DECEMBER 2010 DARING BAKER'S CHALLENGE: CHRISTMAS STOLLEN

 

 

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge, hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking, was to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Stollen is a bread-like fruitcake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus is also often added. Over the centuries, the cake changed from being simple, fairly tasteless "bread" to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients.

I played around with the spice combination, but pretty much stuck to the recipe Penny gave. I have added saffron, crushed cardamom pods, dessicated coconut and used a mixed spice sugar. I dusted the baked Stollen with vanilla sugar, cocoa and spices. 

Stollen Wreath

Ingredients

Plain Flour - 770 gms

Water - 60 ml

Instant Yeast - 2 Sachets

Milk - 240 ml

Butter - 140 gms

Sugar - 115 gms (I've used mixed spice sugar)

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon - 1tsp

Eggs - 3

Grated Zest of 1 Orange & 1 Lime

Vanilla Extract - 2 tsp

Lemon Extract - 1 tsp

Mixed Peel - 135 gms

Raisins - 170 gms

Brandy - 3 tbsp

Glacé' Cherries - 12

Flaked Almonds - 100 gms

Desiccated Coconut - 1 tbsp

Crushed Cardamom - 1 tsp

Saffron - 1 tsp (dissolved in 1tbsp warm milk)

Icing Sugar for dusting

Melted Butter for brushing

Method:

In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the brandy. (I soaked them for a week). Warm the milk and water. I used my bread machine to knead the dough.  So all I had to do was dump everything except the cherries into the bread-maker and use the knead cycle, at the end of which I added the glacé cherries. Once the kneading was done I shaped the dough into a wreath by punching dough down and rolling into a rectangle. Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder. Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan (form it around a bowl to keep the shape). Join the ends together. Using kitchen scissors make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough. Let the dough prove for 11/2-2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size. Bake the stollen for 40-50minutes depending on size.  The bread will bake to a dark mahogany colour. Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot. Immediately sieve a layer of powdered sugar over the top. Wait for 1 minute, and then tap another layer over the first.

The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar. Let cool before serving.