Gumdrop Bread
Gumdrop bread is one thing I cannot do without during the holidays. It’s such a strong reminder of my Gramma to me. A reminder of the time and care she took in sending us a special package each year around Christmas.
I was always excited about the homemade Chex mix, the stick-on earrings, the new ornaments for the tree…but the Gumdrop bread...there was just always something so exciting about cutting into that loaf and hoping you got the most gumdrops or a least a little of each color in your slice!
It will forever be a favorite of mine.
Gumdrop Bread is best described as a dense pound cake or a variation on a fruit cake for the holiday table. I have found a few delightful write-ups about it if you want to check them out:
The Old Foodie Blog - gumdrop bread recipe from 1946!
Culinary Types Blog - a write up about testing The Old Foodie recipe from 1946
Yesterdish - a blog devoted to archiving old recipes, we’ve cited it before for our cream cheese mints - excellent history on gumdrops and includes a gumdrop bread recipe from the September 12, 1934 edition of the Sheboygan Press:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online - another version of the gumdrop bread recipe with nuts!
This recipe seems to have been a hit in the Midwest and entered as a festive alternative to a traditional fruit cake or Christmas Cake. A couple of tips if you want to make this yourself and you haven’t tried it yet:
I have only ever eaten this with “fruit slices” - they can be cut quite easily with kitchen shears if you keep some warm water nearby to dip them in before cutting
Use the color and flavors you like but most recipes (if they are using spice drops) will omit the black gumdrops so the loaf does not taste overwhelmingly like licorice. As kids, my sister and I used to love to get a little bit of purple in our slice!
If you can let the loaf sit for a day or two or three (covered) - it tastes better. I don’t know why but maybe the gumdrops soften and the some of the flavor seeps into the bread and it all becomes a little more moist…all I can really tell you is that this is how we ate it!
Dipping your gumdrops in flour after cutting can help them float more in your batter instead of sinking to the bottom of the loaf
I have successfully made this with gluten free flour and almond milk and the flavor and texture were not sacrificed
Here’s the recipe that was cut from the paper in 1973 and copied down onto an index card. The cutting was taped to the top of the index card and I removed it to scan it in. The cutting includes nuts but you can see that when it was re-written the nuts have been omitted. The red markings on the hand-written recipe are the quantities for doubling:
Gumdrop Bread 1973
Mix: 3/4 cups sugar
2 T shortening (or oil)
1 egg
Stir in: 1 1/2 cup milk
3 cups flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Blend in 1 - 1.4 oz package of snipped gumdrops
Pour into greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees about an hour and 10 minutes
I took this picture (below) before we began scanning these recipes - this is my mom’s copy of the Gumdrop Bread recipe that was written down by her mother in 1977. You can see it hasn’t changed and they are still ready to double it - nuts are still optional!
