Dec 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge - Stollen

Sour cherry stollen


Light bright stollen


Exotic fruit berry & flower stollen


Australian Christmas Stollen
(Coconut, crystallised pineapple and ginger, passion-fruit, red glacé cherry, lemon myrtle & macadamia mazipan Stollen)


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.

Exotic fruit berry & flower stollen
I wanted this version to have a traditional stollen taste on the outside and a more exotic fruit, berry and flower flavour profile in the interior also I made a mild home-made marzipan filling to balance the inside and outside taste profiles.

The tradition outer layer was butter coated with vanilla-icing-sugar with a combination of cinnamon, cocoa, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, fennel seed, and star anise; while the exotic interior dough was flavoured with fig, peach, coconut white chocolate, raisin, orange, lemon, lime, mixed nuts, passion-fruit, wild-sour-cherry, raspberry, blackberry, violet and rose water.

I never realised that using fresh yeast really adds such a wonderful taste to the bread it tastes like BREAD the best bread you can imagine. I suggest if you can get fresh yeast do use it and notice the difference. Fresh yeast has good rising qualities and produces excellent-tasting bread, croissants and Danish pastries.

1. I used this recipe to make marzipan http://candy.about.com/od/nougatmarzipancandy/r/Basicmarzipan.htm I added 2 teaspoons of almond extract. It was easy and the marzipan was perfect. I made a half batch and had about 100 grams left over. Next time I will macadamia marzipan that is replace the almond meal with macadamia meal I think that would be great for another variation.
2. Here is a marzipan recipe that doesn't need to be cooked http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/marzipan-candy/Detail.aspx
3. I used bread flour (13% protein) instead of Australian all-purpose (plain) flour (11% protein), I think the structure of the stollen was better and it raised better than the lower protein all-purpose (plain) flour I used in the first version.
4. Instead of the candied mixed peel I used candied figs since they look beautiful (a lovely green) and taste so much better than candied peel to my mind.
5. I used the liquid (syrup) from the candied figs instead of the sugar since it tasted delicious. Since I used the liquid from the candied figs I only needed to use four egg yolks (instead of the three whole eggs) this balanced out the extra liquid from the syrup.
6. I used the contents of fruit tea bags (they don't contain actual tea but dehydrated fruit powder cheap and easily available in supermarkets in the health food aisle) instead of the spice mix since I thought the fruit teas would add an extra special touch to the flavour profile of the interior of the stollen – one tea bag of peach and passion fruit and one tea bag of wild sour cherry, raspberry and blackberry.
7. I used four egg yolks instead of the three whole eggs since I had them to hand I think this makes the stollen a lot richer in taste and nicer in mouth-feel. And this balanced out (the liquid/solid ratio) the fig syrup I used instead of the sugar in this version.
8. I only used a ½ teaspoon of fresh yeast and just waited for the dough to rise in the fridge it took 3 days. The conversion of active dry yeast to fresh is 1:2 that is if the recipe calls for ½ oz of active dry yeast use 1 oz of fresh yeast. I used a tiny amount of fresh yeast and just waited for the yeast to grow. See here for a conversion chart http://home.earthlink.net/~ggda/convert.htm
9. Instead of the flaked almonds (since I was using a marzipan centre) I used one cup of mixed roughly chopped nuts – pistachios, pecans, walnuts and hickory nuts (yum yum).
10. I added twelve red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) to the dough for the colour and the taste.
11. I soaked the raisins in 3 tablespoons of boiling water with one orange/lemon teabag for a few hours and 3 teaspoons of rum extract then I removed the teabag.
12. I used a small amount of rose water and violent flower extract instead of the citrus extract. Be cautious flower extracts must be used very sparingly they can overtake the stollen if you use too much.
13. I used the zest of two limes.
14. I used home-made vanilla-sugar, it is very easy to make place a vanilla bean in a sugar container and wait for a few weeks, I always use my used vanilla beans to make vanilla-sugar which is very expensive to buy in the shops. One tablespoon of vanilla-sugar is equivalent to ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract .
15. I used melted unsalted butter with rum for coating the hot baked stollen, and used vanilla-sugar with cocoa powder, cinnamon powder, clove powder, freshly grated nutmeg, mace powder, ground cardamom, fennel seed powder and star anise powder to do the final dusting. Since I wanted the traditional flavours of the German stollen to be the first taste sensations to be perceived and then the more exotic interior flavours (the unusual fruits, berries and flower extracts used in this version) of the dough ingredients to be detected.
16. The final stollen is totally delectable the traditional coating counterpoints the exotic interior so well a wonderful variation that will delight contemporary palates. I really like how each mouthful has a wide spectrum of flavours firstly you taste the traditional German stollen flavours then you taste the fruit/berry interior and then the soft marzipan filling and lastly the flower (rose/violet) olfactory perception a lovely array of gustatory sensations.

