[Sca-cooks] Stollen Recipe - Advice Needed

[Martha Oser]

Greetings Unto the List: 

As part of my Christmas baking this year, I decided to try a recipe that 
appeared in the King Arthur Flour catalog - Stollen Bites. 

The cookies are in their last rise right now, prior to baking, and 
unfortunately, I'm not feeling confident about the outcome. 

The instructions said to knead "to make a soft, shiny, elastic dough" but 
there is no amount of time mentioned.  I kneaded the dough in my Kitchenaid, 
with the dough hook, because I'm lazy, and let it go for quite a while, but 
I never felt like it got to that "soft, shiny, elastic" stage.  No, I didn't 
keep track of the time I let it run.  In fact, it seemed quite dry and I 
even added a tablespoon or so of milk at the end to soften it up some. 

I kept looking back at the recipe to make sure I wasn't missing a liquid 
ingredient (like an egg, perhaps) and even checked with the King Arthur 
website to see if there was an additional note, but there wasn't anything.  
I finally had everything mixed in and let the dough sit for about 2 hours, 
as instructed.  It didn't seem to rise much, and was fairly firm when I 
started to divide it up into balls. 

Can anyone offer some advice on this?  As I suggested above, I'm kind of 
suspicious that this needs a little more liquid somewhere, but I've never 
made stollen before to know for sure.  The original recipe follows, so you 
can see what I'm working with. 

Thanks! 

 -Helena 

Stollen Bites
www.kingarthurflour.com 

Sponge
1 c all purpose flour
3/4 c lukewarm water
2 teaspoons instant yeast 

Mix together and set aside for 1 hour or up to 4 hours. 

Fruit
1/2 c dried pineapple, chopped into 1/4" dice
1/2 c golden raisins or dried cranberries
1/2 c candied cherries, snipped into quarters
2 tablespoons rum or brandy 

Mix together and set aside to let the fruit absorb the liquor. 

Dough
2.5 c all purpose flour
6 tablespoons softened butter
1/4 c nonfat dry milk powder
1/3 c granulated sugar
1.25 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange zest or 1/8 teaspoon orange oil
1/2 c toasted almonds, chopped 

Topping
1/2 c butter, melted
2 c powdered sugar 

Combine the starter and dough ingredients (except for almonds) and mix and 
knead to make a soft, shiny, elastic dough.  Towards the end, knead in the 
soaked fruits (along with any remaining liquid) and almonds.  Allow dough to 
rise, covered, for 1.5-2 hours. 

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide it into 40 pieces, rolling 
each piece into a ball.  Place the balls on a greased or parchment-lined 
baking sheet, leaving about 1" between balls.  Cover and let rise for about 
45 minutes, until the balls are puffy.  Bake the stollen bites in a 
preheated 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes, until they're light brown.  
Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.  Toss stollen in melted 
butter, then confectioner's sugar.  Allow to cool completely before wrapping 
and storing.  Toss with confectioner's sugar again just before serving, if 
desired.