The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book………and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. You can download the recipe and instructions in PDF style here.
So…. Stollen. To be honest, i’ve never given it much thought. In Australia it’s usually so hot at Christmas that you would have to be pretty hardcore to be baking Stollen so it’s not something I have ever thought about cooking before. I haven’t been much into the bread making as of late so I thought that this beautiful fruit bread would be the perfect way to get back into it!
Im not a big fan so I thought that instead of adding the mixed peel, I would add Craisins. They’re tasty and a festive red! I also substituted 70g of the raisins for 70g currants just to shake things up a bit.
I love kneading dough. I love the way it transforms beneath your hands from a sticky, lumpy mess…
To a silky smooth ball of yumminess.
I opted for a slow rise in the fridge over several days. And boy did it rise!
After bringing the dough back to room temperature, I popped it onto my nifty silicone kneading mat to roll out nice and thin. I LOVE this mat because 1. it’s huge and 2. it has measurements along the sides so I dont keep having to use a ruler. Yay!
So I rolled that sucker out nice and thin (and relatively rectangularly…)
rolled it up
and cut it into 7 4cm long pieces to put into a bundt pan. I decided that the traditionally rolled Stollen might not fit properly into my oven once it had finished its second rise. I didn’t realise that the recipe made so much!
Then I left those babies to rise again
Ok. So I may have overcooked it a touch. I wasn’t quite sure how long to leave it in the oven seeing as it wouldn’t be as dense as the original recipe. I left it in for around 35-40 mins but it probably could have come out 5-10 mins earlier. It was still super tasty sliced and buttered and it looked very pretty dusted with icing sugar.
See!
Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable challenge. I normally wouldn’t have baked something fruity at Christmas (i’m not a fan of traditional puddings or fruit cakes) but this forced me outside my comfort zone. I loved the finished product and found it tasty and festive. It felt like it should be snowing outside and I should be eating this toasted and buttered with a glass of mulled wine. Oh well, maybe next year I will have a European Christmas and whip out this Stollen recipe! Thank you to Penny for a fantastic challenge. I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas. Have a happy new year!!
Ooh, I love Stollen! I haven’t had it since Daimaru was still open in Melbourne – years ago! – and they had a wonderful, wonderful bakery that would make these at Christmas. I might attempt this next year 🙂
Looks yummy, and wonderfully festive!
Your stollen looks great! Good idea about baking it in the bundt pan. I too really enjoyed this challenge.
It looks wonderful! The icing sugar is very pretty. Bravo for baking the stollen in the middle of summer. I don’t think I’d have been up to it!
Beautiful, and I think this dough translates so well into rolls! I struggled between overbrowning the outside and underbaking the inside when I made the wreath, so I feel your pain there. Cranberries really make it seem like the holidays!
It looks fantastic and I can say it tasted great too. Yum Yum… I’ll have to try one out.
Catrin – I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂 you should definitely try this one at home
Jenny – Thankyou for your lovely comment, its nice to know im not the only one who struggled with the inconsistent baking of this! I recommend the Craisins, they did make it festive and added a nice extra kick to it
Suz – Thank you! It was a bit tricky with the heat, I think I will appreciate it much more in Winter!
Limena – I’m glad you enjoyed it too, the bundt pan was a great way to go, I totally recommend it.
Basht – Thanks hun!
Kiki – Thanks dear, I remember Daimaru but I never got any stollen there 🙁 boo! Have a crack at this in winter, maybe a christmas in july dish 🙂 hope you had a great christmas!
I love the shape that you baked it in!
Beautiful!! I love how your rolled the dough before putting it in the pan. The shape turned out so amazing. Wonderful job on the challenge. 🙂