18 May 2008

Tutti-Frutti Brandied Fruits

When I was poking around on the Times website the other day, looking for the tutti-frutti ice cream recipe that turned out to be fruit ice cream, I found something else called tutti-frutti. And the funny thing? I recognized the "clipping". My mother has that clipping, from the original paper, not an electronic pdf clipping. And it's something she used to make. But we never called it tutti-frutti - we just called it brandied fruits.
The gist of it is that you start in June with a bottle of brandy, and a bunch of strawberries (and sugar). As the summer goes on, add fruit in season (and sugar). At summer's end, put it away until Christmas. It turns into an unsightly brown sludge, but it tastes awesome. You then put some in jars and give it away as presents, and eat the rest over vanilla ice cream.

I think I'll try some this year.

The Times recipe (#2 in the clipping) calls for 1 750 ml bottle of brandy, 10 pounds of fruit, 7 pounds of sugar, and a 3 gallon crock. Start with the brandy, and add fruit and sugar. For each pound of fruit, use 3/4 pound of sugar. Use soft fruits, like berries, grapes, peaches and plums. Don't use bananas or citrus or apples. Pears would probably be good; the printed recipe calls for pineapple. Keep the fruit submerged with a weighted plate. Eat it when it's ready.

And if I haven't sated your desire for tutti-frutti yet, someone's making scratch & sniff wallpaper called Tutti Frutti and of course, Little Richard sang it.

14 comments:

Girlplustwo said...

i recall there being somrthing like this in willy wonka too. lickable wallpaper, was that it?

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

And you're sure this is good?!

needleinahaystack said...

I remember this taste from our childhood. I remember your mom warmed it a little over the best vanilla ice cream at Christmas. I have always wanted this recipe! Thank you.

Woman in a Window said...

I think you need an intervention...you've gone Tutti Frutti crazy!

Anonymous said...

You reminded me of my childhood days craving for that cold taste in my mouth.

Mayberry said...

The last time we were in France we had some kind of insane homemade aperitif made from stuffing apricots into a bottle of booze. You know what I'm talking about right? Holy crap was that stuff POTENT.

Ozma said...

Yeah, I was thinking booze+sugar+fruit flavor=infallibly popular. It sounds like you can't lose with this recipe. It's like the topping version of butter+sugar+crunchy=we evolved especially to be unable to resist.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like something we call 'fruit mince' and it makes me wanna barf, LOL!

Bring back the icecream!

Furrow said...

Now that's a recipe I can deal with. Start with a big bucket of booze and just throw stuff in as you get it. A happy sort of compost bucket.

Aliki2006 said...

So am I right and you just add fruit to brandy?

Hmmm...sounds both appealing and slightly gross, but I'm suitably intrigued.

By the way, I cam *this close* to buying the Cuisinart ice-cream maker yesterday. I'm still wavering and trying to justify the $50 to my husband.

Aunt Becky said...

I'm not sure if it sounds divine or disgusting to me. Is that weird?

shrink on the couch said...

One Christmas season someone brought talked about making pear brandy. The pear was grown in an empty bottle, brandy added, and then it was left to ferment (?). I'm not a brandy fan, but I would have loved to try it. It sounds a little like your tutti-frutti.

Katie Zeller said...

And it will make a Very Merry Christmas, indeed!
I love the idea, all that summer in a bottle (or, rather, a crock)

Julia said...

I am getting a sugar high just reading about it. Sounds delicious, but also like something I should stay the hell away from.