I have never liked fruitcake. I hate that plastic bright green and red candied fruit and citron. Bleah. I have, however, been tempted by Alton Brown’s recipe for Free Range Fruitcake. It’s full of tasty dried fruits. Cranberries, cherries, apricots, blueberries, raisins – and currants if you can find them, which I could not.

I did not vary that much from the recipe so you may want to go right to the source linked above. I used more fruit and nuts and well, made a few other small changes based on what I could get. I couldn’t find candied ginger, either, which frustrated me. But to be honest, I’ve never found it worked the way I wanted it to in baked goods anyway.

Fruitcake a la Alton

1 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup dried cherries
3/4 cup dried blueberries
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
(a quick note here, I do not care for organic apricots which are dried without sulfates)
zest of one lemon (I used the type of zester that makes long skinny strips, Alton’s recipe is not clear but it sounds like he used a peeler to take off the zest then chopped it)
zest of one orange
1 teaspoon powdered (or I bet fresh would be good) ginger
1 cup golden rum (I used spiced rum) plus extra

Mix all the dried fruits and zests together plus the ginger and cover with rum. I needed about a 1/2 cup more rum than called for to cover the fruit. Allow to macerate in an air tight container over night. Or, you can warm it in the microwave for about 5 minutes but I used the overnight method. Pour off however much extra rum you used – which was, for me, all the leftover liquid. I saved this to use to baste the fruitcake after baking. Why not? Additional fruit flavor!

1 cup sugar
10 tbsp butter
1 cup unfiltered apple juice (the apple juice made by the Simply Orange people is great)
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

In a large, non-reactive pot, place the macerated fruit, sugar, butter, apple juice and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer about 10 minutes. Pour into a big glass bowl to help it cool faster and allow to cool at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups toasted chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Sift together flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Mix into fruit mixture with the big wooden spoon recommended by Alton. Stir in eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Last, fold in nuts.

Spoon into a 10 inch non-stick loaf pan. (I actually used a stone loaf pan but I had some trouble getting it out. So if you don’t use a non-stick loaf pan I’d suggest lining the pan with parchment paper.)

Bake for 1 hour at 350°F. Check for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester or skewer or if you can’t find any of those, a nice skinny sharp knife. Bake an additional 10 minutes if it’s not done. Check again.

Baste or spritz the top of the cake with the leftover rum from the fruit. Or Brandy (as Alton called for, but I don’t like brandy.) Cool the fruitcake in the pan on a cooling rack or trivet. Allow to completely cool before turning it out of the pan.

Store the cake in an airtight plastic container. Every 2 or 3 days, feel the cake and if it’s feeling dry, spritz or baste some more with more rum. Let it age up to 2 weeks. Alton did not say whether to store it in the refrigerator or not – I did but I’m not sure it’s really necessary given the alcohol.