Making Stollen: Part 2

So, my mother and I hunkered down, and made stollen last week. I decided to start it early, as my mom said it would take all day. My family is usually all up around 6:35 to 6:45am every morning to get to work, and get my daughter onto her very early bus. I decided to get the first dough ready, and rising in order to be able to go to playgroup with my son later that morning. I started this in my largest bowl.

First dough:

125g of fresh yeast, 350mL of milk, 625g (1 1/4 lb) flour

I have no idea where you can buy fresh yeast in the Sudbury area. My mother usually buys it at a specialty German shop, called Denninger's, in Oakville. This year, she bought it at Starsky's in Mississauga. She hadn't looked at the weight when she bought it, but probably knew the amount from experience. We used a slightly smaller amount than the recipe called for (110g), but it did not seem to affect the results.

 

I heated my milk to about 115F. This was the temperature recommended for the pretzels I make, so I figured it would be a good temperature for the stollen. I should have broken the yeast into smaller pieces before pouring the warm milk over top. I found the large block was much harder to dissolve, and the milk was cooling down as I was stirring.

When the yeast was completely dissolved, I added the flour to the mixture. I used a wooden spoon to fully incorporate the flour. I covered the bowl, and then let it rise for an hour in a warm, dry place. I do not know how many cups (volume-wise) of flour is equal to 625g. I used a small kitchen scale, probably from the dollar store.

As I was heating up the milk, my husband informed me there was only one egg left. I ended up running down the road to the grocery store at 8am, to buy another carton of eggs. The other part of the recipe calls for three eggs. Luckily, we live very close to a grocery store.

My oma's recipe said to only let the first dough rise for 1/4 hour, but my mom says she always lets it rise for an hour. We let the dough rise for an hour, and got the next step ready.

 

 

Fruit Prep:

20g salt, 175g sugar, 100g almond paste, 125g chopped sweet almonds, 500g mixed citron peel, 3 eggs (slightly beaten)

Now, here's the confusing part. We are not sure what my oma meant by almond paste, and chopped sweet almonds. We are not sure if one of these is referring to marizpan (which my mom forgot in Oakville), or if it means ground almonds. My mom had bought ground almonds, and when we weighed it, it came to about 325g, so we substituted the ground almonds for both the paste, and the chopped sweet almonds. Citron peel can be found at Bulk Barn, or grocery stores. I used about a teaspoon of salt.

After the hour, I added an additional 125g of flour to the first dough, and then my mom mixed in the fruit prep.

Second dough:

375g softened butter, 125g shortening, 500g flour

I used a pastry cutter to mix the flour with the butter, and shortening. My oma said to mix carefully, as one would when making shortbeard. I have never made shortbread, so I cut in the butter until it was thoroughly mixed with the flour.

We added this to the first dough mixture, along with 1/8 cup of rum, and the zest of 3 lemons. We used less rum (the recipe calls for 1/4 cup) because the dough was quite sticky. We ended up kneading in an extra 500g of flour to get the dough to the consistency we liked (almost like playdough, but slightly moister).

Finally, we added about 500g (1lb) of dried currants. Be careful when adding the currants. They do not mix well into the dough, and many will end up on the kneading surface, the floor, behind your stove, everywhere. We chose to take the dough out of the bowl to knead it. My oma's recipe does not say to knead the dough at all, so presumedly you could mix everything in the large bowl. She said it should be a paste of firm consitency.

We left the dough to rise again, and went to playgroup for a couple of hours. This first part was done by 9:30am. When we came back home, it was around 11:30am, and I divided the dough into five equal parts weighing about 2lbs each.

Pat each portion out into a circle. Take one edge, and fold it over about 2/3 of the way. If you have good quality marzipan on hand, you can tuck some into the inside of the fold. Press the edge down into the dough, so it will not lift up during baking. What you end up with is a somewhat teardrop cross-section shape.

Make sure the oven is at 400F initially. When the loaves are brown on top (it took about five minutes in our oven) reduce the heat to 350F, and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes. The total baking time should be about 35 to 45 minutes. I prefer my stollen on the golden brown side, but my dad likes it a little browner.

Coating:

250g butter, melted, but not liquid, sugar (half superfine granulated, half icing), 2 vanilla beans

Process the granulated sugar with the vanilla beans until the vanilla is finely chopped. Combine the granulated sugar, and vanilla mixture with the icing sugar.

Once the loaves are done, remove them from the oven. You can turn the loaves over, and tap them on the bottom to test for doness. The loaves should have a hollow sound when tapped.

Brush a loaf with the melted butter, then sprinkled with the sugar, and vanilla mixture. Use your hands to make sure it is tightly packed onto the loaf. Let the loaf cool completely on a baking rack before wrapping it up. The loaves can be cut in half, and tightly wrapped in wax paper, or plactic wrap before wrapping them in foil. Store the wrapped loaves in freezer bags, in the freezer, until you are ready to enjoy.

You can wrap up half or third of a loaf, and put it in a holiday themed plastic bag to give as a holiday gift. I have not tried this year's batch yet, but the stollen tastes better if you let it sit for a bit.

We were done by 2pm, so it really did not take a whole day, and it turns out my kitchen is not too small to make stollen!

 

Posted with Blogsy