The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Holiday Baking

BreadBro's picture
BreadBro

Holiday Baking

So, it's Christmas time again, bringing with it big family meetups, dinners, brunches, breakfasts - plenty of excuses for us bakers to practice our craft! So, do any of you have any special baking plans for the holiday time? Any special loaves to impress your friends and relatives?

Personally, I intend on making a traditional Stollen for Christmas along with some Bricoche for our family's annual celebration. I've also been recuited into making several French baguettes for a friend's wine and cheese party on New Year's Eve. If I have the time, I might squeeze in a few sourdough loaves just for the fun of it.

If I didn't love baking so much I would feel overwhelmed. As it is, I can't wait!

adri's picture
adri

For Christmas Eve and New Year's eve I'll bake some simple white bread with direct fermentation, that we'll use for cheese fondue:
800g wheat flour; 600g water; 16g salt; 50g starter. Overnight fermentation. Just 4 or 5 stretch&folds.

Tomorrow I'll bake some traditional Stollen (I have no idea how to translate this to English :-/). I'm a bit late for this, but if I'll bake it tomorrow, it will be ready to eat on the 26th. In my family we have the 1 week minimum rule. I know, some will wait longer. But one week is just fine.
This year will be my first Stollen without any commercial yeast; just sourdough fed with milk and wheat (even though the rest of the flour will be spelt).

I really like this season. There are much more occasions to give away bread; especially sweet one :)