Note: This Fruit Loaf recipe was originally part of my Biscuit Advent Calendar, a one-recipe-a-day email series in December. You can find the other recipes and sign up for the next round if you want here.
Hello and welcome back to the final edition with a 1 in front. Today I want to share a recipe I make absolutely every year: Früchtebrot (fruit bread).
It’s a very traditionally wintery bake: a cake-like loaf that is essentially dried fruit and nuts held together just well enough to give you a perfectly legitimate excuse to add butter on top.
When I was young, we used to buy this at the bakery. After I moved out from home, from the south to the east of Germany, it suddenly wasn’t so commonly available anymore. Dresden’s big Christmas thing is Stollen. There’s even a demo bake at the Christmas market (world’s longest Stollen and all that). Interesting to watch, certainly, but I never really warmed to it.
So I’m not giving you a Stollen recipe here. Besides, you bake it weeks in advance, which makes it a poor fit for late-December baking anyway.
Back to fruit bread. I didn’t actually start baking this annually in Dresden, but later, after I moved to London. You might remember the mince pies from Day 14 stuffed full of candied peel and raisins? I wasn’t particularly impressed at first.
I also wasn’t the baker then that I am now. I saw biscuit baking as something you did with others, but I was alone. So I went looking for something that was tasty, easy, and familiar. I came across this recipe, and the rest is history.
It’s simple to make. All you need is a loaf tin. It keeps well for about a week, and you can also freeze it sliced and toast it as needed.
For this one, the shop I went to was out of apricots and I had apples anyway. Although apricots ARE very nice in this. I only made two thirds of the recipe stated below (too many baked goods otherwise).
The best part for me back then was no raisins, no sultanas, no currants, no lemon or orange peel.* Just a bit of Christmas flavour from home especially during that first winter, when I still didn’t have any friends. I had moved in early October, and everything felt new.
So for me, this bake is an emotional throwback, a way of taking a small piece of yourself with you when you suddenly find yourself surrounded by unfamiliar things. I think it coincided with finding my first Lidl in London (the one in Clapham Junction) and feeling suddenly, unexpectedly at home. It’s the small things.
I use softened dried fruit. If yours are very dry, consider soaking them in some hot water or juice or even a little alcohol like rum. You want them to contribute moisture to the bread, not take it away.
* Most shop-bought versions do contain raisins and citrus. At the time, it was a small revelation to realise that you can simply ditch what doesn’t appeal.
You can absolutely vary the dried fruits below. This is just what I like to use. And when I happen to have leftover dried fruit I also add apple or pear as above. But that’s where I draw the line: no cranberries, raisins, barberries …
You can also play with the nuts but I think that almonds don’t work well from a texture perspective: they are too hard.
Früchtebrot Recipe
Makes one loaf tin
Ingredients
- 125 g plain flour
- 80 g sugar/brown sugar/honey
- 3 eggs
- 150 g dried figs
- 150 g dried apricots
- 150 g dried plums
- 100 g dates
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 125 g walnuts
- 125 g hazelnuts
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Prepare nuts and fruit
Chop your dried fruit into chunks. I like to keep mine rather big. I also don’t chop my nuts as I like it when I see half a hazelnut in a cross-section and walnuts are soft anyway. If you like your sweetness more distributed you could cut the dates a little smaller.
Make the batter
Beat eggs, chosen sweetener, and salt until foamy. Fold in flour, cinnamon, and baking powder. Add the dried fruit and nuts.
Bake
Transfer it into a 30 cm loaf tin lined with baking parchment. It will maybe feel like there’s not much batter to hold it together but there’s enough. Preheat the oven to 150°C conventional. Bake for 45-50 minutes; it takes a surprising amount of time (but depends on the size of your tin). Check with a skewer whether it’s done (it should come out clean) otherwise give it another 5 minutes.
Let cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then take it out and let it cool fully before cutting into it.
I usually keep it wrapped in aluminium foil and cut myself a cheeky slice whenever I feel like it. With butter (not shown, so you can admire the fruit and nuts). I also take it out with me as a “sandwich” and peel it apart before eating, so I can have twice as many slices.
Enjoy!!