Stollen 101

I actually like it dry, it soaks up more hot wonderful coffee in the dark morning hours of a cold Winter's day. Good with hot tea too! The icing sugar leaves lips coated much like powdered donuts do and Stollen resembles snow covered hillsides and the aroma of Christmas by candlelight.

My Mother in law makes a moist stollen (500g flour), usually four small ones at a time. She made some today. She says the secrets are while it is still hot from the oven, rub with lots of butter and generously sift powdered sugar on top. When cool, wrap tightly with plastic wrap. The recipe is not complicated and uses baking powder, cream cheese and no yeast. And if I know her well a good shot of rum.  Did you want a recipe?  

The farmer's cookbook has one with yeast but no eggs (750g flour), and also rum (being used to moisten the dried fruits).  Recipe suggests that to keep the fruit from burning on the surface of the loaf, some dough should be reserved and fruit mixed into the other portion, the reserved dough spread out and wrapped around the fruity part like a blanket.   The stollen is brushed with warm concoction of milk and sugar before baking.  The moister mil stollen starts out with 200°c and is reduced middle rack, the farmer one lower temp 175-190°c on the lower rack longer.

Mini O

My neighbor is German and she make stollen every year...She says the trick is after baking them put them in the freezer for a month....

She starts making them in the summer and fills a freezer full and gives them as gifts..

Her stollen is very dense..but good!

It takes me forever to find this recipe so I thought I'd change the subject title.  First posted in 2007.

I make icing sugar in my grinder/blender, works great! Don't grind it so long that you get burnt sugar. The sugar will be warm and very fragrant when finished. Leave plenty of room for the sugar to expand as it grinds, maybe 1/3 space.

Waiting months for a stollen to "ripen" is silly. I can understand a month, but keep in mind that if there is a lot of butter in there and it can go rancid, even after baking. Candied orange peel and a few cut up marchino cherries can also be added. And to twist a lemon peel over the finished loaf is also a tip.

All this is getting me hungry....so here is another recipe:

Stollen (Baking Powder)

• 500g fine ground flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 200g sugar

Combine together on a board or clean counter top. Make a dent in middle and add:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 pkg vanilla sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 250g cream cheese 20% fat, no salt
• 200g Mixed shortenings cut into small pieces: 50g each butter, margarine, coconut, lard (or however) and scatter around on the flour.

Starting in the wet middle work with the fingers to mix, slowly adding the dry to form a dough. Knead but do not overwork. Chop fine and fold into dough:

• 125g almonds
• 250g raisins
• 100g Aranzini or candied orange peel
• 100g Zitronat or candied lemon peel

Shape into 3 or 4 small oval loaves and place on parcement paper in a baking sheet. Push any exposed fruit pieces back inside loaf. Bake (middle rack) 200°c (390°F) first 15 minutes turning down to 180°c (350°F) for 30 - 45 minutes. Remove when golden brown or toothpick comes clean and brush hot loaves with plenty of butter allowing it to soak in. Dust with heavy blanket of powdered sugar. Allow to cool. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

• Butter
• powdered sugar
• one last ingredient: Rum, unknown quantitiy, used if dough seems too dry or drizzle over baked loaf before butter or offered in tea served with stollen. 

at Easter if the stollen served is left over from Christmas.  No offense intended, please.  Most of the time, the good ones don't last that long.  (The 4 baked a few weeks ago are gone.)  Here, the ones out now are labeled Autumn Stollen, and the Christmas ones are coming up for sale.  The idea is to at least have some ready to eat before the 5th of December (or the closest Sunday) for St. Nickolas.   Many are sold in the Nickolas Market (set up that Sunday Afternoon).   Where St. Nickolas passes out bags of nuts, tangerines, chocolate, cookies to children (something similar is done on Thankgiving in the USA but no St. Nick). 

Where are you in Germany?  

Mini O

I just made Stollen for the first time in a class. Here's a tip that no one has mentioned so far, so maybe it is not traditionally done, but I though it was a good idea: after baking, we brushed the bread twice with melted butter, then dredged in superfine sugar and brushed off the excess before dusting it with the powdered sugar. This keeps the powdered sugar from melting into the butter.

Susanfnp

http://www.wildyeastblog.com

using a fine grater (careful not to include your knuckles) and leave it whole for storage.  Mace is not as strong as nutmeg therefore you only need a little.  Sometimes nutmeg is sold with a tiny grater in the jar.  Sounds like your supply will last you a few years.  In China they gave them away so I can't understand the high prices.  I've seen nutmeg trees, very tall.  The nuts are in a hull much like a walnut and break open after falling to the ground.  Upon removing the hull, one sees a bright red vein like membrane covering a dark nut, this is the mace and dries orange-brown.  The nut has a thin shell that can be easily cracked and inside is the spice nutmeg.  A little goes a long way.  Good in dumplings, banana bread, stollen, & rum punch.

If you want to add cardamon, crack open the pods with the side of a knife and little seeds will fall out.  These can be ground with a mortar and pestle, also strong, chew on one seed, a pinch is all you may need.  A pinch measurement is literally that... what you can pick up between your thumb and index finger.   

Mini O

Tossing in my two cents.

On the aspect of the broomstick, I think that for those who think of sweeping up dirt it would be a good idea to thing of a dowel rod that would be the same thickness and it would do just as good.  It is interesting that what in one country is seen as a cheap item in another country is expensive.  

