Mixed Dried Fruit

Asked by Cobble Hill Cook. Answered on 30th July 2014

Full question

What makes up a Mixed Dried Fruit for baking? I'm baking fruit scones and not sure what the mix is? Also, as I'm a Brit living in the U.S. do currants, sultanas and raisins vary in name?

Our answer

Mixed dried fruit is a ready often used for mixed combination of raisins, sultanas, currants and candied orange and lemon peel. It is most common in the UK as it is often used for Christmas cakes. It is fairly easy to make up your own mixture by using 30% raisins, 30% sultanas, 30% currants and 10% chopped candied peel.

For the US raisins and currants go by the same name as the UK. However sultanas are usually called golden raisins. The golden raisins can sometimes be a little harder to find but the Sun Maid brand of golden raisins should be in most major supermarkets. Candied peel goes by the same name but can be a bit difficult to find. If you can't find it in a supermarket then it is worth trying a large Italian deli. Otherwise you can buy it on-line. If the peel is not chopped then you can dice it with a sharp knife but dip the knife into a jug of very hot water regularly to prevent the peel from sticking to the knife.