These bars are adaptable: use your favorite combination of dried fruit. If you don't have access to apple butter, you can substitute a thick applesauce. Double the icing recipe if you prefer more topping. You'll need to soak the dried fruit in rum for a day before making the bars.
Servings: 25bars
Author: Mary Gillespie
Ingredients
Cake:
3cups/ 750 ml dried fruitfinely chopped (I used dried apples, cranberries, dates and candied ginger)
6tablespoons/ 90 ml rum
1/2cup/ 125 ml apple butter (or substitute thick applesauce
1/3cup/ 80 ml olive oil
1/2cup/ 125 ml brown sugar
2tablespoons/ 30 ml maple syrupor use additional apple butter
2eggsbeaten
1teaspoon/ 5 ml vanilla
1cup/ 250 ml all-purpose flour
1/2teaspoon/ 2.5 ml cinnamon
1/2teaspoon/ 2. 5 ml nutmeg
1/2teaspoon/ 2.5 ml dried ginger
1/4teaspoon/ 1.25 ml ground pepper
1/2teaspoon/ 2.5 ml salt
1teaspoon/ 5 ml baking soda
1teaspoon/ 5 ml baking powder
2tablespoons/ 30 ml additional rumfor brushing over baked cake
Icing:
1/4cup/ 60 ml softened butter
2teaspoons/ 10 ml rum
1cup/ 250 ml icing or confectioners' sugar
1/2teaspoon/ 2.5 ml grated nutmeg
Instructions
Cake:
In metal or glass mixing bowl, stir together dried fruit and rum. Cover and let sit, stirring occasionally for 24 hours. The fruit will absorb the rum and become a bit sticky.
When the fruit has soaked and you are ready to begin baking, preheat oven to 325 degrees F / 163 degrees C. Grease a 9x9-inch / 23x23 cm baking pan, and line bottom with parchment or wax paper.
To the dried fruit, add apple butter, olive oil, brown sugar, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
In separate bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried ginger, pepper, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
Stir flour mixture into dried fruit mixture until combined and there are no streaks of flour in the batter.
Spread the batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bars comes out clean.
Remove pan from oven and set on cooling rack. Brush with rum until it is all absorbed. Let bars cool completely. (You can brush cooled bars with additional rum if you like additional rum flavor.)
Icing:
Beat butter and rum until smooth. Add icing sugar and beat until it becomes smooth and spreadable. (At the start it will seem very dry and crumbly, but as you continue to beat the icing it will become smooth.)
Spread icing over cooled bars and sprinkle with grated nutmeg.