fruit cake

 

There are 3 kinds of people in the world.

1. Those who love fruitcake.
2. Those who hate fruitcake.
3. Those who hate fruitcake but haven’t/won’t try it.

This recipe is for ALL you.

If you love fruitcake then I’m sure you’ll love this and if you don’t like fruitcake I bet you’ll love this too as pie is always awesome. And the booze.

 

People tend to hate on fruitcake since fruitcake can be dense and dry. But guess what? That is BAD fruitcake. Not all fruitcake is like a door stop. Good fruitcake will have you begging for more. I’m serious.

Every year Price’s dad sends us a fruitcake and it takes all my self control not to intercept it before he opens the package to eat it all myself and tell them it must have gotten lost in the mail. Now, that is good fruitcake!

Part of what makes fruitcake so good is its boozy goodness. So I used 2 different liquors in this pie. There is rum in the crust and brandy in the pie. Boom!

People will love this pie. The rich crust is a tender, flakey base for a custardy pie. The filling is custardy, and yet crunchy from the nuts. Every bite is jam packed full of brandy soaked fruit and crunchy pecans. It will be a great pie to serve this Christmas.

Fruitcake Pie

Makes a 9″ pie

Ingredients

For the Pie Crust (you only use 1/2 of the dough)

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 Tablespoons Rum, very cold
• 2 to 4 Tablespoons ice water

For the Pie Filling

• 3/4 Cup red candied cherries
• 1/4 Cup candied pineapple
• /2 Cup chopped dates
• 1/4 Cup chopped candied lemon peel
• 1/2 Cup brandy
• 6 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 Cup light corn syrup
• 1 Cup pecan halves, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Process

1. To prepare the fruit mixture for the pie, chop the candied cherries and pineapple. Combine the cherries, pineapple, dates, and lemon peel in a small bowl. Add the Brandy and mix to coat. Let soak for 1 hour- 24 hours.
2. To make the crust, cut the butter and shortening into small pieces. Return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.
3. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a dough blade and pulse a few times to mix.
4. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse until the butter is the size of peas and the mixture is crumbly While the machine is running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to pull away from the sides. Dump out on a floured surface. Quickly kneed together, divide into equal sized balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. While the pie crust is chilling, chop the pecans. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, corn syrup, pecans, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.
6. Preheat the oven to $350 degrees. Grease a 9″ pie plate.
7. Remove one of the dough balls from the refrigerator. Roll out on the floured surface again. Form a circular disk that is large enough to fit into the 9″ pie plate with some overhanging crust. While you are rolling it out, roll from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the surface.
8. Drain the soaking fruit. (You may save the the Brandy to reuse for another pie.)
9. Evenly sprinkle the fruit mixture over the crust. Pour the filling mixture over the fruit. 
10. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate leftovers.

Pie Filling Adapted from Taste of Home, Pie Crust adapted from Ina Garten