The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

stollen

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Ihe been 6 weeks since we wrapped up the stollen in a cotton tea towel and put it on teh back patio to age gracefully in a tin here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30996/not-so-stollen

and here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/31088/not-so-stollen-thanksgiving-take

We buttered it, put the GMA's cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice drizzle on it and then frosted it with powdered sugar just to make sure the sugar gods were pleased.

Have to wait till after dinner to see if it tastes as good or better than the un-aged one at Thanksgiving.

 

linder's picture
linder

In the better late than never category, I baked my first ever stollen tonight using Peter Reinhart's recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I made up some of my own almond paste, using ground almonds, confectioner's sugar and Karo light syrup.  I am resisting the urge to sample this until Christmas. 

 

gmagmabaking2's picture

Stollen from Santa Claus!

December 9, 2012 - 2:56pm -- gmagmabaking2

I am posting for this for my creative sister Barbra.
Santa Claus made an early delivery because the Stollens from last month are but a memory. Since there was no time to really age the more traditional type, they are from the easy recipe from Good Housekeeping archives.


Greedybread has inspired two more breads for this week plus our Chanukah challenge of Yeast Raised Donuts. Looks like a great floury week coming up!
Happy Holiday Baking to you all!
Diane (Barbra's apprentice) 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It has been over a week with the stollen being wrapped in cotton and sealed in its tin coffin where the back porch would be if we had one.  Instead we have a covered patio.  So we took it out, leaving its sister to ripen until the next Holiday and decided to gussie it up some to be traditional - a non traditional Brownman trait.  Here it is naked but looking like a million dollars  on a pretty 50 cent Goodwill Stollen Plate.

Then we buttered it up with a pastry brush.

Then, taking a cue from a fine Fresh Lofian Baker suggestion, gmabaking,  we decided to make a lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze to sprinkle off a spoon for decoration.

Then to get back to the traditional stollen page we dusted it with some powered sugar to make it look like the first time it has ever snowed at the Brownman AZ abode.

Then it was time to slice it open and see if it was as festive on the inside as the outside.

The snow was melting fast in the hot AZ desert but is sure was purdy on the inside.

It tasted wonderful and a grateful shout out goes to nellapower for her original Dresden Stollen recipe that was used as the basis for this version of Not So Stollen.  The citrus peel, pistachio nuts and snockered fruits really come through.  The lemon /sugar drizzle was especially nice too thanks to gmabaking.  Not at all as heavy as a fine English fruit cake or a German one like my apprentice.   Can't wait to see what the sister will look and taste like in about another 4 weeks or so. 

Served with some cold French Silk ice cream and a little chocolate sauce.

Can being sealed in a tin and subject to the 40 F to 75 F daily AZ temperature fluctuations really be good for Not So Stollens?

Here is a link to the original Not So Sollen post if yu want the recipe and methods:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30996/not-so-stollen

And our choice for a perfect Not So Stollen accompaniment - a Not So Champagne Cupcake Prosecco

 

 

 

 

 

Bohemian Mama's picture

Stollen first attempt with tweaked recipe

November 6, 2012 - 4:10am -- Bohemian Mama

I was trying to find a 8 hour or less  stollen, and found one on the net.

 

It was 2 cups flour,  1 cup starter, 1/4 cup oil 1/4 cup honey 1 tsp salt and  fruit soaked in brandy.

the orginal recipe called for mix, 4 hour rise and bake. I was not thrilled by the picture so  I mixed  3 hour proof, stretch and fold then 2 more hours and another stretch and fold  (it was super sticky) and then another 2 hours it was so  sticky I could not finger test if it was proofed enough, but filled my cake pan nicely, so I baked it 40 mins and came out nice.

bertie26's picture

help with stollen

October 7, 2012 - 1:45am -- bertie26

Hello I am hoping bto make stollen for Christmas presents this year. So far I have tried two  formulas from two books and bothe stollen wa very stodgy around the  marzipan in the cente. can anyone please sugest any stollen recipes that is fuss free and easier to make and how can i overcome the  stodgy centre 

thank you for helping in advance and have a great day 

albert

trojkolka's picture
trojkolka

It might not be December yet, so not THE time for Christmas stollen but don’t fool yourself by its name. This bread is just tasty and awesome all year round with some butter on it with your coffee at coffee time... This recipe is based on an old Dutch recipe that was published in the 60’s and I kind of made it my own after giving it several tries. So here is my version of the recipe.


