The Hearty Kobold's Kitchen

This recipe uses up the left over dried fruit from making my Yule cake and Yule pudding, so the quantities are approximate. They're even more approximate when I'm making it because I love the soft crunch of dried apricots ao I tend to steal a few as I go. They taste good too, but they are very much a sensory thing for me as well. The jam can also be used to stick the marzipan to the Yule cake before icing. Apricot, Fig, and Apple Jam Ingredients: 500-550g dried fruit (approx 450g apricots and 50-100g of figs) 50g stem ginger/crystalised ginger 1.5 litres of water 4 apples (peeled, cored, and finely diced) Juice of three lemons 2kg jam sugar (which includes pectin) or sugar plus added pectin If you're concerned about needing more pectin (the thing that makes jam set, naturally found in fruit), you can use the peel, core, and pips of the apples to make a pectin concentrate, which you can add to the jam as some of the liquid content. Method: 1. Chop the apricots, figs, and gin...

My husband has always had an issue with currants, sultana, and raisins (or humiliated grapes as he calls the latter). However, I love Christmas cake. Especially homemade Christmas cake. It's rarely worth making a whole fruitcake for me alone, though, and so I developed a recipe to accommodate his dislike of humiliated grapes. Instead, we rely on dried dates, which go a bit more fudgey when cooked than currants and raisins, and have a different texture. The recipes that formed the foundation this one can be found at the links below. Classic Christmas Cake by James Martin Easy Christmas Cake by Sarah Cook Christmas/Yule Cake (for the Currant Averse) Ingredients: 1kg mixed dried fruits - we use dried dates, mixed peel, and glacé cherries but you can use whatever type of dried fruit you prefer. Sherry (or preferred alcohol, or tea/juice if you prefer not to use alcohol) - base recipes call for 150ml, but we soak the fruit in enough to cover the fruit, then use what we drain from the fr...