Früchtebrot is a holiday fruit and nut bread, sliced into rounds into bite size pieces. It's not overly sweet or salty. The flavors of fruits, nuts, and cognac meld together to form a perfect holiday loaf. It makes three logs which can be sliced into rounds. Wrap logs in parchment paper and string for a homemade holiday gift. This recipe is from Essen und Trinken, a great website for recipes. You'll notice in this recipe grams are not converted to cups. Thanks to a colleague and friend of mine, I received a kitchen scale for Christmas. For those without a kitchen scale, try using the cooking conversion calculator from Gourmet Sleuth.  I've had success using this online converter.

Früchtebrot
Recipe from Essen & Trinken
Makes roughly 3- 12" logs

Note: the original recipe called for equal amounts of dried apricots, plums, apples and figs. In place of 100 g dried apples, I added an additional 50 g dried apricots and 50 g chopped dates. Any variety of dried fruit will work well in this recipe.

100 g dried plums (roughly 11 plums), chopped
100 g dried figs, chopped
150 g dried apricots, chopped
50 g dried dates, chopped
50 ml cognac (equivalent to a trial size bottle- the original recipe calls for whisky)
50 g pine nuts
50 g flaked almonds, divided in half
50 g pistachios, peeled
1 Tablespoon of allspice
1 Tablespoon of dry yeast
100 g all purpose flour
1/3 cup of water in a small bowl and a pastry brush, set aside

Marinate dried fruit with cognac in a medium size bowl for approximately 30 minutes. The dried fruit will soak up the liquid.

Meanwhile, chop the pine nuts with pistachios. Add one portion of the flaked almonds to the nut mixture. In a separate bowl, combine flour, yeast, and allspice. Combine half of the nut mixture with the flour and yeast. Knead in the dried fruit mixture. Knead thoroughly. Form into three separate logs of equal length approximately 12" long and 1 1/5" wide. Spread the remaining flaked almonds on a sheet of parchment paper. Brush each log with water that has been set to the side. Roll each log into the flaked almond mixture. Let each log rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while the logs rest. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool completely before slicing into 1 cm thick rounds. Line rounds onto a sheet of parchment paper or sandwich paper, roll, and tie each end with string to give as a gift over the holidays.

    

In addition to Springerle, Lebkuchen, and Zimtsterne, I added two more types of German cookies and holiday treats to the boxes I packaged for family members. Spekulatius-Brezeln and Früchtebrot were packaged in boxes, and Matt and I gave the boxes of cookies to our families. The Früchtebrot is a nut and dried fruit bread, with very little flour and yeast. It is sliced into bite size rounds and is a perfect combination of nuts and fruit. It's not too sweet.

Spekulatius-Brezeln is a combination of puff pastry and speculaas (a spice laden) dough, rolled together in pretzel and other shapes.  The recipe for Früchtebrot and Spekulatius-Brezeln I found from Essen & Trinken, a German food website. These recipes were featured on their Christmas cookie slide show- and if you can't translate the recipes, the pictures themselves are worth looking through for holiday ideas.

Spekulatius-Brezeln
Adapted and translated from Essen & Trinken

1 cup ground roasted almonds
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg yoke
1 T cardamom
1 T cinnamon
1/2 T ground cloves
1/2 T ground nutmeg
1 cup all purpose flour
 1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed, at room temperature
1 egg white
1/2 c granulated sugar, placed in a bowl or dish

Place puff pastry out on the counter as you prepare the spekulatius dough. Combine butter, brown sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix until creamy. Add egg yolk and lightly mix until smooth. Gradually add flour, ground almonds, and spices.  Knead mixture until smooth if you have difficulty using the stand mixer. Place in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Fold out puff pastry dough on a board. Roll approximately to the length of a standard cookie sheet (a flexible length). Remove spekulatius dough from the refrigerator and divide into two portions. Brush half of the puff pastry with egg white. Roll out one of the portions of spekulatius dough onto the puff pastry half covered with egg white. Fold over the puff pastry on top of the spekulatius dough. Brush the top with egg white. Roll out the reserved spekulatius dough on top. Roll the entire layers into a long cylinder, place in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the puff pastry and spekulatius dough from the refrigerator and roll out to 1/4" thick. Cut into strips and fold over pieces into pretzel shapes or spirals. Dip each shape into sugar, alternatively sprinkle each piece with sugar. Place onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-15 mins at 375 degrees until slightly golden. Watch for over browning. Flavor improves the next day and the day after.