Christmas stollen (recipe for one loaf)

500g AP flour100% AP flour
8g salt1.6% Salt
80g brown sugar16% Brown sugar
15g Lemon peel grater3% Lemon peel grater
74g Egg (two medium sized eggs)14.8% Egg
25g fresh yeast5% Fresh Yeast
160g whole milk32% Whole milk
100g Butter20% Butter
50g Orange peel grater10% Orange peel grater
200g Raisins (e.g. Sultana)40% Raisins (e.g. Sultana)
200g (Yellow) Zante currant40% (Yellow) Zante currant
50g Succade10% Succade
Optional:Dark rum / Amaretto
Almond paste
100g almonds
100g sugar
18g egg (1/2 a medium sized egg)
Lemon peel grater from one medium sized lemon
Juice of 1/4th of a medium sized lemon

Mix the flour, salt, brown sugar and lemon peel grater in a bowl. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Stir the yeast with the lukewarm milk until the yeast dissolves and melt the butter. but make sure not to heat the butter too much.

Add the beaten eggs, yeast and milk mix and the melted butter to the little ditch in the middle of the bowl. Stir from the inside out until mixed properly. Knead the dough until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to your hands any more.

Cover the bowl with dough and let it rise for 1 to 1,5 hour. It should be about doubled in size.

In the meanwhile grate the orange and cut the succade in small pieces. Wash the raisins and Zante currants and let 300g soak in bowl with warm water, drench the remaining 100g of Raisins and Zante currants in Dark rum or Amaretto (choose depending on your taste and/or availability) until the dough has risen for about 1 hour. Drain the raisins and Zante currant and dry them a bit (mainly the water soaked ones).

Prepare the almond paste. If you have unpeeled almonds, put them in a pan with cold water and put it on the stove to heat for a couple of minutes. Drain the pan’s contents. Peal and dry them. If you have peeled almonds already you can skip this step although i like to quickly rinse my almonds anyways.

Grind the almonds, with your kitchen machine for example, until they become pasty. Add the sugar, half an egg, lemon peel grater and lemon juice through the ground almonds and continue grinding until you have a good looking almond paste. TIP: You can store the almonds paste in a closed jar and it will stay good for weeks. After a week or two the almond paste is richer and more full in taste.

When the dough looks doubled, take it from the bowl and gently knead the orange peel grater, succade, drained raisins and Zante currants through it until well distributed. Roll or press the dough to a thick yet flattened oval shaped piece. If you have made the almond paste, create a little roll shape of the almond paste and put it near the the center of the oval dough piece.

Fold the dough for about 3/4th in the length and roll it up tightly in a way that the almond paste roll is across 90% of the length inside the roll. Put the rolled up dough in a greased bread tin and let it rise for the second time a 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat the traditional oven to 200C/392F (hot air oven 180C/356F) and bake it in total for 30 minutes. After 20 minutes reduce the heat to 160C/320F (hot air 140C/284F). When your stollen looks ready and has a nice light brown crust (This should be after this 30 minutes) take it out and let it cool down. Optionally you can grease the crust on top with some butter and decorate it with some sifted powder sugar.

And that should be about it... It’s my first time to put a recipe in bakers percentages so I’m not 100% sure if it is correct. However I have used this recipe for the last 3 years and it has been a great success. If you try it out and you make some adjustments, which I know you will in the end, let me know. Still trying to perfect this recipe myself.

sweetbird's picture
sweetbird

 

One of my most beloved cookbooks is the original Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. It began its life with me in San Francisco in the early 1970s and has traveled with me ever since, now nestled on a bookshelf in upstate New York. It is in tatters with no binding left, but that only makes me love it more. It is well used.

 I’ve made the Christmas Stollen from that book every year since I first got it, and it’s something that my family and I look forward to throughout the year. Because it’s an unyeasted “quick bread” recipe, it’s different from any Christmas Stollen I’ve ever tried, and from the first bite it stole my heart. It’s deeply rich from the butter and cream cheese, gently sweet from the fruit, rum and a bit of sugar, all balanced by the tang of lemon, mace and cardamom.

 A few years ago I decided to write a note to Anna Thomas letting her know that her stollen had become a treasured tradition in my family, and to my delight she wrote back a lovely note! Her newest book Love Soup is wonderful too, by the way.

 I made some changes way back in the 70s based on availability and personal preference and since it turned out so well I kept making it the same way. Here’s the version I’ve made all these years:

 Christmas Stollen

(my adaptation of Anna Thomas’s recipe from The Vegetarian Epicure)

  w/metric conversions:

  352 gms (2½ C.) unbleached AP flour

2 tsp. baking powder

125 gms (¾ C.) (or slightly less) sugar

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. mace

seeds of 5 - 6 cardamom pods, crushed (I usually use green) -or- ¼ tsp., rounded, powdered cardamom

100 gms (¾ C.) almond meal (or ground blanched almonds)

½ C. butter, cold

226 gms (1 C.) cream cheese (reduced fat OK), softened at room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract (I use Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract)

1/3 tsp. pure almond extract

2 Tbs. Bacardi light rum (original recipe calls for brandy, which I haven’t tried yet)

85 gms (½ C.) seedless dark raisins

85 gms (½ C.) golden raisins

finely grated peel of 1 organic lemon (use a rasp for the finest consistency)

 

Preheat oven to 350°F.

 Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, mace and cardamom. Stir in the almond meal. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse sand.

 In a blender, cream the egg with the softened cream cheese, vanilla, almond extract and rum. Pour it into a bowl and mix in the fruit and lemon peel. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until everything is more or less incorporated, then turn it onto a lightly floured board and knead it for a couple of minutes -- just until smooth. At first it’s more like “smooshing” or squeezing things together than kneading. It will seem dry and you might have the urge to add some liquid, but resist if you can.

Flatten into an oval about 10″ long by 8″ wide. With the blunt edge of a knife, crease it just off center, length-wise. Fold the smaller side over the larger side and form it into a slight crescent moon shape.

Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or up to an hour, depending on thickness. This year I made mine a little thicker than usual and needed the full hour. Turn at 20 minutes. Watch closely after 40 minutes or so and protect it with strips of aluminum foil if it’s getting too brown at the edges. Allow it to cool before dusting it with confectioner’s sugar.

Happy New Year to all!     Janie

 

NOTE: The differences in my recipe from Anna Thomas’s original are:

 - I use light Bacardi rum; she uses brandy (same amount)

- I omit the candied lemon peel and substitute grated peel of 1 lemon

- I use seedless dark raisins instead of currants (same amount)

- I reduce the sugar somewhat (¾ C. is the original amount, but I usually use a well rounded ½ C.)

- I use Bob’s Red Mill almond flour if I have it available because it’s good and it’s easier than grinding blanched almonds

- I usually substitute slightly reduced fat cream cheese

awloescher's picture

Hello from a new bread baking enthusiast!

December 18, 2011 - 12:46pm -- awloescher

Hello everyone,

I am very excited to have finally joined this forum.  I have read posts for the last month or two, and am finally joining.  I just found my passion for baking bread about 2 months ago, and I have not stopped baking since!  Every day that goes by without baking makes me sad :(.  I currently am trying to perfect a stollen recipe and am looking for tips and ideas from experienced stollen bakers!

I look forward to sharing my passion and learning from you!

Andrew

ronnie g's picture

Storing Stollen in Australian heat

November 20, 2011 - 11:18pm -- ronnie g

Well it's stinking hot here in Australia.  I've just made my Christmas stollen for the second year.  My question, if anyone can help me, is this,  do I glaze it with melted butter/oil and dredge with icing sugar now, and then how do I store it in this heat?  Or... do I NOT glaze and dredge, but store somehow and reheat at Christmas and glaze and dredge with icing sugar on the day?  Can anyone help?

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