A Taste of Things To Come: Mazurka

I was planning on writing about our Christmas traditions: decorating the Christmas tree (tick), making Christmas Pudding (double tick), sending out Christmas cards (a big fail this year for the first time ever) and the food that spells Christmas in our home.

Of course, there has to be turkey. And ham. And German Potato Salad although we don't call it that. We simply refer to it as Potato Salad and remember to keep aside a small portion without bacon for Grandma.

DIL#3's Broccoli Salad is fast becoming a tradition and there'll most likely be coleslaw, roasted kumara, new potatoes and baby peas (both for DH who has fond memories of his father growing them especially for Christmas - not that we grow either and even if we did, certainly not enough to feed more than one or two at a time).

There is, of course, Christmas pudding for dessert, and pavlova, which, this year, I'm hoping to decorate with raspberry coulis and berries to look like a Christmas wreath.

And then there's Mazurka. I have found only one other similar recipe for Mazurka online (surprisingly on a Kiwi blog) and even it is different enough from mine to wonder if the two recipes arose from the same source. From what I can learn: Mazurka is a Polish dance; it's also a Polish cake traditionally served at Easter and which has a short pastry base.

There is no pastry in my Mazurka because, let's get this straight, I tend to bake no-fail recipes and pastry is definitely not a no-fail in my kitchen. And if I'm baking two or three pans of Mazurka - often at short notice - it has to be no-fail.

Whatever it's origins (and I suspect it might be like my husband's family's Welsh Cake recipe that might be cake and might be Welsh but is not "Welsh Cake") it's easy to make, yummy, and, did I mention, fail-proof?

This year I used dried mango in place of the glaze pineapple and macadamia and pistachio nuts in place of the hazelnuts and half the almonds and it was even more delicious than usual. I also made a third tray of it and added ginger chunks for the ginger lovers in my life since I was low on some other ingredients. I don't think it's as fabulous, but then I'm not a ginger lover (or maybe it's more due to the fact I only had half the amount of chocolate). DH has no complaints. (By the way, the similar recipe I found had ginger in it.)

In the spirit of Christmas, I'm going to share the recipe again. (And might I add, if you've never tried it, you need to. At least once.)

Christmas Mazurka
3/4 cup currants
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped dried figs
1/2 cup chopped glace pineapple (or dried pineapple or dried mango or craisins or another colourful dried fruit)
1/4 cup chopped mixed peel (or substitute for craisins or another dried fruit)
3/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1/2 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts (or pistachios or make a mix from almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, macadamia and cashews for the nut content)
1 cup Dark Chocolate Bits
1-1/4 cups flour (I'm pretty sure I used gluten-free flour one year with no problems)
2 Tablespoons Baking Cocoa (or Cacao powder)
1-1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup liquid honey

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Line the base of a 30cm x 25cm x 2cm tin with baking paper. Grease paper lightly unless it's a non-stick paper.

Place dried fruit, nuts, and chocolate in a large bowl. Sift together the flour, cocoa and mixed spice and stir into the fruit mixture. Combine the eggs and honey and add to the fruit mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Press evenly into the tin.

Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes or until the mixture is firm when pressed in the centre. Stand on a rack until cool. Turn out and remove paper and cut into bars, squares or triangles. Dust with icing sugar before serving if desired.

This recipe does not need to be refrigerated which makes it ideal for giving as gifts. However, you might find that you need to hide it from the chocolate and fruit lovers in your house!

Enjoy! And if you love it, share it!