One Christmas about 17 years ago, someone gave me what looked like a fruitcake at first glance but it was very dense with mostly nuts. It was very sweet and did have dried fruit but the nuts were dominant and the fruit was very background (and barely enough cake to glue it all together - very little, if any flour).
Just wondering if anyone has ever seen or heard of something like this. Where to get it or a recipe?
What it might be called? I haven't had any luck doing a google search (so far) and everything I'm finding is mostly bread with some nuts in it ... while this was more of a dense nut loaf stuck together with sticky sweetness.
but your description reminded me of this:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/50851/nordic-stone-age-bread
I suspect that you'd need to add honey or make a paste with some of the dried fruits (date paste or fig paste) to get that sticky, sweetness that you recall.
I actually made one of these fruit cakes last week for a pamper parcel for my friends daughter who has just had her first child I made it many years ago and everyone loved it There is no butter added Its a BBC good food recipe Google yule fruitcake recipe I didn't use cherries I just added up the total fruit and nut amounts and used the fruit and nuts that I like It was a winner the last time I made it Any problems let me know Liz
Enjoy and Happy Baking
Only put in enough salt for the flour portion of the dough. So many fruit cakes are over salted.
I highly recommend Betty Crocker's Jeweled Fruitcake recipe. I have torn out the page from my cookbook and dragged it all over the world.
I don't always put in the nuts in the recipe and put in my favourites nuts and candied fruit, more nuts than fruit these days. :)
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/jeweled-fruitcake/4e40d284-e807-42e4-9bb7-1bcfb0301e68
Good tip on not oversalting. I'll have to give this one a try and see if I can increase the proportion of nuts.
seems to over do the brazil nut department. Don't even know if that's healthy & wise. I think one or two of this type of nut is a daily portion and one slice does look more like a 4 portion patio motif. :) I use more whole pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts, macadamias and cashews and often stretch the recipe into one and a half pans. I like pitted tart or candied red cherries and dried fruits (to be moistened later.) Wash the salt off salted nuts. Roasted nuts work just fine and even better. I haven't tried chocolate in the dough yet. I did once used the red cherry juice in the dough but the cakes came out too pink for me. It might be "all the rage" now.
No raisins or prunes, they tend to dominate with ageing (And I age my cakes) same goes with peanuts. If you like those flavours then by all means go ahead. I know that the Bajans love peanuts and raisins but they do tend to eat the groom's cake within a week or two.
This is my present to myself each yuletide. I sub the fruit I prefer for whatever they have listed, as they suggest in the recipe. I do use alcohol for the drenching, and therefore the loaves can last for months. (A little goes a long way when only one person is eating it!)
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/everyones-favorite-fruitcake-recipe
jaywillie
That looks really good. But the one I remember was much less cake and much more dense with nuts.
Could it have been a panforte? Seems to fit your description.
That may be it. I've never heard of panforte before but a google search brought up lots of different images and this one is somewhat similar to what I remember:
nuts and vary little flour, It is old school sourdough and sprouted grains as well - you won]'t find that in every fruitcake! It is Killer Delicious! This is version 3 and the other 2 were very good too!
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/43911/1849-gold-rush-sprouted-12-grain-sourdough-fruit-cake-iii
Yummy looking! But the one I remember was different.
a dense Nut and fruit cake in Susan Purdy's book, A Piece of Cake. It uses dried, not candied, fruits such as raisins and apricots, and is chock-full of almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts. I've posted my variation on Food52. (I'm Windischgirl there, too), or you could look for Susan's book in your local library...it was published in the late 80’s, so it's been around.
Let us know what you discover!
This image came up in a Google search - it says it is "Italian Fruitcake" and looks similar (except I don't remember if the one I had was round or rectangular).