What a tacky title! But I couldn’t resist.
Spent yesterday making Stollen. For those of you without any German leanings, it’s a fruit bread, often with a marzipan centre. Word is, it’s supposed to resemble the baby Jesus, wrapped in fruit-studded bread swaddling clothes. That creeps me out, so I prefer not to go there.
While making my beautiful Stollen, I realized that many people probably don’t make it themselves. This made me feel sad and wistful, and I determined to do what I could to prevent this from occuring. So if you already know how to make Stollen, you can just stop reading here. But if you don’t, stay tuned — here’s:
Gwen’s Ultimate Illustrated Guide To Making Homemade Stollen
First, here’s the recipe as it’s written in my cookbook:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp yeast
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
5 1/2 – 6 1/2 cups white flour
3/4 cup chopped almonds
3/4 cup candied fruit
1/3 cup raisins
Proof yeast. Meanwhile, combine milk and butter over low heat until warm and butter is melted. Stir in sugar and salt. Add liquids to proofed yeast; add eggs and 2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in the additional flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto lightfly floured boardl knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 – 10 minutes. Knead in almonds, fruit and raisins. Place in greased bowl; cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down dough, turn out onto floured board. Divide into 3 pieces. Roll each piece into a 12″ by 7″ oval. Fold in half lengthwise. Place on greased baking sheets, cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake @ 350 for 20 – 25 minutes. Cool on racks; frost while warm.
STEP 1: Right. So first let’s proof the yeast. The whole point of this step is making sure the yeast is still active, and giving it a little jump start. I use Fleischmann’s Traditional Yeast, mainly because it’s what I’ve always used and it works well. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? You want the water to be nice and warm, but not too hot or it will kill the yeast. As well, you can stick in those 2 teaspoons of sugar to feed the yeast and keep it happy. Happy yeast is happy bread. So pour the water in your mixing bowl, stir in the sugar and yeast and leave it for about 10 minutes. When you see the yeast start puffing up and looking spongy, you know it’s alive! If it sits there and doesn’t do a thing, either your yeast is no good, or you have killed it with too-hot water.
STEP 2: Okay, so while you’re letting the yeast proof, now’s a good time to get on the milk and butter mixture. I use water with powdered milk. Why? Because I’m a cheapskate. I also use margarine in most recipes, for the same reason. But there’s no excuse to actually spread margarine over the finished product; that must be butter. Anyway, stick the margarine in the butter and heat the whole shebang, either in the microwave or on the stovetop. It should be just warm, not scalding hot.
STEP 3: If your yeast is nice and bubbly, you can go ahead with step 3. Now, if you’re doing this by hand, you’ll want to be using a wooden spoon in a really big bread bowl. I just chuck everything into the Bosch bowl, personally. Mix in the rest of the sugar and the salt. Make sure your milk/butter mixture isn’t too hot; you could kill the yeast if it is. It should be nice and warm, but not hot enough to be steaming. Mix in the eggs and the first 2 cups of flour. You want it to be a nice, smooth texture, so mix that puppy up well. When it’s good and smooth, you can start adding the rest of the flour.
When you’re adding flour to bread dough, don’t get too excited about exact measurements. There are a lot of factors involved in making dough, from the elevation to the humidity to the room temperature. It does take a bit of practice to get it right, but just remember you can always add more flour if you need it. The dough will soften the more you knead it, so if it feels a bit too stiff at the beginning, no sweat!
It’s time to knead your lovely dough! Remember to take off your rings first. Last summer I forgot to remove my wedding rings while making
Pulla, and realized later that one of the diamonds had come out in the dough. So be warned!
Now, a word about hand kneading vs. machine kneading: For a while there, I was a purist who thought that bread should be kneaded by hand. That’s all well and good, I suppose, but then along came a couple children, and it didn’t seem so important any more. My parents gave us a wedding gift of a deadly Bosch universal mixer, which can practically mix, bake, slice and serve the bread itself, all while singing Broadway tunes and tap dancing. So why not use it?
