How to Soak Dry Fruits for Rich Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake / Soaking Dry Fruits for Christmas Cake / Soaked Dry Fruits for Rich Fruit Cake / Dry Fruits Soaking for Plum Cake / Christmas Cake – Part 1:
Few more weeks to go for Christmas. Christmas, the most awaited season has already started ringing on the door steps!! Again it’s going to be another winter and another Christmas. But there is a perfect time for doing some work which we are supposed to do in advance as a part of making the traditional way of Christmas Fruit Cake. This is the ideal time to soak dry fruits in alcohol for getting the delicious Fruit Cake. This time I have decided to make the real Christmas Fruit Cake and Grapes Wine. My Homemade Grape wine is ready for posting, but decided to go for this post first, for giving time for my readers and followers to start the work of soaking dry fruits now itself. Otherwise they will find it difficult because of lack of time.
The traditional way of making Christmas Fruit Cake is soaking Dry fruits one or two months in advance of Christmas and making the Fruit cake one week before Christmas. Then brushing and feeding the fruit cake with alcohol for one week. So, this is the perfect time to start your work.. I have done my fruits soaking in rum in the first week of November. But I got little late for editing..
I recollect my childhood days now. My mom used to soak dry fruits in rum or whisky in advance of 2 or 3 months. As children, it was really nice time to gather in the kitchen to help her and at the same time start munching those dry fruits from one corner without the attention of our mom!!. She would make two or three fruits cakes at a time. The end products were excellent cakes and it was worth waiting for.. Love to go back to those days..
You all know that fruits cakes are not cheap and also labour intensive. But it’s really worth the effort to make in advance and to serve on Christmas day. People make Fruit Cake even without soaking fruits in rum or brandy!! But, to get its right flavour and taste, one has to soak dry fruits minimum one month in advance. In a couple of days, the fruits will absorb alcohol and the quantity of alcohol you used for soaking will start decreasing.
The candied orange peels I have used here is the leftover of my last years’ fruit cake. I thought to make candied orange peels for this recipe first, but due to lack of time, I decided to go for the left overs. Use dark and light coloured fruits for balancing the colour of your fruit cake.
The alcohol is completely your choice. It acts as a preservative and enhances your fruit cakes’ flavour. Usually we use rum, brandy or dark red wine. If you want a alcohol free fruit cake soak it in wine just for a couple of hours or till it plumps up and drain out the excess wine. I have not yet done like this. Or else, rum extract or rum essence is available in the market, which is almost alcohol free.
I am sure that you all have started planning various things for Christmas. So, let’s welcome Santa after making this Traditional Christmas Cake. Good luck to you all.
Soaking Time: minimum one month.
Resting Time: one month to one year
So, let’s start cutting dry fruits and soaking in alcohol..
Ingredients for Soaking Dry Fruits for Christmas Fruit Cake:
Here I have used the following dry fruits for making the traditional Christmas Fruit Cake. The quantity I have used of each dry fruit varies between 50 to 150 grams. I have used Candied orange peels and lemon zest ½ tbsp. each.
Walnut (chopped)
Blue berry
Green raisins
Black raisins
Cashew nuts (broken)
Tutti fruity
Glazed red cherries (julienned)
Dates (moist and pitted)
Almonds (soaked, dried and chopped)
Lemon zest
Candied Orange peels
Cacao bean fruit jelly (optional)
Kiwi (chopped)
Dry Orange Zest – few
Dry Lemon Zest – ¾ tbsp.
Rum or Brandy – as required.
How to Soak Dry Fruits in Alcohol for Christmas Rum Cake:
Soak almonds in luke warm water minimum for 30 minutes. Peel off the skin and wipe it with kitchen paper towel. Spread on a paper towel to dry out completely. Chop dates, kiwis and almonds to bite size pieces.
Take a big bowl and transfer all your dry fruits in to it. Mix all your dry fruits with a spoon. Take a clean and dry airtight big glass jar to accommodate your fruits and alcohol. Now transfer these dry fruits to this glass jar. Pour in rum or brandy of your choice. Mix it with a dry wooden spatula. Close the lid and keep it in a cool and dark place of your kitchen.
My Recipe Notes – Tips for the best Christmas Fruit Cake:
1. Use only glass jars for soaking it as alcohol will react with other jars with different material.
2. You can soak dry fruits in Sherry or in whisky or dark red wine as well.
3. The core dry fruits here are raisins. You can use any other dry fruits along with raisins. It’s completely your choice. You can preferably use dry apricots, pistachios, pineapple, figs, cranberries etc. Chop all dry fruits which are bigger in size to bite size pieces.
4. You have to stir the dry fruits sitting in the jar with rum daily or once in two days with a wooden spatula. It will help the upper layer from drying out.
5. The quantity of dry fruits I have used is not exactly I am going to use for my fruit cake. One can use the excess of these soaked dry fruits for mixing in other cakes or cupcakes, muffins or so.. So you can be generous here while doing this process. This soaked dry fruits can be stored up to one year.
6. You should use a clean and dry glass bottle to soak dry fruits. Make sure that you glass bottle is bigger in size as we need to stir the entire stuff once in a couple of days.
7. Keep this soaked fruits glass jar in a cool, dark and safe place of your kitchen. I have kept it in my kitchen cupboard.
8. After soaking, the dry fruits will plump up little by absorbing the alcohol. If you find out that your soaked fruits are getting dry, pour in two or three tablespoons of alcohol.
9. Keep stirring this mixture until the day you bake the Christmas Fruit Cake.
10. You can refrigerate the excess soaked dry fruits till needed or up to one year.
11. If you want alcohol free fruit cake, soak it in wine just for a couple of hours or till it plumps up and drain out the excess wine. Haha, for me it’s alcohol free.. Don’t you worry.. You can use apple juice or orange juice for light coloured fruit cake and grape juice for getting a dark coloured fruit cake. I have not yet tried this way.
Cheers.. Seena.
സോക്കിങ്ങ് ഡ്രൈ ഫ്രൂട്സ് ഫോർ ക്രിസ്മസ് ഫ്രൂട്ട് കേക്ക് റെസിപ്പി.
N.B:
Please Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel, ‘Seenas Food Basket’.
To get all the latest updates, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. It will keep us motivated.
You have an option to add your Comment on our website. Just go to the recipe page and scroll down. You can see the space provided there to comment. Pls. add your feedback there both, positive and negative.
Hope you liked our Recipes with its step by step explanation and the ‘TIPS’ and ‘RECIPE NOTES’. Pls. support us by SHARING it and clicking on the ‘LIKE’ button of our Facebook Page, so that you will get our latest recipes on your news feed without missing them.
Try out this and let us know what you think.. We love to see your creations. So, when you try out this recipe, take a picture and email it to seenasfoodbasket@gmail.com.
How to Soak Dry Fruits for Christmas Fruit Cake.
Description
Learn how to soak dry fruits for a perfect, easy, moist, rich and traditional Christmas Fruit Cake or Rum Cake.