Bishop's Bread-Our Fruitcake

That is exactly how it is written in one of my most prized posessions- A handwritten little cookbook my mama gave me when I moved out at 18. It is full of recipes that are unique to our family.
This post will probably be sentimental, and not a lot about baking techniques. So read on if you like.

I have to preface this recipe with some background.  My entire childhood (and maybe into my late teens) I always heard people bashing fruitcake.  It was always the dreaded gift around the holidays that no one wanted.  I just could never understand this! I always thought-

"What is wrong with fruitcake?  My mama's fruitcake is SO amazing!"

Each and every year of my life I looked forward to so many things at Christmas, but there were a couple of things that definitely meant Christmas was upon us. My mama's Santa's whiskers cookies, and fruitcake.  It wasn't until later that I realized I had been deceived (not purposely) by my mother!
GASP! OUR FRUITCAKE IS NOT FRUITCAKE.
It's real identity is Bishop's Bread, and it's so amazing. It's got some fruitiness to it, but from what I understand is nothing like fruitcake.

I wouldn't know. I've never had real fruitcake.

So here we go. This is my cookbook recipe written by my mama.  The following are the changes I made to it including egg replacer and such.  One thing I can't change is the maraschino cherries.  There is nothing else in the world that equals the weirdness of maraschino cherries, so don't try. It's probably the only thing I buy that has that much food coloring and high fructose corn syrup... but... this is a once a year thing people.

First of all. When preparing these ingredients, you have to know a secret. You have to cut the maraschino cherries with kitchen scissors. I tried chopping them once and the chunks were not right. I don't really know why this is how it is, but... it is.  My mama did it this way, and when I tried it differently, it was not right, and that is all I know. So if your fingers aren't stained when you are done, you did something wrong.

Second of all.  We always used the packaged dates that are already cut and all sugary. You can find them on the same aisle as raisins.  Now that I cook all the time I often have weird things like whole Medjool Dates.  They are giant dates that are naturally extremely sweet. So I just cut those up (with my trusty kitchen scissors).

Also, to keep with the theme of this blog I replaced the eggs with egg replacer.  The following is my updated recipe.

One more thing! This recipe is the BEST with pecans, but they are very expensive right now, so walnuts were a great replacement!

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

4 1/2 tsp Ener-g egg replacer + 6Tb water (equivalent of 3 eggs)
1 1/2 c sifted flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
6 oz vegan chocolate chips
2 Cups chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1 Cup chopped Medjool dates
1 Cup chopped Maraschino cherries

Grease and flour loaf pan. Line with waxed paper or parchment paper (if you have the patience).
Combine egg replacer with water, and beat until foamy.
Combine egg replacer mixture with sugar and beat well.
In a seperate bowl combine flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add dry ingredients, including flour mixture, chocolate chips, pecans, dates, and maraschino cherries to wet ingredients. Mix well. 

It will be a big thick sticky mess.

Press into three small loaf pans.
Bake for 1 1/4 hours- 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from pan.
Cool completely on wire rack.

These freeze well wrapped in seran wrap after completely cooling.