Here is the ingredient listing for the version I used

Exotic fruit berry & flower stollen
¼ cup (60 mls) water (110°F/43°C or warm)
½ teaspoon fresh yeast
1 cup (240 ml) milk
10 tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter
5 ½ cups (27 ozs) (770 grams) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup (120 ml) fig syrup
¾ teaspoon (3¾ ml) (4½ grams) salt
2 fruit teabags – one peach/passion-fruit and one wild-sour-cherry/raspberry/blackberry
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 2 limes
1 cup (4½ ozs) (125 gms) mixed nuts (no almonds), chopped roughly
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) rose water
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) violet flower extract
¾ cup (4¾ ozs) (135 gms) candied figs, chopped
1 cup (6 ozs) (170 gms) raisins soaked for several hours in 3 tablespoons (45 ml) boiling water with one orange/lemon fruit teabag and 3 teaspoons of rum extract
½ cup (4½ ozs) (125 grams) coconut white chocolate, roughly chopped
12 red glacé cherries, roughly chopped
1 cup (8¾ ozs) (250 gms) marzipan (see point one above for the recipe)
Vanilla-sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder, clove powder, mace powder, ground cardamom, fennel powder and star anise powder, for dusting
Butter (unsalted) melted with rum, for coating

I really feel this was outstanding I was lucky I got the various flavour and mouth-feel profiles for the centre, outside and interior parts of the stollen in a harmonious equilibrium of tastes and textures. .
Pictures of the Marzipan Fruit Berry Flower Stollen

The dough after 3 days in the fridge and left out for about 3 hours to get to room temperature.


The rolled out dough to 40cm x 61cm (16”x 24”) and about 6mm (¼”) thick it is huge! Notice the rolling pin you get an idea of the size needed.


I used 250 grams (9 ounces or about 1 cup) of home-made marzipan that I rolled into four thin ropes I think this method is better than doing one big roll.


If you use a bowl you can get a perfect circle of dough (neat trick).


The unbaked stollen shaped and sprayed with oil.


The baked stollen straight out of the oven it is much bigger and a lovely colour.


Close up of the baked stollen.


The butter and sugar coated stollen


Close up of the cut stollen notice the marzipan layers and the mixed fruits and nuts.


A picture perfect stollen I think it would serve 10-12 easily.


The stollen does needs a few days to dry out if you are using marizpan, and surprisingly the stollen isn't too sweet even with all that sugar on top of it.

Australian Christmas Stollen
(Coconut, crystallised pineapple and ginger, passion-fruit, red glacé cherry, lemon myrtle & macadamia mazipan Stollen)


The challenge recipe is so versatile you can easily double or halve the amount of dried fruit/nuts/peel. You can add extra spices if you wish.

I had an early holiday party to go to on Saturday so I thought I would do an Australian version of stollen for the party it had to feed 40 so I added a lot of extra filling ingredients (about three times) and an extra thick layer of butter and icing sugar (a staggering 250 grams (2 sticks) of butter and 250 grams (2½ cups) icing sugar!!!!). The final baked version weighed a little over 3 kilograms (a little over 6½ pounds). It had a diameter of 33cm (13").

