When I decided I wasn’t going to make a sewn project for the Knitting Group gals, I decided instead to put together jars of candied fruit in dark rum.
It’s the same concoction I use to make the fruit cake: candied fruit (the less expensive variety at Bulk Barn), raisins, dried cranberries, chopped up dates all drenched with half a 750 ml bottle of dark rum.
I didn’t measure the ingredients, I just added them to my 27 quart Tupperware bowl with a lid – it ended up slightly more than 3/4 full. I did what I do with the Christmas cake fruit – I flip the bowl twice a day so the rum has a chance to drain through the fruit until there’s none left in the bottom of the bowl – between 5-7 days.
I bought a lot of fruit – I don’t know the quantity by weight – it was four of the Bulk Barn large plastic containers full, plus a small one I already had a home which I was going to use to make a sheet of Christmas Bars (recipe available if you click on the link). I ended up with 18 Mason jars full of candied fruit (my friend Ruby gave me her supply of Mason jars, I didn’t have to buy any).
Once I’d filled the jars with fruit, I divided the remaining half bottle of rum among the 18 jars (I only use Rum to make the Christmas cake, no point in it sitting around. I’ll buy another bottle next year.)
To be honest, I’m not going to bake the Christmas Bars – they’re lovely but none of us needs the added sweet. So instead my gift this year is this jar of candied fruit in rum.
A teaspoonful is WONDERFUL on a small scoop of vanilla ice cream! You could put a slice of pound cake beneath the ice cream and you’d have fancy dessert. These jars are small but I know there are many teaspoons full of pleasure in each.
Now I need to decorate the tops of the jars and label them. They’re just going to people who really like rum. I don’t plan on handing out any to someone who’s just going to put it in the fridge and forget about it – it’s just too good to be ignored.
BTW – I finished both aprons and the microwave potato bags today. That leaves the Kantha jacket to remake.
jmn 
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Think one would really have to like rum!
You could use brandy but you need something that will complement the flavour of the fruit, not fight it.
When you’ve put a teaspoon on top of some ice cream the predominant flavour isn’t rum, just delicious!