[Sca-cooks] Stollen Recipe - Advice Needed

[Terry Decker]

Looking at the recipe, this is a variant of Dresdener stollen.  Most of the 
recipes I've seen call for more liquor and fats.  To use this one as 
written, I would recommend melting the 6 tablespoons of butter, then cooling 
it enough to keep the heat from damaging the yeast.  This will spread the 
fat more evenly through the dough.  You might also want to use half the 
flour to add to the starter, then add flour a tablespoon at a time until you 
reach a consistency you like.  Stollen dough should be soft and elastic and 
is usually feels a little oily.

When making stollen, I usually use scalded whole milk for the liquor with 
the butter melted in the milk, but I tend to make Bavarian Christmas stollen 
from a recipe my mother got from Anna Grossem.  The Bavarian recipe is more 
enriched than Dresdener stollen.

Here's a fairly typical Dresdener stollen recipe:

http://www.myhouseandgarden.com/recipes/Dresdner_Stollen.htm

Bear

> 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.
>
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