For the bakers who cannot use candied peel and/or raisins/currants you can use dried figs, prunes or other soft dried fruit (like apple, pear, pineapple or banana) for your stollen. And of course you could use tea, coffee, cola or even drinking chocolate drink to soak your filling for the stollen. I remember when I was in Dublin I have a fabulous fig/prune soaked in coffee stollen that was delicious so don't feel limited to the ingredients listed be creative to your requirements.

Christmas in Australia is summer time and to me this means tropical fruits, nuts and stone fruits – especially coconut, cherries, passion-fruit, pineapple, ginger and macadamias, so I decided that my stollen was to have these as its major taste sensations.

For this version I used evaporated coconut milk (instead of the dairy milk), I made home-made macadamia mazipan and added a whole lot of powdered passion-fruit and cherry powder to the dough and used a whole heap of chopped red glacé cherries with crystallised pineapple and crystallised ginger with some lemon myrtle to achieve my Aussie Xmas Stollen.

This Christmas stollen is going to served at party for 40 people so I went heavy on the rum soaked filling ingredients and the butter/sugar coating, so a small slice would satisfy the appetite after a heavy holiday meal.

One thing I did notice during the testing of the recipe is that stollen is a dense and somewhat dryish fruit bread if stored for any length of time, it is meant be to be like that, you are meant to butter the slices and drink it with a hot drink like tea. But I didn't think this wouldn't be the way my guests would like the stollen to be served so I searched the internet and my reference books and discovered a simple technique to moisten (and lighten) stollen to suit modern serving styles.

So I added the 'moistening' paste to the dough (see note 1 below), I used bread flour and fresh yeast since I think it gives better structure and taste to the baked stollen. I made the lemon and orange citrus peel (using this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sweet-candied-orange-and-lemon-peel/Detail.aspx) for the dough (it is infinitely better than the packaged stuff). I didn't add the rum soaked dried fruit in the initial mixing of the dough since I didn't like how when I rolled out the dough (during the testing) the fruit etc got squashed flat. I soaked the fruit overnight in lots of rum and orange juice since a long soak gives a better result than a short immersion in the liquor and juice, I added half of the fully-hydrated fruit at the punching-down stage, then I rolled the dough out (which contained half of the fully-hydrated fruit) and placed the remaining half (with the glacé cherries, macadamia marzipan, crystallised pineapple, crystallised ginger and nuts etc) onto the rolled out dough this process ensures the baked stollen will have plump fruit pieces etc when sliced for serving.

I made macadamia mazipan using this recipe http://candy.about.com/od/nougatmarzipancandy/r/Basicmarzipan.htm I replace the almond meal with macadamia meal. The resulting mazipan was superb so creamy and tasty so much better than almond mazipan.

I cannot believe that making a heated paste of a tiny amount of rye flour with the (coconut) milk makes such a huge difference to the moistness and softness of the dough. It was a joy to work with it was so light and fluffy as compared to the other version I did.

I brushed 250 grams (2 sticks) of melted butter with some rum onto the hot stollen until it had absorbed all of it and then coated it with a heavy dusting of icing sugar, waited for a couple of minutes and coated it again with icing sugar and waited again for about 5 minutes and coated it again with icing sugar and repeated until. After 30 minutes I coated it again. I needed the stollen to store well so I needed a very thick layer of butter and icing sugar.

