For me, holiday baking has to include something decadent. That means I need to make one of the different types of Christstollen or stollen.
It is a traditional German Christmas season fruit filled bread covered in powdered sugar. The fruits (golden raisins, raisins, currants, lemon peel, orange peel, citron peel and zests) can be soaked in dark rum or white wine. It can also have nuts, almond paste and other dried fruits in the dough. The bread itself has only a slight bit of sweetener with the vanilla and powdered sugar coating providing an incredible finishing touch.
Stollen isn't one of my husband's favorite breads, so it always means more for me. Unfortunately, I have to make sure there isn't more of me by the time New Year's rolls around.
While collecting all the ingredients to make my stollen, I found myself perusing the virtual aisles of Fantes (it's one of my favorite online baking and pastry supply stores). They carry a very nice non-stick stollen pan made in Portugal. I decided to buy one to give it a try with my gluten free version. (It's okay, you can say my will was weak...it was.)
This pan will make up to a 2 lb/.907 kg loaf. I was making a 1 lb/.454 kg loaf, so I turned the stollen pan upside down and evenly filled out the pan with the bread dough. After rising, the bread dough had filled out the shape nicely, creating the classic stollen shape.
This is a fabulous tasting bread and goes extremely well with a steaming cup of French Roast coffee. So, break down, make some stollen. Then afterwards, you can join me in working it off with Jillian Michaels. Well, maybe you don't want to...she's helping me rediscover my post radiation pecs. So, my language isn't always that nice. Or maybe I should do it the other way around...that way I can recover from trying to get my right pectoral muscle to remember how to move and stretch with stollen and a hefty dose of French Roast.
Recipe
Protein Content:
Original Content: 20.28 g
GF Content: 19.84 g
Sponge
100 - 130 ml milk, room temperature
30 ml agave syrup
30 g instant dry yeast
14 g brown rice flour (1.26 g)
12 g sweet rice flour (.072 g)
14 g arrowroot starch (0.042 g)
18 g almond meal (3.6 g)
20 g white bean flour (4.3 g)
Fruit & Nut Mix
1028 g golden raisins
37 g candied lemon peel
16 g candied orange peel
13 ml dark rum or white wine
47 g blanched almonds
Final Dough
14 g brown rice flour (1.26 g)
12 g sweet rice flour (0.72 g)
14 g arrowroot starch (0.042 g)
18 g almond meal (3.6 g)
20 g white bean flour (4.3 g)
6 g chia seed meal
4 g agar agar powder
7 g cane sugar
4 g sea salt
1 g lemon zest, grated
pinch ground allspice
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground ginger
7 g almond paste
136 g fruit & nut mix
85 g butter, softened
125 g sponge (from above)
60 - 90 ml milk, room temperature
Finishing
clarified butter, as needed
vanilla sugar, as needed
powdered sugar, as needed
Directions
Fruit & Nut Mix
Place all the ingredients in a resealable container and shake together. Put the container in the refrigerator and allow the mixture to blend together for at least 24 hours before using in the recipe.
Sponge
Pour all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and blend together. Then add the milk and agave syrup and stir until incorporated. Set the bowl in a warm location to rise for 40 minutes.
Final Dough
1. Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir together. Then add the milk and softened butter and stir until the dough forms a soft ball. If the dough is too soft work in a small amount of arrowroot starch to help firm up the dough (i.e. 1 Tb/15 ml at a time).
2. You can either use a stolen pan or shape the loaf by hand. For the stollen pan, place the pan upside down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Prop up the sides with sides with balls of parchment paper, then line the pan with parchment paper. If you shape the loaf by hand, lay out a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle it with arrowroot starch. Then pat out the dough until it is an oval shape and about 1/2 inch/1.27 cm thick. Then fold one side of the dough over the other until about 1/3 of the dough is uncovered. Use arrowroot starch as needed to shape the loaf. Set the loaf in a warm location to rise for 2 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/177 degrees C. Place the stollen in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before you remove it from the pan.
Finishing
Place the stollen on a serving tray and brush with clarified butter. The press on the vanilla sugar and sprinnkle with powdered sugar. Slice and serve.
Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts
Index of the Baking & Pastry Project
Baking & Pastry Project Week 17- A Sponge & A Poolish
Baking & Pastry Project #32 - Gugelhopf
Baking & Pastry Project #31 - Panettone
Baking & Pastry Project Week 16 - Holiday Breads
Baking & Pastry Project #30 - Multigrain Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project #29 - White Bean Lean Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project Week 15 - Lean & Multigrain
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