Dutch Regale's Almond/Rum Stollen

I blogged about this bread, and several requested the recipe, so for those we don't have Maggie Glezer's "Artisan Baking across America," where these recipes appear on pages 186-193, a PDF of the basic formula is available.

The formula, as given, produces 4.5 lb of dough, enough for 2 stollen of 1,000 g each, or four half sized ones.

Instructions

1. Prepare almond paste (or buy commercially). Ideally this is prepared 1-2 weeks in advance.
   1. Mix 250 g each of almond flour and fine granulated sugar with 1 large egg. Knead until all ingredients are well mixed. If you can't find almond flour (I use Bob's Red Mill, from Whole Foods), get blanched almonds (or briefly boil almonds, cool and remove skins) and grind them up.
   2. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice and mix in.
      
   3. Form into a roll, about 1/2" to 3/4" diameter and wrap tightly in cling wrap.
      
   4. Refrigerate until use, 1-2 weeks.
      
   5. You can't easily scale this recipe because of the egg. If you use the optional almond filling, you'll need a total of about 300 g and this makes about 500 g. I had no use for left-overs so I used used whatever remainined as the filling, which ends up being something like 460 g
2. Prepare filling by mixing up candied fruit and almonds (keep total weight, but change ratio as you see fit), and soak for at least 4 hours in rum, about 3-4 tablespoons).
3. Heat milk (microwave, or stove top) until almost boilng and bubbles are forming around the edge. This scalding denatures some enzymes. Let the milk cool down to 95F or below.
   
4. Mix ingredients for the sponge in a bowl using the method of your choice. Mix/knead extremely well until full gluten development. This is important because this dough is the basis for the whole stollen and needs to keep things together.
   
5. Let the sponge ferment until well expanded. This may take 1 hour or more.
   
6. Add all ingredients for the final dough, except the flour, and the sponge. Mix until well combined. Beat until mixture if fluffy.
7. Add sponge and rest of flour and mix on medium high speed until very smooth, strong and elastic. Use the paddle. The dough may be almost crumbly at first, and it is normal to be oily at the end.
8. Place in container and let ferment until about doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
9. Sprinkle work surface lightly with flour and turn out dough
10. Roll out to thin sheet and sprinkle candied fruit on top after draining of excess rum
11. Roll up tightly, folding up ends to distribute fruit well. Let rest 10 minutes.
12. Cut dough into 2 or 4 equal parts, as desired. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.
13. Prepare baking sheet(s) with parchment paper, or butter them, to receive the loaves
14. For each dough piece, shape to stollen loaf:
15. Roll out the dough to a rough rectangle 6" away from you, and however wide that turns out.
16. Fold top edge down, bottom edge up, to meet in the middle.
17. Place rolling pin in the middle and roll out just the middle, leaving top and bottom edge thickness unchanged until middle is thing and overall size is about 6" again.
18. Place the optional roll of almond paste on the thin middle portion, up against the bottom edge, not quite reaching the sides (make it thicker if it is too long). If you use this you'll need 89% of it, which will be 262 g in this recipe.
19. Moisten thick edges with water, to act as glue
20. Bring top edge back over the almond roll until it is covered and "glue" to bottom edge. The loaf is now shaped. Place on baking sheet.
21. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and proof for about 2 hours and until well expanded (if this fails you did not develop the gluten enough in the early steps, or your yeast is dead because you did not cool the milk down, or you may not have used osmo tolerant yeast and will have to wait significantly longer).
22. Preheat oven to 350F and bake 25-35 minutes until well browned.
23. Meanwhile prepare (or prepare even earlier) about 120 g of clarified butter and melt it.
24. When done baking, remove loaves to cooling rack placed over drip tray or baking sheet with edge. Immediately brush all sides with the clarified butter.
25. Let cool briefly (this is different from the original recipe, but I find it works better), and sprinkle fine granulated sugar on top and finish with a coating of powdered sugar (sifted).
26. Let cool completely. Keep in plastic bag. Stays well quite long.

NOTE:

The yeast should preferably be an osmotolerant yeast, such as SAF Gold, available from the KA store. 

See my My Bread Adventures in pictures