A fruitcake for any occasion

Every year at the holidays, I used to make, and love, Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake. But it's a bit of a job and I was the only one who ended up eating most of the cake anyway, so I haven't made one in years. Then I saw this fruitcake in one of my "nine cookbooks" and had to try it. Like the Quick Pecan Cookies, there's no butter in this recipe, which is unusual for a dessert (not that there's anything wrong with butter). Even more unusual, the cake is very low in added sugar (though there are plenty of natural sugars in the dried fruit). Another huge plus is that the cake comes together about as quickly as the Quick Pecan Cookies, without you having to get out and clean your food processor. All of which would be meaningless if the cake wasn't very good, but it's outstanding, so much so that I'm afraid Mom is going to be staking her claim to the better part of it since it's gluten free (I made it with teff flour). Oh well, at least this fruitcake is easy enough that I can make one a lot more often, without waiting for the holidays to roll around.

Date-Nut Cake

Adapted from Flavor Flours (2014) by Alice Medrich via Mother Earth News

70 grams teff flour (½ cup) or buckwheat flour or all-purpose flour (½ cup plus 2 tablespoons)
¼ teaspoon fine salt
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon baking powder
35–50 grams (3–4 tablespoons) light or dark brown sugar, depending how sweet you like your cake
175 grams (1 cup) dates, pitted and cut into quarters
80 grams (½ cup) dried apricots, halved; or 40 grams (¼ cup) dried apricots, halved, plus 40 grams (¼ cup) dried Bing or sour cherries
175 grams (1¾ cups) walnut pieces
2 large eggs (~57 grams each in the shell)
1¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

    1. Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Spray an  8-by-4-inch (4-cup) loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, or line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
    2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the brown sugar, dried fruit, and walnuts. Use your hands to mix well, breaking up any clumps of brown sugar and separating any sticky fruit pieces from each other.
    3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla until combined. Scrape the eggs onto the dry ingredients with a spatula and mix well until all of the fruit and nuts are coated with batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
    4. Bake until the top is well browned and the batter feels set around the fruit, about an hour. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
    5. The cake may be stored, wrapped airtight in foil or plastic wrap, for at least a week at room temperature and longer in the fridge (but you’ll have eaten it all by then). To serve, cut thin slices using a sharp chef’s knife. Small pieces of this would be a great addition to a cheese plate.