You can’t herald in the holidays without fruitcake (or fruit cake or fruit bread — whatever you’d like to call it, LOL), and I’ve got a great recipe for you that uses 1 cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter or sourdough starter. This comes by way of Tammy Basile, owner of the lovely food blog, Basile Limeade.
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Tammy is a seasoned foodie and no stranger to the kitchen. Her mother used to make Amish Friendship Bread when Tammy was a little girl, so when a co-worker gave her a starter, she made about a dozen loaves with it because she had forgotten how wonderful it was.
I think the hardest part of making Amish Friendship Bread is the waiting. I started this recipe 9 days ago and basically had to do nothing for 8 days! Oh, the agony! Seeing that lovely, bubbly, yeasty starter sitting on the counter and not being able to do anything other than mush it once a day was pure torture.”
Tammy Basile
I think I speak for everyone who has ever made Amish Friendship Bread: we’ve been there. Boy, have we been there! (And some good news: you can freeze or refrigerate your starter so you won’t have to wait anymore!)
Fruitcake sometimes gets a bad rap, so Tammy was determined to make hers different. She drew inspiration from several different recipes including Alton Brown’s recipe for free-range fruitcake to create this one for the Friendship Bread Kitchen. The result was a flavorful, spicy, rum-soaked delight using 1 cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter or sourdough starter discard.
Amish Friendship Bread Fruitcake
Ingredients
- 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
- 2 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter 1 stick
- ¼ cup orange juice 1 medium orange
- 1 cup rum or enough to soak the dry fruit
- 1 cup dried fruit I used blueberries, cranberries, cherries, raisins, goji berries, pumpkin seeds
- ¾ cup apple sauce
- ½ cup candied ginger chopped
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Combine the dried fruit with rum and allow to sit overnight (24 hours is best). If you are short on time, microwave the fruit and rum for 1 minute and allow to sit while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
- Spray a large loaf pan with non-stick spray.
- Cut a piece of parchment paper to the line the bottom and two sides of the pan.
- Preheat oven to 325° F (165° C).
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and baking powder, set aside.
- In a smaller bowl, combine the eggs, brown sugar, butter, orange juice, vanilla, apple sauce and ⅓ cup of the rum from the dried fruit.
- Pour starter over the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- Add drained fruit and candied ginger, stir until just combined.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake at 350° F for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.
- ENJOY!
Notes
The longer you can soak your dried fruit in rum, the better! Try from a minimum of one day.
Resources
- The Secret History of Fruitcake: A quick and easy guide to understanding the holiday’s most misrepresented favorite.
- Fruitcake Making Tips: What’s Cooking America has some great tips on helping you make the perfect fruitcake.
- King Arthur Flour’s Favorite Fruitcake: A non-starter-based recipe if you’re in a pinch.
>> Have you tried this recipe? Give the recipe some stars and leave a comment below and let us know how it worked for you!
I love fruitcake. It would be a new beginning for me for Christmas on my own with my daughter. Warm, wonderful memories to be made.