Eleven dozen Christmas star-shaped cheese straws later, my holiday baking is beginning to get caught up. Next is the daunting job of baking the fruitcake. Daunting not because any step of it is all that difficult, but because it's a bit messy and does take three days.
Once upon a time fruitcakes took longer than that: The citrus peel (assuming one could even get oranges and lemons), had to be cleaned, blanched, and candied. The raisins, currants, and other dried fruits had to be "stoned" (not like we mean it nowadays—they didn't come already seeded), then reconstituted by soaking them briefly in hot water. The nuts had to be cracked, shelled, picked over for stray bits of shell and pith and chopped.
Then all that fruit and peel did get "stoned" the way we mean it nowadays—soaked in brandy or whiskey.
The cake batter had to be mixed by hand, the wood-fired oven had to be heated, swept out, and the cakes slowly baked. And once the cakes were done and cooled, they also got soaked in whiskey and/or wine and aged for at least a couple of weeks.
Anyway, imagine how one of those old bakers would have reacted had anyone wrinkled his nose and whined about how he hated fruitcake the way so many people do today.
Still, while it's not nearly that labor-intensive, my own fruitcake is a process that began a couple of days ago when I candied more than a pound of orange peel. I still make my own because most commercially candied peel now contains high-fructose corn syrup which, even if it wasn't hard on our digestive system, is cloyingly sweet and has an unpleasant aftertaste. And the kind that doesn't contain that stuff is hard to find and terribly expensive if you do find it.
Crystallized or Candied Citrus Peel
The old recipes called for blanching the peel in four or five changes of water to remove all the bitterness, but doing so with modern hybrid fruit removes an important element of the flavor. I find that doing it just twice is usually enough.
I used to weigh all the ingredients, but have found that it's just as effective and so much easier to use volume measurements (a measuring cup) for proportioning the rinds with the sugar.
This can be made with rinds leftover from juice, ambrosia, or breakfast grapefruit. To prepare them, scoop out any lingering pulp and membrane but leave the white pith intact. Wash them under cold running water, pat dry, and cut each half into four equal pieces. If you're not candying it right away, store it refrigerated in an air-tight container for up to three days.
If you're using rind from whole fruit, scrub the fruit under cold running water with a vegetable brush, then remove the rind as follows: Going lengthwise from the blossom to the stem end, cut all the way through the rind into the pulp in four equal sections, as if you were going to quarter the fruit. Carefully pull each section of peel off in one piece. Scrape any pulp and membrane from the inside of the rind, but leave all its white pith intact.
When you're ready to proceed, cut the rind into ¼-inch wide strips and loosely pack them into a large measuring cup. Make a note of the amount and for each cup of peel, measure out ½ cup of sugar into a separate bowl. Transfer the rind to a large, heavy-bottomed stainless steel saucepan.
Add enough water to the pan to completely cover the rind by at least half an inch. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat and adjust the heat to a brisk but not hard boil. Cook for 10 minutes, drain, and again cover with cold water. Return the pot to medium high heat, bring it to a boil, and adjust the heat to a brisk boil and cook 10 minutes longer. If the rind is still too bitter to suit you, repeat once more.
Pour it into a colander and let it drain. Combine the sugar with half as much water (¼ cup for every ½ cup of sugar) in the saucepan and stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Return the rind to the pan, put it over medium-high heat, and bring it to a brisk boil, stirring often. Adjust the heat to medium and boil until the syrup is absorbed and the rind is transparent, stirring occasionally at first and more frequently as the syrup is absorbed. It'll take at least 15-20 minutes and probably longer. A lot will depend on the rind, so be patient. My last batch took 28 minutes. When the syrup is absorbed, remove the pan from the heat and stir it gently to let it cool slightly.
Set a wire cooling rack over a rimmed baking sheet and spread the peel on the rack. Let it dry at room temperature until firm and only a little sticky—about 8 hours, depending on how dry the air in your house is at the time. If you're using the rind for baking, stop here and transfer the candied rind to an airtight container. Use it within a week.
To finish it as candy, Spread a cup of sugar for every 2 cups of peel over the bottom of a large plastic storage container, add the rinds, and snap on the lid. Shake the container until the candy is evenly coated with sugar. Uncover and spread the candy once again on the cooling rack. Let it sit until it's dry to the touch (about an hour), then store in an airtight container. It should keep for at least a month.