I remember my mom making a chocolate fruitcake many many moons ago.  I really don’t remember much about it other than I liked it at the time.  I think she only made it once , or, at least, I only remember it once.  It definitely wasn’t a Christmas tradition.

It’s a bit of a cold day out there, I’m getting that Christmas-Baking-Bug,  and I decided to see if I could find that recipe.  I got out her cook books and started looking.  I didn’t find it, but I did find a score of bread recipes.  Being the easily-sidetracked person that I am, I decided to bake a loaf of bread as well as make a fruitcake.

We had the ingredients.

I have the cook books scanned into the computer but there really is nothing like pulling out and holding and reading the real thing.   The notes she made, comments, alterations…  It really does bring me back to a simpler place and time.  Well…  simpler for me…  I really can’t imagine having six kids in the house.

It’s a really loose batter bread.  Really loose.  It’s a no-knead bread because there’s no way it could ever be kneaded.   The batter literally pours into the pan.

But it came out looking great!

The top split in the oven but it has all the appearances of a very light bread.  I have a small ham for dinner tonight but I’m thinking ham sandwiches might be on the menu!

Light without being “squishy” with a great crust!  It’s definitely going to be a good sandwich bread.