbin of chipotle pepper in the middle) in small doses. We were just in yesterday picking up Yule presents for our friends - the artisan bars are pretty inexpensive at an average of $10 each, and we cleaned them out of the Mendiant, Chipotle Sea Salt and Violet bars! I used to live a stone's throw (almost literally, I could see it from my back porch in the winter when the leaves were off the trees) from the Lindt factory and I think I set foot in there once a year to buy holiday gifts because you couldn't beat the bargains with a stick.

"and we would gorge ourselves on mushrooms-on-toast for supper. (Amazing recipe for that in one of the two "Vegetarian Epicure" books, both of which give me the giggles because they recommend passing a doobie around as an aperitif! Very Seventies. But some dang good recipes, especially Eastern European ones.) But to me truffles just smell/taste like feet."

That sounds delicious. I could, and have, put mushrooms on just about anything.

I don't like entertaining, that much, but had a few of the guys, that work for DH, over for dinner a few years ago. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing, so I took some cooked turkey out of the freezer and whipped up some tetrazzini (doubling the fresh mushrooms, of course).

Proudly served it up and when I saw one of the young men push each and every shroom to the side, I was heartbroken.

Guess everybody doesn't like them as much as we do.

On my way to check out Byrne & Carlson. :)

"back a million years ago when we lived in Boston....and then we would stop at one of the North End bakeries"

Maria's comes to mind. Or Modern Pastry. But never Mike's in a million years LOL.

Oh, you lucky dogs, to have lived in Boston. I was born and raised in Manhattan and I wouldn't live there again if you paid me (well, maybe if you paid me a lot). But Boston? I'd live there in a nanosecond. DH and I spent our entire 3 day get-away to Boston in the North End. Well, except for the few hours we took to go to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Albrecht Durer exhibit, which made us weep because of the beauty of his work. Gads, we love that city.

Doesn't sound very holiday-ish, but I just baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for my post physical therapy treat. I love them. Such comfort food!

The Byrne & Carlson website is gorgeous! I've never heard of them, but my, my, don't they have extraordinary looking goodies! If they taste as good as they look, those chocolates are outstanding.

Parma, I would be more than delighted to gobble down any number of mushrooms you would care to share with me. Wish I'd been there for your turkey tetrazzini dish. I would have told that silly man to put those little guys on my plate! Yumm! Talk about comfort food!

Boston would have been a much better city to live in had we actually had the money to live in a decent apartment in a decent neighborhood (we lived in Southie in a horrid firetrap of a Second Empire three-flat), eat in restaurants, that kind of thing. Living in poverty and near-poverty in Boston is REALLY high on the suckosity scale. As it was, we couldn't wait to escape, and we did in 1999. About the only thing I miss is fresh ricotta (firm and crumbly instead of cottage-cheese-like) at somewhere-or-other in the North End and Harvest Co-Op in Cambridge. Not worth the three-hour-plus (assuming traffic is good, which is never is) round-trip drive though.

Almost none of our friends like mushrooms. :-( OTOH, almost all of them like olives, which I loathe more than anything else except maybe liver.

Stinky-gardener, ANY cookie at Christmas is Christmasy! I'm going to bake a batch of Hershey Kiss Cookies for Christmas Day.

I also order a large box of See's Assorted Chocolates. I usually make fudge, but I think someone else will make it this year.

Someone will have to haul me home because I won't be able to get up! lol. Thanksgiving and Christmas days are my "Diabetic Holidays." :)

Oakley, make room for me on the buggy as I collapse right with you into a diabetic coma!

In addition to my own baking, my sister bakes like crazy for Christmas, & we'll be at her house to celebrate. She makes beautiful, yummy, white & silver-decorated star-shaped cookies (among others) & a rum cake that is out of this world delicious! It's my favorite cake in the whole world. I can't wait.

Good to know I'm not the only one looking forward to their holiday sugar high!

Mari, can you post your fruitcake recipe again? I know it's probably too late to make it (10 days to ferment?) but I thought I could try, or maybe make it into cookies.

