December 19,
2009Also known as Spitzbube, these cookies come from Grandma's oldest cookbooks. How old are they? They're written in the old German script that hasn't been used since after the war. Even Germans don't learn to read it anymore. Spitzbüble sandwich fruit jelly inside two crisp butter cookies. The cookies are made without eggs or baking powder.
It was like this for me returning to my mother's, too.
Every year since 2004, I've baked fruitcake. Once I realized the secret of yummy fruitcake (bake it yourself, use lots of whiskey, use fresh candied fruit peel), I've baked fruitcake at Christmas.
This year, even without an extra teenager in the house, I couldn't find the time in November to bake. December's weekends have been filled with birthday parties and illness.
Everyone hates fruitcake, but my fruitcake is good. It's an Irish recipe, for people who really eat fruitcake. It's rich and boozy and full of fruit and a few nuts. It has none of that stale fruitcake mix from the supermarket; that is just foul. I can eat a lot of things other people barely consider food, but that fruitcake mix resembles deteriorating plastic more than food. Thus: no fruitcake mix means a good fruitcake.
But this year, I have no fruitcake, and I miss it.
Copyright 2009 Susan J. Talbutt; all rights reserved.
Last updated December 14, 2009