1. For this version I used a 'moistening' paste which is added to the dough, this is a very easy technique. Reduce the plain (all-purpose) flour by 4 tablespoons. Add 4 tablespoons of rye flour (or whole wheat flour) to the (coconut) milk in a small saucepan and just bring to the boil while stirring constantly take off heat. The milk and flour will form a thick paste. Add the butter while stirring constantly let the mixture cool add the beaten eggs and add to the other ingredients and continue with the recipe as written. This paste will keep the stollen moist.
2. I used bread flour (13% protein) instead of Australian all-purpose (plain) flour (11% protein), I think the structure of the stollen was better and it raised better than the lower protein all-purpose (plain) flour.
3. I used home-made candied lemon and orange peel and store-bought crystallised pineapple and crystallised ginger, if you make your own candied lemon and orange peel you will never go back to the packaged stuff there is a quantum leap in flavour and texture and in cost.
4. I used fruit tea bags (they don't contain actual tea but dehydrated fruit powder cheap and easily available in supermarkets in the health food aisle) – three tea bags of passion fruit and two tea bags of wild sour cherry. (I think using fruit tea powders really adds lots of flavour to the stollen and fruit teas are an easy and cheap way to add exotic taste sensations to the final product).
5. I added some rum to the butter coating since I wasn't going to use the rum for anything else.
6. I used 250 grams (2 sticks) of butter to coat the stollen!!! And 2½ cups of icing (powdered) sugar to do the final dusting of the stollen.
7. A big tip is to use a couple layers of parchment paper to bake the stollen and use the paper to help move and coat the final product. The baked stollen is very heavy and can be a pain to handle.

Australian Christmas Stollen
(Coconut, crystallised pineapple, passion-fruit, red glacé cherry, lemon myrtle & macadamia mazipan Stollen)
¼ cup (60 ml) water (110°F/43°C or warm)
4 teaspoons fresh yeast
1 cup (240 ml) evaporated coconut milk
4 tablespoons (60 ml) (1 oz) (27 gm) rye flour
10 tablespoons (140 gm) unsalted butter
5 cups plus 5 tablespoons (26 oz) (740 grams) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup (120 ml) (115 gm) vanilla sugar
¾ teaspoon (3¾ ml) (4½ gm) salt
5 fruit teabags – 3 teabags passion-fruit and 2 teabags wild sour cherry
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 cup (4½ oz) (125 gm) mixed nuts, chopped roughly
1 cup (240 ml) (6 oz) (170 gm) soft dried fruit (apple, pear & apricots), finely chopped
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (4 gms) lemon myrtle
¾ cup (4¾ oz) (135 gm) candied citrus peel, finely chopped
¾ cup (4¾ oz) (135 gm) crystallised pineapple, roughly chopped
¾ cup (4¾ oz) (135 gm) crystallised ginger, roughly chopped
1½ cups (9oz) (255 gm) raisins soaked for eight hours in 6 tablespoons (90 ml) rum and the juice of the zested orange
15 red glacé cherries, roughly chopped
¾ cup (8¾ oz) (250 gm) macadamia marzipan
250 grams (2½ cups) icing sugar, for dusting
250 grams (2 sticks) butter (unsalted) melted with 2 tablespoons (30 ml) rum, for coating

Photographs of the process

The flavoursome filling of raisins, peel, soft dried fruit and cherries after eight of soaking


Some more filling ingredients


The risen dough after an overnight resting notice the small colourful specks of yellow passion-fruit and red purple wild sour cherry




The punched-down dough with half of the filling ingredients


The rolled dough with four ropes of macadamia mazipan and the other half of the filling ingredients


The risen ring (wreath) of dough


How to cut out the sections of the wreath


The baked stollen soaked in butter



The process of dusting the stollen with icing sugar
The melted butter soaked stollen with the first dusting of icing sugar

Notice how after a few minutes all of the melted butter has been absorbed into the still hot stollen

After a couple of minutes the butter will colour the icing sugar so you will know it needs another coating of icing sugar repeat the icing sugar coatings until the sugar stays white I needed about 6 coatings since I used 250 grams (2 sticks) of butter. The more butter you use at the start the more coatings of icing sugar you will need.


I cut the finished stollen into four sections for easy storage in my refrigerator, when I serve it I will cut each section into ten slices so I will have 40 servings for the party. Each serving will be about 78 grams (2¾ ounces).

