Stollen recipe (was Re: [Sca-cooks] German cookbooks)

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

Heh. I faked it. I combined random elements of various recipes to get
something that I liked the sound of.

IIRC:

WHAT I PUT IN

1 1/2 c milk, warmed
3/4 c warm water
something like 7 or 8 tsp of yeast
4 eggs
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
2 t salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
lots and lots of flour
one small flat thingy each diced lemon peel, orange peel, and citron
about half a large thingy glaceed cherries, halved
something like a cup of slivered almonds
about a half cup or so of raisins
about the same amount currants
liberal amounts of rum to macerate the fruit

WHAT I DID WITH IT

1) a couple of days before, put all the fruit in a bowl and sprinkle
liberally with rum. I kept adding rum and stirring as the fruit absorbed
it, over at least two days.

2) dissolve yeast in water, add about half the milk. Add enough sifted
flour to make a sponge, beat like crazy until gluten forms. Let sit,
covered, for about 15 minutes while you play with the fruit.

2a) sprinkle flour into the fruit and stir well, adding more flour as
necessary until the fruit stops sticking together in a giant lump, stir in
the almonds.

3) add the sugar, salt, cardamom, eggs, remaining milk, and a cup of
flour. Beat well. Add the butter. Beat well again. Add flour until you
have a nice dough, knead on board until the RSI in your wrists starts
screaming obscenities or until it reaches
sufficiently-kneaded-bread-dough stage.

4) Let rest for 10 minutes. Ice wrists. Knead in as much of the
fruit and nut mixture as you can. Shape into a ball, cover and let rise
until doubled.

5) Punch down, form into a ball in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap
and put in fridge. Go to bed.

6) After dinner the next day, take out dough and punch down. Divide into
thirds. Let come to something approximating room temperature or at least
pliability, covered in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.

7) Shape lumps into thick triangles, like for croissants but not
pointy. Put more of the fruit/nut mixture along the short (bottom) edge,
roll up. Form into what might be the shape of a waning moon if you really
push the imagination but what really looks a lot more like a large grub
with fruit embedded.

8) Brush with milk, cover with plastic wrap again and let rise until
double.

9) Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Remove from
oven, cool.

10) Brush with melted butter and sprinkle thoroughly with powdered sugar
(the step I have not yet undertaken, because it was way past my bedtime
when they came out of the oven last night).


Ok, it isn't canonical--usually you just fold stollen rather than rolling
it, but I was feeling rebellious. I ran it past our German tech here at
work (native-born German, even) and he liked it, so it wasn't just me. It
was a bit over-browned--I will have to check it a little more carefully
(or turn the heat down a tad) next time. And there was fruit left over. I
might have been able to get more into the dough, but my wrists were
killing me and saying nasty things about my parentage. I will also use
both red and green cherries next time, instead of just red. More festive
that way. I might also add a touch more cardamom, but we'll see.

Margaret


On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Terry Decker wrote:

> Okay.  Now what's the recipe, so I can add it to my stollen collection.
>
> Bear
>
>
> >Yay! I have stollen! It tastes like stollen! Wheeee!
> >
> >Margaret
>