I've been baking cookies like crazy - so far nothing complicated (peanut butter blossoms with kisses, triple chocolate chip, and today 8 dozen snickerdoodles). The kids want to make (whole wheat) gingerbread men though - don't know if I'll have time during the week - the rolling and cutting, not to mention decorating, take so much time. I'm more of a drop cookie fan. Tomorrow we do molasses snaps and molasses sugar cookies (DS couldn't remember which ones were the big hit at 5th grade party last year so we have to make both again). Wed is volunteer at DD's school (and get 19 kids to sign 2 cards w/o teachers knowing it - good thing I volunteer in the library so they leave the kids with me and librarian). *Maybe* we can make pffeffernuessen (sp?) that day - another drop cookie. Or make the gingerbread dough Wed PM and start rolling/cutting Thurs after school. Friday is "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses at DD's school, I'm helping.

This weekend (or a couple days before Xmas) I have to make my grandma's almond-filled stollen. Still trying to figure out the recipe on that one since she never wrote a *complete* recipe down. I came close last year but used almond paste by mistake instead of almond filling since she didn't write it down. Was still good, but didn't spread much.

If anybody wants the recipes for any of these let me know.

Here ya go, ajsmama. It's way too late to make anything but cookies, I think; there's no fermentation going on but the cake does need to age so the flavors meld. Right after baking it is kind of harsh tasting, but logically cookies would age more quickly. I never make it later than Thanksgiving and prefer to do it back around Veteran's Day to have it ready for Christmas/Yule.

Mari's Fruitcake - Not For Children!
makes 3 4x8 inch loaf pans or a 10 inch bundt pan

The day before you wish to bake, combine in a big bowl:
2 1/2 cups chopped mixed dried fruit (the original recipe called for that weird candied fruit mix, and you can use that if you want, but I prefer actual fruit) see note 1 below
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted
1 cup chopped pitted dates - note 2
2-3 tbsp finely chopped candied ginger
1/2 cup chopped candied cherries, optional (DH insists that there must be at least a few of those nasty neon-green things in this, for sentimentÂs sake)
1/2 cup dark rum or brandy  note 3 (you will need 1 pint bottle total)
1/2 cup orange juice (approximately juice of 1 orange)
grated zest of the orange
Cover and marinate overnight, stirring when you remember to!

On baking day:
Grease pans heavily (I use Pam for Baking on Teflon pans, but Crisco's fine; butter sticks maddeningly). Preheat oven to 300F.

Sift together and set aside:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
In large bowl, beat:
2 eggs (sometimes I need a third egg if the final mix won't come together)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle; NOT evaporated milk)
1 big (around 28 oz.) jar mincemeat (this is the secret ingredient) - note 4

Mix all the ingredients together. You'll have to work at it. Really work! Scrape it into pan(s), spread it out evenly, and bake at 300F for 1 hour 45 minutes for bundt pan or large loaves, less time for smaller cakes. Use the
old toothpick test for doneness. Cool on racks.

When cakes are cold, wrap them in clean, porous cloth (I use old linen or worn cotton dishtowels; plain unbleached muslin fabric is about $1/yard, just wash it first) wetted with more rum or brandy - use the same thing as you did in the cake. Seal in ziploc bags and refrigerate, or if you have a basement/attic/mudroom/shed that stays under 50 degrees but above freezing, put it there in a well-sealed metal or plastic container. Reapply rum/brandy once a week during the first month, then remove the cloth. Store airtight for up to 3 months. (I find it gets a little overly-boozy and tired after that. If you like it less strong, just do one or two applications.)

Note 1: I usually use cranberries, cherries, dried apples, dried blueberries, finely chopped prunes, raisins (dark and golden), currants, pears, peaches, whatever looks good. I try for at least 5 or 6 different fruits. Not so much with the tropical stuff like pineapples and mangoes though, that just seems wrong.

Note 2: DoleÂs prechopped ready-for-baking dates save much sticky hassle :-)

Note 3: Those who do not consume alcohol can use 1 cup orange juice and 1 tbsp rum or brandy flavoring and skip the dousing routine, and the cakes will still be tasty, but the cakes will only keep about a week in the fridge and a month frozen before becoming stale.

