My mother used to make the most delicious fruitcake for Christmas. When I was a little kid I remember her spending the best part of a day making it. She would make it weeks ahead of time and then wrap it up and pull it out about once a week to give it a shot of brandy. When Christmas came, she would serve it. I can still taste it. I wish I had her recipe, but I don't think anybody saved it. So, I started looking for fruitcake recipes. I didn't find any that tickled my fancy but I also looked at stollen recipes as that uses many of the same dried fruits and nuts as fruitcake. I figure the bread part won't taste like fruitcake, but the fruit part should be similar, especially if I get the dried fruits and nuts drunk first. So after much searching I settled on a recipe and proceded to gather the ingredients and review the procedure. I started soaking the fruits and nuts in rum the other day and having inspected it earlier I decided it was ready today. Here is the result.
I have never had stollen before so I don't know how mine compares to any other, but I did taste it and it's great. It's not as fruity as fruit cake but as I suspected the flavors of the fruits and nuts is similar. The bread is a rich bread so it's not just a bread loaf with fruit and nuts. What I made today won't last until Christmas, so I will be making it again.