gumdrop bread~

 Yesterday.... Dear Hubby... bless his soul... wanted to help do some baking for Christmas for me; since I was busy patching up his work pants for him.  

So....

he decides to make some gumdrop bread. It was his Grandma's recipe that she always made for him at Christmas time when he was a little boy... and also a grown man.  I've been making it since Grandma died; but this year Slim said he wanted to make it.

When he first started; I turned the oven on for him to preheat it.  Well... gumdrop bread has to bake for an hour and a half.  Fifteen minutes before it's done.... I realize; the kitchen doesn't smell very 'spicy and gumdroppy', I better sneak a peak at the bread.  Come to find out when Slim put the bread in the oven and went to set the timer.... he hit Cancel before doing the timer and he unknowingly turned the oven off.  So there sat his four loaves of bread, having an hour and a half yet to bake.  Three hours later... we finally had the gumdrop bread done from start to finish. 

~~~

G'ma Inez Donner's Gumdrop Bread

 makes 4 loaves    300 degrees  1-1/2 hours. baking time

4 cups sugar

2 cups butter

1 cup shortening

4 eggs

3 cups applesauce

2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in the applesauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 lbs. of spicette gumdrops

raisins/ dates / walnuts

In a large bowl cream the sugar, eggs and shortening.  Add the applesauce with the baking soda dissolved in it.  Add the remaining dry ingredients, gumdrops, raisins, dates and nuts.

The dough will be very stiff like a cookie dough.

Divide into 4 well-greased and floured loaf pans.

Place in 300 degree preheated oven on the center rack.

On the lower rack of the oven place a cake pan filled half way with hot water.  This is a very important step to assure a moist gumdrop bread.  It also keeps the bread from browning too fast.

Bake 1-1/2 hours until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of a loaf.

Remove from pans to cool.

~~~
Dear Hubby left today for North Carolina for work.  I just got a phone call from him a little bit ago... seems he missed his flight to Detroit from Mosinee.  On his ticket it said his flight flew out at 6:00 and he gets to the airport at 5:15 .... plenty of time to check in.  Well... come to find out his ticket was wrong... his flight took off at 5:00... not 6:00.  So... he missed his flight by an hour.  Then to make matters worse, there are no other flights until tomorrow night that he could take... and he's suppose to be at a plant in North Carolina in the morning.  What a mess!

So now he's on his way back home; but decided to take a motel for the night because he has a bunch of stuff to pick up down by Athens before coming home; which he was originally going to pick up on Saturday.  
Who knows when he'll be rescheduled now to go to North Carolina.  He's so bummed.  I wish I was with him.

Until next time...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel