The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

stollen

AnnaInNC's picture

Holiday baking

December 10, 2010 - 4:13am -- AnnaInNC

I have been brought up on Stollen during the Christmas Holidays and to be honest, the best part was the crust of melted butter and powdered sugar.

The dough itself always tasted a bit dry - ok, the last time I ate Stollen was while East Germany was still behind the wall and Grandma might not have had all the good ingredients. 

celestica's picture

Stollen from Beard on Bread - Do you have the recipe

December 2, 2010 - 2:57am -- celestica
Forums: 

Hi Everybody, 

 

I've made the candied peel, bought  the dried fruits, and now cannot find my copy of Beard on Bread.  Can anybody share his recipe for Stollen?

It is delicious and I live in rural place with one book store that does not have this book, nor does the library.  This is one of the 

first yeast breads I even made and the flavour is heavenly.

 

Thanks!  My peel is waiting on the counter....

C. 

CaptainBatard's picture
CaptainBatard

I never tasted a Stollen let alone thought I would make one! I first got the notion to bake one when I was reading a blog about French folds and hand mixing of breads. I followed the link which led me to a video by Richard Bertinet of sweet doughs (I highly recommend it for those of you that have not seen it yet) and a recipe for stollen.  I really liked the way the recipe and the finished product looked and I really was into the hand mixing technique. That would of been too easy....instead I made the mistake of Googeling Stollen. I had no idea how many different variations there are on a stollen....from Germany to Poland...they all have a little different take...the very traditional Dresdner Stollen.....another @Hefe und Mehr- german blog....and a mouth watering recipe at Bakers Süpke `s World......the one that got my attention was a chocolate stollen @Domestic Goddess in training......an American version with a German influence @Joe Pastry and a Mohn Quark Stollen which is a poppy seed and fruit stollen which I am going to try next week....eventually I found my way back to Chef Bertinet recipe with a recipe from the United Kingdom by Chef Madalene Bonvine-Hamel @British Larde. I gathered all my material together for the Stollen and e-mailed Susan at Wild Yeast with a question about osmotolerant yeast.....She said "I made the SFBI stollen in class and it is a good one!" Ok ...that would make it easy which one to choose, it is a proven recipe and I just got the book.

I read the SFBI recipe and it said add all to bowl and mix…I thought I knew better…and in the back of my head from all the post I read I thought I had to  develop the gluten before adding the ton of butter....I threw in the sponge,eggs and started to mix...the flour barely formed a ball....panic set in...I added some water...I reread the formula to make sure I didn't leave out something...and realizes that Baby Jesus threw me a curve....I should of realized it at first... most of the moisture came butter. After a good while of mixing the dough came together with a good gluten structure. I was very relieved that is was able to save it...I divided the dough in six pieces and gently spread them into ovals....I applied the filling of Creme' d'almond that Chef Bertinet used along with the cut up pieces of marzipan to the bottom layer and also applied the filling under the top fold....the stollen was finished with a drunken butter wash and plenty of sugar topping.

This is being sent to MaMa Claus @ Yeastspotting  HoHoHo....

 

Mason's picture

Stollen--All purpose or bread flour?

December 22, 2009 - 10:48am -- Mason
Forums: 

I'm about to make stollen for christmas, and see many recipes using all-purpose rather than read flour.  

With all the dough goes through in adding fruit, I would think that a strong bread flour would help it still rise well.  Is there any reason that one should use all-purpose flour rather than the bread flour I am inclined to use?    

LeadDog's picture
LeadDog

It is Christmas time and it seems lots of people are making Stollen so here is my addition to the mix. 

I heard about Stollen recently and how good it is so I decided that I wanted to make some.  The only problem is I have never eaten or seen Stollen.  I looked in my books and on the internet for recipes for sourdough Stollen and decided to improvise and make my own.  The paragraph from Peter Reinharts's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" is very nice and I think worthy of quoting here.

Dresden is considered the spiritual home of this traditional Christmas bread.  The bread symbolizes the blanket of the baby Jesus, and the colored fruits represent the gifts of the Magi.  As in nearly every festival bread, the story aspect of this loaf is culturally important, for it is a way parents teach their children about their heritage.

This is a bread that is soft with lots of different flavors bursting onto your taste buds with every bite.  There are exotic spices, dried fruit, nuts, and a little bit of Brandy in the bread.  The outside of the bread is painted with melted butter then covered with powdered sugar.  This really is a special bread for a festival.

Stollen

Crumb 

Stollen crumb

The way I made it here on my website.  

 

MommaT's picture

Christmas stollen - take 1

November 23, 2009 - 7:46pm -- MommaT

Well, it's that time of the year again and I'm starting to test/tweak my holiday gift-giving recipes.  Having decided to mix things up a bit this year (no pun intended...honestly!), I tested the BBA stollen recipe today!   The immediate family gave it thumbs up, although my marzipan-shy 8 year old was a little hesitant.  

MommaT's picture

Holiday baking input

November 5, 2009 - 6:43am -- MommaT

Hi,

I'm starting to plan for my frenzy of holiday baking and gift-giving and need some recipe advice.

Last year, I made my father-in-laws favorite very traditional (i.e., pre-war english bookbook) English Christmas Cake for everyone.  This is highly sought-after in South Africa, where we spent the previous 11 Christmases, and extremely delicious (being filled with real dried and candied fruit as opposed to glaceed cherries in unnatural hues) so I gave nary a thought to it being confused with what is called fruit cake here.  

summerbaker's picture

A German Christmas In Florida..... In July!

July 18, 2009 - 7:49pm -- summerbaker
Forums: 

I should begin this post by saying that today was one of those perfect baking days where everything just came together: my "three T's," Timing, Technique, and Taste.  Ususally one of them gives me trouble especially when I attempt a new recipe, but I think that because I had all day free with no commitments I could relax and really focus on each task as it came along.

dolfs's picture
dolfs

A late entry. For Christmas I made stollen with a recipe that looked like it would produce something close to what I know from The Netherlands.

Dutch Regale's Almond/Rum StollenDutch Regale's Almond/Rum Stollen

I did look at many recipes, but finally decided on a mix of two recipes. I used mostly the recipe from Glezer's Artisan Baking across America for "Dutch Regale's Almond Stollen," but incorporated a slightly different mix of dark and golden raisins with a small amount of candied cherries, all soaked overnight in rum. Dutch stollen uses something called "sukade," but I haven't found that available here.

I suppose this is not an easy recipe (recipe post here). The first try resulted in something that was delicious, but a little flat and dense. It was almost more like a somewhat moist shortbread. For the second try I did the same recipe but worked more on developing the initial dough. The result was better (see picture, although this is not a picture of the best specimen: it disappeared before I could take a picture) and surely was declared delicious by all that ate it.

The almond paste was made from equal weights (250 g) of almond flour (I'm too lazy to blanch and grind almonds), fine granulated sugar, and an egg. I made three times this recipe about two weeks ahead of time. The texture and taste improves notably by keeping it in the fridge over that time.

The stollen went to us and some close friends where we celebrated Christmas. For many other friends and neighbors I made Panettone. We had a progressive block party on the 29th and my wife signed us (me) up for the bread course. I baked 4 baguettes, 3 epis and 3 loaves of Tom Leonard's Country French. I've pictured all these before, so no new pictures.

 




--dolf


See my My Bread Adventures in pictures

 

Thegreenbaker's picture
Thegreenbaker

Well, I have picked up where I left off and am having a great time.

 

I tried to make stollen. It was my first attempt, and I think it was ok, but I know what I will change for next year.

Toast the almonds, omit the mixed peel, add more Marzipan perhaps and change some of the fruit I put in. I used apple brandy to soak the fruit which was lovely but could have used more fruit.

I added half the required fruit amount and thought that it looked like a lot of fruit so I made another batch and aded the fruit to that, then once cooked, I realiused that the fruit was scarece. Which for my preference is good, but for my hubby.....not so good.

Also, my stollen seemed really crispy and too brown. I followed the recipe but I used strong bread flour not all purpose flour, so perhaps that was the reason.

I also decided against icing it and went with a brown sugar (muscovado sugar) glaze with shaved almonds. Perhaps I should have iced it.

 

Oh well, this is how we learn and become better bakers :)

 

Stollen shaped and ready to proof 

 

 Stollen a little over cooked I think.

 

I also made my first batch of ciabatta today. I began the poolish last night and I tell you I am so proud of myself!

I decided to improvise as I was shaping and threw in a heap of red onion, and lovely organic 10 year old cheddar (I dont know much about cheese except what I like)

and bot was it consumed by myself, my hubby and my 5 year old very soon after it came out of the oven!

YUMMO! That is most definitely a make again bread :)

I will post pics as soon as I remember what my flickr account details are! lol.

 

thegreenbaker

 

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