Note 4: I prefer Borden's Nonesuch mincemeat if I'm baking for nonvegetarians (it contains beef suet) or Grandmother's for vegetarians. I do not like Crosse & Blackwell's at all, I think it's far too sweet. If you can only get the little blocks of Nonesuch concentrate, use 2 packages and follow the label instructions for reconstituting it.

I have not made these, but a relative recently imparted to me that you can make this batter into cookies by dropping tablespoons of it 2" apart on well-greased (I'd use parchment paper - NOT wax paper!) baking sheets and baking about 15-18 minutes at "325ish". :-) Makes about 5 dozen.

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Per the almond filling on your grandma's stollen - it SHOULD be marzipan (almond paste) instead of the soft, spreadable almond filling, but you made a procedural oops more than a product oops. Don't even try to spread it. Use a rolling pin to whack and roll the firm almond paste between two pieces of wax paper or parchment paper into a long half-oval which you them fold the dough around. Or you could cheat like a bakery I once knew that used to make kick-@$$ stollen, almost as good as my stepgrandmother's. They chop up the marzipan into bits about 1/2" square, spread them out on cookie sheets and freeze them rock-hard before kneading them right into the stollen dough along with the fruits and nuts, so you get these little "surprises" of marzipan here and there in the bread. I adore marzipan so it was wonderful getting those little bits all through. Getting the gigantic stollen in the mail from stepgrandmother was a high point of the holiday season when I was young. We've made it several times but this year just too much chaos.

No more baking this year here - DH is having his tonsils out (among other things) on Monday, and it would just be cruel to have the stuff around when he can't eat it. So we're doing Yule this weekend; Solstice is Monday. He's already informed me ;-) that when he's done with the liquid parts and has graduated to "the mushy stuff" I'm making him pumpkin custard (just pumpkin pie without the crust, baked in custard cups) and the "squishy parts" of banana/zucchini/pumpkin bread (no nuts but the squirrels get the crusts!). LOL

Thanks Mari - maybe next year. Didn't get any baking done today - fridge repairman was here for 2 hrs and didn't know what was going on, finally decided to replace thermistor in freezer but had to order part so he'll be back next Tues. At least I got garland around my porch columns and front door!

I've never had tonsils out - how long will DH be on mushy food? Maybe no meat, nuts (anything scratchy) but since he can chew can't he eat more than custard (even though I love pumpkin custard - who needs the crust?). I would think he could eat banana (etc.) bread w/o nuts?

Oh, and I think my grandma used almond filling b/c it was always spread thin (none on the ends) and would get very hot when you nuked it. My dad always said she liked the 4th (not the baby, but one b4 him) brother best b/c he always got the bigger one with more filling. It was a big thing in our family to have one of her "coffee cakes" on Xmas morning.

She never put fruit in, or mixed anything into the dough, just sprinkled more chopped nuts into the filling. I made it with golden raisins and regular last year, rolled the marzipan into a snake, put raisins and nuts around it, then folded the dough. This year I'm putting raisins and nuts into the dough but will use the filling I bought with more fruit and nuts inside. I think it'll be an improvement, though I might have to make my dad and uncles' without the raisins since they don't like change (my dad didn't like the raisins last year). Even though he said I improved her blueberry buckle just by baking it in 9x13 pan rather than jelly roll pan (she always had to stretch things with a big family).

ajsmama, bummer about the fridge! Doctor says DH will be on clear liquids for a few days (he's determined to have ice cream on Christmas), full liquids minimum 1 week, and then the squishy stuff for at least 2 weeks but many of doc's patients go 4 or more weeks on soft food because of difficulty swallowing. All will depend on how well he's healing - doc said it could actually be 3 months before he's eating 100% normally again (sharp crunchy things like chips etc.). The chewing part isn't an issue, it's all the torn-up tissue in his throat that makes swallowing horribly painful - he's having a bunch of nasty stuff done in his throat and sinuses all at once. Kids just whip through a tonsillectomy in comparison but as people get older it becomes a much nastier procedure that can be months healing up. But, Doc said I have to MAKE him eat and drink or they'll put a feeding tube ("NG tube") up his nose.

We finished up the last of our fruitcake last night, and there's another one for a party this weekend that we're not missing come hell or high water, and then no more fruitcake for this year. They were awesome though.