Jewelled Fruitcake Bars are comprised of candied fruit and nuts on a shortbread crust with a secret ingredient for an over-the-top flavor.
Jewelled Fruitcake Bars
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
This is a recipe that Bill had spotted in Taste of the South and wanted me to make so I promised him I would. I didn’t have 100% of the ingredients though, so cobbled together the subs I used, but the concept (and credit) goes to them. The bars are really quite good- I suppose they would have been good as they wrote the recipe, but I do give heavy nods to the Lyle’s syrup. While some fruitcake can have a dull, fig-newtonish taste, the taste of this is brighter and has notes of toffee. I suspect the Lyle’s and at that, doubt I will ever buy corn syrup again, using Lyle’s instead. I think Alton Brown also sings the praises of Lyle’s syrup. And while I don’t see eye to eye with him on every little thing, I can agree with him about that.
So this is my offering today for 12 Days of #ChristmasCookies. I hope you are enjoying the event so far. I’ve been having fun making all these cookies and still have a few more recipes left for you later in the week. Wednesday is Maple Sugar Cookies in conjunction with Foodie Extravaganza’s event for maple syrup. Thursday is Hungarian Poppyseed Pinwheel Cookies, and four days of additional recipes after that. So stick with me and my blogger friends while we give you all these options for your cookie jar! The event runs through Tuesday the 12th of December.
Next week I will have holiday recipes for both #BreadBakers (Marzipan Stollen) and #BundtBakers (Red Velvet Bundt Cake). So you can plan for those now if you need a recipe.
Recipe adapted from Taste of the South
Jewelled Fruitcake Bars
Yield: 16 bars
Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
Filling:
- 1/2 cup chopped candied red cherries
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup Old-English fruit and peel mix
- 1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
- 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
- 1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 cup Lyle’s golden syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick foil, allowing some excess to use as lifting tabs.
- Spray foil with Baker’s Joy spray.
- Place flour, sugar, salt, and butter into a food processor, pulsing until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Press crust into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until crust browns slightly; allow crust to cool.
- Mix fruits together and sprinkle over crust, topping with pecans.
- Stir together brown sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.
- Add mixture to beaten eggs with syrup and vanilla; pour over filling.
- Bake until filling is set, about 45 minutes.
- Cool completely in pan.
- Remove from pan by lifting foil tabs, and cut into bars.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
Day 6
- Cherry Kiss Cookies from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
- Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies from Making the Most of Naptime
- Jewelled Fruitcake Bars from A Palatable Pastime
- Oatmeal Raisin Almond Cookies from Feeding Big
- Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies from Family Around the Table
- Soft and Spicy Molasses Cookies from Cooking With Carlee
- Spiced Pretzel Walnut Cookies with Chocolate Chips from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Susensky from A Day in the Life on The Farm
These are so pretty. A lovely addition to a holiday party dessert table. My husband loves fruitcake!
Ooooh, my father-in-law would love these! I’ll have to make some!
Love the little candy bits!
They look perfect for this time of year with all the lovely dried fruit in them.