However, if you haven’t got a super-strong mixer, you’re going to need to do it by hand. It’s not difficult at all — in fact, it’s absurdly simple. Just sprinkle some flour onto a big work surface (your table, countertop, etc). Turn out the dough and start to knead it with your (flour covered) hands. You’ll want to keep it all together in a ball – I mean, don’t start pulling it into bits or anything. Keep it together, girl! Yeast dough is very resiliant, unlike pastry, so you can proceed with confidence, with no fear of over manipulating the dough. Just go for it! Make an oval, fold one side up towards you, and then squish it all down with the heel of your hand. Here’s my kneading picture, although this one was taken after I’d added the fruit.
So. Once the dough is well kneaded (give it about 10 minutes of good strong kneading) it should be elastic-like, and shouldn’t stick much at all to your hands. Once you’re at this point, you can add the fruits and nuts.
I saw online that some people soak the fruit and raisins in rum before kneading it in. Wish I’d thought of that! I tend to dice up some of those violently dyed red and green candied cherries, as I’m not fond of the pre-chopped “mixed fruit” you can get this time of year. I also chop up whole, unblanched almonds as opposed to using blanched slivered ones. It’s all about personal preference.
Good. Knead in those fruits and nuts until they’re well incorporated into the dough.
Step 4: Rising
This is the easy bit. The recipe books tell us that we should take the dough and shape it into a nice smooth ball. Place it in a big greased bowl (the one you made the dough in, probably), grease the top with a bit of butter, and cover it loosely with a clean tea towel. Personally, I can’t be bothered with all that greasing, so I just punch it down into the Bosch mixing bowl and drape a tea towel over the whole thing. Set the bowl in a warmish, draught-free place, and leave it until it’s doubled, probably about 1 1/2 hours.
Step 5: Shaping
So, now your dough is all risen and looking divine.
Unfortunately, you’re going to punch the living daylights out of it, so that you can knead it a bit more and shape it into loaves. I have this thing for punching dough down; I love the flour that coats the back of my hands, and the sound of the air whooshing out of the dough. Very gratifying, indeed. Take a sharp knife and cut the dough into three equal parts. Form the 3 lumps into smooth balls, and let them rest about 5 minutes. Then, working on your floured work surface again, pat out one of the pieces into a flattish oval. The recipe says it should be a 12″ by 7″ oval, but I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten them that long. Mine are about 8″ by 6″ or so. Fold it over lengthwise, and turn the ends slightly to form a crescent. Repeat with the other two pieces.
Step 6: the Second Rising and Baking
Lay the formed Stollen on a baking sheet. I like to use parchment paper, but that’s your call. Cover them again with the tea towel, and let them rise some more. You’re looking at about 45 minutes for the second rise, so you could turn on your oven to 350 after about half an hour to let it preheat. Once the Stollen have risen nicely (about doubled in size), it’s time to bake them! Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re golden brown on the top. If you’re not sure if they’re baked through, turn the loaf over and knock on the bottom with your knuckles. If it sounds hollow, it’s done.
Take the Stollen off the baking sheet, and let them cool on a wire rack. It’s not in the recipe, but I do like to baste mine a bit with some butter, to soften the crust.
Step 7: Frosting and Serving
Right on! You’re almost done! If you like, you can make up a little frosting to drizzle over the Stollen while they’re still warm. Mix a little butter, a good amount of icing sugar, and a few dribbles of milk. Mix into a nice smooth, fairly thin, frosting. Drizzle over the Stollen, ensuring some trickles down the sides for maximum aesthetic effect. Slice while warm, and gobble down as much as possible before anyone else realizes it’s ready to eat.
It’s official… you have officially attained Yeast Bread Baking Goddess (or God) Status! Congratulations.
And to finish off the great day, we went home for some lovely champagne and chocolates. Ding dong! Awesome day.
