Hutzelbrot

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 kg apples
• 250 g sugar
• 1 tbsp liquor (e.g. rum)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ pack of gingerbread spice
• 500 g flour
• 1 ½ packets of baking powder
• 250 g raisins
• 250 g hazelnuts, whole or roughly chopped
• Fat for the mold

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 8 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 9 hours 30 minutes

Swabian fruit bread, carving bread, classic version

Peel and core the apples, and chop or slice them. (This works with both fresh apples and older apples that are already starting to wrinkle.) Mix with the sugar, cover, and let stand overnight (the mixture will turn brown and release liquid—this is intentional). Preheat the oven to 175°C (fan). Add all remaining ingredients and mix well. The schnapps isn’t essential, but it rounds out the flavor nicely. Pour the batter into a well-greased loaf pan and bake for 60–70 minutes. Alternatively, divide the batter between two well-greased muffin tins (= 24 muffins) and bake for about 20 minutes. Hutzelbrot is a typical Swabian Christmas pastry. For a more exotic variation, replace the raisins with any dried fruit, such as dates, plums, apricots, or bananas. The nut mixture can also be changed and supplemented as desired, e.g. with almonds, walnuts, cashews and pecans.