Every year, I struggle with what to send my father-in-law for his birthday, which always falls within a couple days of Father's Day. Usually, I end up sending food. One year, I sent a variety of "jerky" items that were produced locally including buffalo and pheasant. As my in-laws are avid campers, that turned out to be a great gift. Unfortunately, I can't send dried meat every year (well, I could, but that would just reinforce their perception that I'm weird).
Last year I sent coconut bread that was well received, so this year I figured I'd send another quick-bread type loaf. The following recipe is loosely based on the Apricot Bread recipe in Beard On Bread, though I added other fruit and eliminated the nuts. I also ran out of all-purpose flour and had to substitute 1 cup of cake flour (for each cup add 2 tablespoons extra). The bread turned out lovely. We'll eat it over the weekend and see how it keeps and if it isn't stale by Monday morning, I'll bake two more and get them in the post.
You Will Need:
1 cup boiling water
1-½ cups dried apricot
½ cup dried cherries
½ cup dried currants
½ teaspoon baking soda
1-cup sugar
2 eggs
2-¾ cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter and flour two loaf pans. Pour the boiling water over the fruit and let sit about five minutes. They don't need a great deal of plumping. Drain, reserving water and round liquid up to 1 cup with water. Chop the apricots. Pour the liquid into a large bowl and add the baking soda, sugar and eggs. Mix well. Add the fruit, flour and baking powder. Mix again. Pour the batter into pans (will be very thick) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean (about 35-40 minutes). Cool on racks.
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