Christmas Fruit Cake – SD YW Gold Rush Take 2

Since we gave away the first fruit cake bake and didn’t even get to taste the SD Gold Rush variety, we had to make another Gold Rush variety - and make a few changes to it to make sure there weren’t any complaints that Lucy was baking the same thing all over again.  She hates playing with the same dough twice.

We upped the formula trying to try to get the round fruit ware fuller this time.  On top of the 25 % more we were shooting for we added even more shockered fruits, butter and brown sugar trying to increase the dark color and we doubled the chocolate chips, pecans and walnuts because it was Christmas and Lucy loves them in everything.

To try to get the crumb and crust even darker we put some molasses in there this time but the big changes were to drop the white whole wheat flour and go with our favorite5 grain  whole grain multi-grain mix of; farro, spelt, rye, wheat and Kamut – 25 g each.   We ground it to meal like consistency thinking that the gold panning 49’ers would not have had fine ground flour.  The last change is we upped the levain amount by adding in a YW one in addition to the SD one we used before.

We autolysed the flour in thin air since there is no liquid in this recipe.  Once the mix came together we dumped the whole lot into the round fruit ware to proof on the heating pad for 6 hours this time instead of 6 hours at room temperature like last time.  Couldn’t tell any difference as this lump refused to rise under proof just like the last one

It also refused to spring very much in the 300 F oven, just like last time even though it did crack a little on top and nrise about an inch in the middle.  The baking time was a full 100 minutes till it hit 205 F on the inside and it was removed to the cooling rack.  We brushed our home made version of Golden Syrup on the top (molasses, light corn syrup and honey), while it was still warm to give it that sheen. 

We decided not to do a 10 week curing in hooch and cloth because it smelled so good and Lucy couldn’t resist a taste.  This one did brown up darker on the outside than the last Gold Rush.  This one is fairly dark on the inside, very moist and fruity, lightly sweet with a hint of spice, chocolate and hooch..  Just delicious!  Lucy and I can’t say what the SD and YW contributed to the taste but it didn’t hurt anything.

What a beautiful Christmas morning!  Perfect to finish up the Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies that Santa left behind!

Lucy also announced her 2nd favorite bread she baked in 2013.  First place went to lucy's take of Mini Oven's 100% Rye  and Walnut bread at 100% hydration.  An extremely close 2nd goes to Hanseata's take on Maria Speck's Aroma Bread That Lucy DaPumerized as a 1005 whole grain loaf at 90% hydration here:

Whole Grain DaPumpernickel Aroma Bread

You will notice that Lucy is leaning toward 100% whole grain breads being the 100% German extraction she is.  The question is, will she stick to this formula when she announces her 3rd place winner?