Candied Fruit

This probably belongs on the Veranda.......but anyways......or maybe in a certain countries area......use your discretion.

I wanted candied fruit and Ron says the stores have NONE......I'm sure they do.

I've made candied fruit......but I can't make red and green cherries, well, maybe just red cherries but not green ones.

I guess I'll have to shop since he can't find them and I KNOW they have them.

Do you candy your own fruit? It's basically a process of melting some sugar, LOTS OF IT, in a little water, with the fruit and fruit peels and boiling them, drying them, adding them back into the sugar solution, boiling them and drying them, repeating this until there is no more water in the fruit and it's been replaced by sugar.

Cherries, pineapple, citron (yuk), citrus peels.

Candied fruit is used in fruit cake. Fruit cake is made better by making it early and soaking it in brandy or rum or whiskey and enjoyed on Christmas morning.

I've done citrus peels. Otherwise I leave this task to the experts.

I have candied fruit in the past. I wonder how difficult or maybe how easy it would be to 'honey' the fruit, since I have an abundance of it.

When I was growing up, and now still, people have made fun of 'the fruitcake' because most people do not care for it. Large industries have taken time to put together the most basic fruitcake, packaged and sold a bill of goods often with a large amount of cake and tiny pieces of fruit. The 'yearly aunt emma's fruitcake' is joked about, as the one you pass from family to family over the years, wondering how many years old this fruitcake has been around and no one eats it.

Good fruitcake on the other hand should be the fruits and nuts in large pieces that you LIKE in a very heavy pound cake like batter with spices and herbs that you LIKE. Citron for example is one that many people do not like yet commercially made fruitcakes almost always have that in it.
The fruits can be what you like for example, candied pineapple, cherries, citrus peels and the nuts can be any that you like, pecans, walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts.

Fruitcake should be like a piece of art, crafted thoughtfully on taste and with a very solid texture so as not to fall apart. Each slice will be cut and appear like a stained glass window, showing large pieces of each fruit and nut. Each bitefull a taste of this fruit or that fruit or this nut or that nut with the slightest bit of batter between each morsel.

It is not uncommon to make a fruitcake, store it in the refrigerator for a few months wrapped in plastic wrap, occasionally soaking it in a little whiskey to keep it moist.

We also use candied fruit (and almond paste) in a bread we bake near christmas called stollen. Usually I make a sweet bread dough folding in small bits of candied fruit, layering the middle with a sweetened almond paste, then braiding the outside edges over the filling. After rising and baking, sifting powdered sugar or putting an icing glaze over it and decorating with candied fruit.

Margi-I can imagine using other candied items, like you suggested, sweet potatoes candied, or candied pears, delightful in it's presentation red green yellow orange white and variation in flavors.

Feather. italians specialize in panetonni fruit cake with nuts and also marzipan, almond paste which is Sicilan and dates back to the Moors or Moorish. It is renowned in Sicily and southern Spain and Moorish Toledo, 50 km from Madrid. They hold artisanal baker awards for marzipan here. If you would like any further info or recipes please do not hesitate to request. Margi.

Feather,   The Romans roughed up the whole Mediterranean ! ha. ha. ha. Yugoslavia and especially southern Croatia sit on Mediterranean !    Please do post ur Stollen. Can be a lovely addition for our GC. I shall make some enquiries on subject recipe and ask about honey ingredient. Have nice wkend. The French toast prepared from day old panettone or home made fruit nut cake is great. Kindest. Mare.

Looks like a great recipe, Feather ~

Feather: I am glad I inherited Milanese and Venetian bloodlines and not Roman Lazio roots !   Ha Ha ... We too were roughed up by the Caesars & Hannibal´s  Elephants crossing the Alps who fought the Romans with a surprise battle!And Momm' s. ancestors in Savoie, France & Basel, Switzerland too.  Mare.     

Feather,

I can't get your link to work--maybe because you are on the other side of the pond? I don't know why, and I'd like to know why, sometimes links like that work for some and not for others.

I found it here though: http://www.ehow.com/how_3910_make-candied-fruit.html

I didn't think I'd necessarily need to make any, but, I do. I have before. Ron picked up 4 cups of candied fruit and that is not enough for the fruit cake and stollen. It was very expensive, and only cherries and pineapple.

I guess I have my work cut out for me and very soon too. I need to pick up some lemons and oranges and maybe apricots too. That covers the colors, red, yellow, orange and I need some purple or blue or green color yet. I know I can add food coloring to the syrup when making the candied fruit but I'd like it to be natural to the color of the fruit, ideally.

Should be fun!