How to Face the Holidays

Today I bought a jar of Quince Jam -- not always easy to find -- as I knew I'd  soon be needing it for one of the recipes I make for the holidays.

Fruppa Jam, made in Turkey

I returned home and dug through the cookbooks to locate More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin (one of my favorite cookbook writers) to find two recipes -- Country Christmas Cake and Spiced Beef.

I was introduced to Colwin through her articles in Gourmet Magazine back in the early 1990s. She combines the best of food writing with down-to-earth recipes that produce food people actually want to eat. Unfortunately,  Colwin died unexpectedly in 1992, from a heart attack at the age of 48.

Even if you are not "into" cookbooks, recipes or food, this article by Colwin is worth your time to read: smart, witty and entertaining.

Note: If you aren't a fruitcake fan you may not like Country Christmas Cake. I find there's no in-between: you either love or detest it. ALSO, the last time I made the cake I used a combination of dried fruits such as cranberries, apricots, currants and golden raisins to equal the 2-1/2 pounds raisins called for in the recipe).

Here, then, is the article from More Home Cooking, reprinted in its entirety:

How to Face the Holidays - Laurie Colwin

When Thanksgiving has passed and the leaves are off the trees, the harried modern person looks to the winter holidays like someone slumped across a railroad track contemplating an oncoming train.

Now matter of what persuasion you may be, the idea of Hanukkah or Christmas with New Year’s Eve to follow is enough to fill the most cheerful heart with dread: shopping, wrapping, hiding presents, going to the post office and standing on line forever, trying to get a taxi in the freezing cold to bring home the ingredients for a festive meal, and so forth.

The older I get, the more I shrink from the frenzy and hype and the potlatch aspect of present giving. I yearn for some simpler time when people gave each other jars of homemade jam and hand-knitted mittens.

Lately I have begun to think less of holiday and have turned my attention instead to the idea of winter, of trying to fill the house with good things to feed the unexpected guests who always turn up. I want to make a gesture toward that longed-for simpler time by producing something that is made only once a year. After several seasons of trial and error, I have found two splendid things. They look daunting but are actually easy. There is nothing else like them. They must be made by hand. And they cannot be bought.

Both of these items come from English cookbooks. One is the Country Christmas Cake from Jane Grigson’s English Food, a book I could not live without, and the other is the Spiced Beef for Christmas from Elizabeth David’s Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen. (the latter recipe was also reprinted in her Omelette and a Glass of Wine.) 

Credit: amazon.com

Credit: amazon.com

Although these are classic Christmas recipes, they can be enjoyed by anyone who is not, in the case of the beef, strictly kosher. They are splendid winter foods: rich, cheering, and full of flavor. The act of making them gives a person a proper holiday feeling. The act of eating them makes one realize the limitations of language: Magnificent, sublime, transcendent all come to mind but fall short.

Both must be fixed in advance. The beef should be prepared ten days before it is to be cooked, and the cake has to be baked in November (October is even better) or very early December and then kept in a tin to mellow.

Credit: about.com

The only complicated thing about Country Christmas Cake is the list of ingredients. Once these are assembled, the whole thing is, so to speak, a piece of cake.

On a Friday or Saturday night (this is a good cake to make on a weekend when there is a little more time), chop up fine: 2-1/2 pounds mixed raisins, pitted prunes, and dried figs; 2 ounces candied peel; 2 ounces candied cherries; and 3 ounces candied or preserved ginger. Add the grated zests and juices of 1 large orange and 1 large lemon. 1 tablespoon of bitter orange marmalade, and 1 tablespoon of apricot jam. Add 1 cup of stewed apple (applesauce will do) and 2 tablespoons of sweet Sherry. Mix, cover, and leave overnight.

The next day, sift together 3 cups flour and 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, baking powder, nutmeg, ground cloves and allspice. Cream ½ pound of butter with 1 cup of dark brown sugar until fluffy and beat in 4 eggs, 1 at a time, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Mix the fruit and flour alternately into the butter, brown sugar, and eggs.

Line the bottom and side of a deep 10-inch springform pan with 3 layers of parchment and pour in the batter. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 2 hours and then at 300 degrees F. for another 2 hours. If your oven temperature is unstable, check it frequently. Take the cake out of the oven, pierce it all over with a skewer, and pour over it 1 tablespoon whiskey or brandy. Leave it to cool in its pan, then remove it, peel off the parchment, wrap the cake in wax paper, place it in an airtight tin, and leave it in the pantry for at least a month to take care of itself.

When the time comes to decant the cake, it is traditional to glaze it with some nice jelly (I like quince) and cover it with marzipan, which Jane Grigson suggests you make yourself. For beginners, however, the stuff in the 7-ounce tube works fine. Roll it out, cut it to fit, and you will find that it sticks to the cake in a very satisfying fashion.

Although this cake can be served with nothing else on it, it is also traditional to cover the marzipan with royal icing, an easy icing that can be found in any basic cookbook. You frost the cake the day before you eat it. The top layer will get ever so slightly hard and then give under the teeth, and one day’s rest will take the intensity of the sweetness from the icing.

Last year my daughter and I decorated our cake with swags, marzipan flowers, silver and gold dragees, and sugar crystals. It was quite a sight – a kind of demented-looking pile of icing.

Country Christmas Cake has a rich, deep taste, as complicated as a brocade or tapestry, and makes a person think of those magnificent aged Sauternes. It is sauve, intense, and delicious down to the last crumb. Most impressive is the fact that you have made this gorgeous, amazing, traditional cake yourself from an ancient recipe. Hands down, it is the best I have ever made – and also the best I have ever eaten. And because it is so rich, you serve it in tiny slices, so there is lots left for the deserving cook to enjoy in the afternoon

To be continued tomorrow with the Spiced Beef recipe. An image of the dish may be seen at Bakeeerina's Flickr photostream

My previous post about Laurie Colwin