Christmas Memories are captured with the five senses. Sight,Taste, Smell, Hearing, and Touch. We can smell, taste, touch, see or hear something and suddenly we are 5 years old in our Grandmothers kitchen. She is making chocolate (cocoa) pies and fruit cakes. Around the front door of her small one bedroom cottage are Magnolia Leaves, and large electric lights. In the living room is a pine tree, typical of the region, decorated with lights and old ornaments and mostly home made decorations. The windows are frosted from the warmth on the inside and the very cold on the outside. What wonderful memories flood your mind and take you on the senses journey. The house is gone, only the lot remains, but the memories remain forever. Isn't it wonderful to taste fruitcake and have coffee made in an old porcelain coffee pot with a drip filter. I still have the recipe for the fruit cake (below) that were made in late October or November and kept until Christmas.
This is the recipe that my Mother and Grandmother used to make fruitcake. I remember she used the Mincemeat that was in small boxes. If I remember correctly, the recipe was on the package of the Mincemeat. It received raves every year. I have also used this recipe, copied from her recipe box. I make these in the old tradition, when fall sets in, then wrap them in cheese cloth moistened with a good rum or brandy. I check them once a week and replenish the moisture. I bake them in disposable foil pans lined with parchment or greased brown paper. They slip out of the pan for wrapping and soaking. I return them to the pan and rewrap them in clear wrap. They are moist and gooey by Christmas. I like to chill them before I slice them. They are very simple to make.
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 (12-ounce) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 2/3 cups (28-ounce jar) Borden None Such Ready To Use Mincemeat (see note)
2 cups(16-ounce jar) mixed candied fruit
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Additional candied fruit and walnut halves for decorating (optional)
1. Butter a 9-inch tube or spring-form pan. Line with parchment or waxbrown paper. Butter again.
2. Sift together flour and baking soda; set aside.
3. In large bowl combine eggs, sweetened condensed milk, mincemeat, fruits and nuts; mix well. Fold in sifted dry ingredients. Turn into prepared pan.
4. Preheat oven to 300*F (150*C).
5. Bake for 2 hours or until center springs back when touched lightly with fingers and top is golden brown. Allow to cool. Remove from pan. Decorate with additional candied fruits and walnut halves, if desired.
Makes 16 to 24 servings.
Note: Two (9-ounce) packages of Borden None Such condensed mincemeat and 1 1/2 cups water, boiled briskly for 1 minute and cooled, may be used.