On the measurements.  I think the best thing to do would be to measure it on a scale that can be set for grams and then re-measure it for ounces or cups to get what it would be in U.S. measurements, although I think it would be better to stick with grams or the ounces to get a more accurate amount.

One cup could weight 4.3 ounces and in another measuring cup it weight 4.5 ounces in another it could measure 4 ounces, so going with the ounces or grams would be best.  Put your measuring cup on the scale, do tare so it deletes the weight of the cup and then add the flour to the grams or ounces weight and see how much it will be in your measuring cup.  Does it fill it full, has less or have more than what it is supposed to be?  

The frustration I found is that in one of my books it states that a cup of flour is 4.5 ounces.  Online, it states that it is 4.25 ounces.  That is one-fourth difference from the 4 and a half (4.5) and a fourth (4.25).  May not seem like much, but when weighting for four cups, well . . . 

Time to revisit a great thread on easy stollen! I made the Baking Powder stollen and I'm still in the process of developing it to suit my needs but it was a delicious Christmas treat.

Here is the original recipe. Thanks, Mini Oven

Baking Powder Stollen

• 500g fine ground flour

• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• 200g sugar

  Combine together on a board or clean counter top. Make a dent in middle and add:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 pkg vanilla sugar)

• 2 eggs

• 250g cream cheese 20% fat, no salt

• 200g Mixed shortenings cut into small pieces: 50g each butter, margarine, coconut, lard (or however) and scatter around on the flour.

  Starting in the wet middle work with the fingers to mix, slowly adding the dry to form a dough. Knead but do not overwork.           

• Chop fine and fold into dough:

• 125g almonds

• 250g raisins

• 100g Aranzini or candied orange peel

• 100g Zitronat or candied lemon peel

Shape into 3 or 4 small oval loaves and place on parcement paper in a baking sheet. Push any exposed fruit pieces back inside loaf. Bake (middle rack) 200°c (390°F) first 15 minutes turning down to 180°c (350°F) for 30 - 45 minutes. Remove when golden brown or toothpick comes clean and brush hot loaves with plenty of butter allowing it to soak in. Dust with heavy blanket of powdered sugar. Allow to cool. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

Enjoy!

Bruno Albouze's stollen recipe is excellent.  I made it last year and it was a success with family who devoured it:  https://youtu.be/qRYbbD0epTo

Note that Bruno's recipe deviates from the legal Dresdner stollen specification by the use of fruit+nut weight > 100% of flour weight, slightly less butter than the required 50% of flour weight and add-ins not at the specified percentage.  Marzipan and rum, used in many stollen recipes including Brunos's are not in the legal specification, however they are not prohibited.   Additionally, his recipe calls for pistachios, walnuts and hazelnuts, which are not prohibited.  These variations are nevertheless very good!

Here is a thread on this site with my stollen results: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66233/stollen

Also for more insight into "official" ingredients and proportions for stollen, here is a German wikipedia page link and snip: 

German version from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen_(Geb%C3%A4ck):

Gemäß der Produktspezifikation dürfen Dresdner Stollen nicht in Formen gebacken werden und müssen auf 100 Teile Mehl mindestens 50 Teile Butter, 65 Teile Sultaninen, 20 Teile Orangeat und/oder Zitronat und 15 Teile Mandeln enthalten, dagegen sind Margarine oder künstliche Konservierungsstoffe und Aromen nicht erlaubt. Außerdem werden bestimmte Anforderungen an die Beschriftung und Gestaltung der Verpackung gestellt.[19] 

Finally, the legal specification for stollen from the EU which gives Dresdner stollen a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI):

https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels/eu-quality-food-and-drink/dresdner-christ…

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52010XC0224%2804%29

3.2.   Description of product to which the name in (1) applies:

‘Dresdner Stollen’, ‘Dresdner Weihnachtsstollen’ or ‘Dresdner Christstollen’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘Stollen’) are a heavy yeast-raised loaf with a high butter and fruit content manufactured chiefly in the months of August through to January. ‘Stollen’ are formed by hand and cut/torn and rolled/beaten into loaves. They must not be baked in baking tins or moulds. The minimum weight is 500 g.

‘Stollen’ must contain at least the following ingredients: wheat flour (German flour type Nos 405 or 550), whole milk or dried whole-milk powder, granulated sugar, fresh butter or clarified butter, candied orange and/or lemon peel, sultanas, sweet and bitter almonds, lemon zest, table salt, icing sugar, spices.

They must not contain the following ingredients:

artificial flavourings, additives which have been added directly, margarine.

The following ingredients must be included in the following proportions per part of flour:

Fresh butter or corresponding amount of clarified butter: 50 %

Sultanas: 65 %

Candied lemon and/or orange peel: 20 %

Almonds, sweet and bitter: 15 %

On the outside, ‘Stollen’ have an even form, are suitably browned, and evenly buttered and powdered with sugar. The crumb is light and well-aerated with evenly distributed fruit. ‘Stollen’ have a pure, aromatic and well-rounded smell and taste.

Regarding dry crumb, this can be caused by:

- too little liquid or fat

- baking temperature too high

- baking time too long

- skipping the step of "well buttering" the exterior, which for me includes piercing with a wood skewer and brushing melted butter liberally over and through the stollen

Corrective actions include increasing hydration or fat, reducing oven temperature or baking time, and well-buttering the outside of the baked stollen including piercing it with a skewer to allow butter to reach the crumb.