The foil and plastic wrapped stollen ready for the refrigerator (my freezer was so full I didn't have any room left in the freezer)


A very small slice just for testing purposes LOL


Another small slice for testing purposes I couldn't resist it is was so good LOL


Notice how we have whole plump pieces of fruit in the slice


A comparison of the crumb of the two version – the bottom picture is when you place all of the filling ingredients into the dough and roll it out, the top picture places half of the filling ingredients onto of the rolled out dough also I used the milk/rye paste method to moisten and lighten the crumb as you can see it looks better and it is less dense than the first version I made. Notice how thick the icing sugar coating is this version.


Chocolate, coffee, fig and prune stollen with choc-hazelnut marzipan



This is a stollen of chocolate lovers it is over the top with flavour, moistness and mouth feel.

A while ago when I was in Dublin I had a stollen that was a revelation to my taste buds it was the colour of dark chocolate it was flavoured with coffee-soaked fig/prunes and had a hazelnut marzipan filling. I did some experimenting I think I got a very close approximation to it.

I halved the challenge recipe and used puréed coffee-soaked figs/prunes as a flavouring for the dough. I made home made hazelnut marzipan.

I was amazed how much it rose in the oven I think the figs and prunes are an excellent yeast food so the final stollen rose about three times!!!

The colour and mouth feel of the stollen was incredible, you cannot taste the figs/prunes at all they just help to intensify the chocolate taste sensation.

Even after one whole day the interior was still very moist


The baked stollen


Sliced stollen after two days on the counter



Chocolate, coffee, fig and prune stollen with choc-hazelnut marzipan
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (30ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)
1 package (2 teaspoons) (10 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) active dry yeast
½ cup (120 ml) evaporated milk
10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 gm) unsalted butter (can use salted butter)
125 gm (4½ oz) dark chocolate, 70+% cocoa solids
2¾ cups (660 ml) (13½ oz) (385 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift)
¼ cup (60 ml) (30 gm) (1 oz) dark cocoa powder, Dutch processed
¼ cup (60 ml) (55 gm) dark brown sugar, firmly packed
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 grams) salt
1 large egg, and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten (reserve the remaining egg white for the marzipan)
Grated zest of 1 orange
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) orange extract
¾ cup (180 ml) (4¾ oz) (135 gm) prunes, soaked overnight in 3 tablespoons strong coffee, 1½ tablespoons rum and 1 tablespoon syrup
1 cup (240 ml) (6 oz) (170 gm) figs, soaked overnight in 3 tablespoons strong coffee, 1½ tablespoons rum and 1 tablespoon syrup
3 tablespoons (45ml) rum
12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the colour and the taste (optional)
1 cup (240 ml) (7 oz) (200 gm) home-made hazelnut marzipan
½ cup (115 gm) melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
1 cup (125 gm) confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath
Method
Soak overnight the figs and prunes in separate bowls of strong coffee, rum and golden syrup, they should collapse and become a thick paste.
Place the yeast into the lukewarm water for 10 minutes.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large bowl mix well using a wire whisk.
Heat gently the evaporated milk add the butter, chocolate, dark brown sugar, zest and extracts until the butter and chocolate are just melted set aside. When cool purée the figs and prunes add with the beaten eggs to the milk mixture combine well.
Form a well in the dry ingredients add the milk mixture and the yeast mixture. Knead for 8 minutes. Taste a small piece of the dough for sweetness add more brown sugar if needed. Let rise overnight in the refrigerator.
Make the hazelnut marzipan – combine one cup of hazelnut meal and one cup of icing sugar and the reserved egg white, knead together to form a pliable ball (add more icing sugar if needed). Cover in plastic wrap and let rest at least one hour or overnight.
Punch down the dough form into an oblong shape, form the hazelnut marzipan into a thick rope and place onto the dough cover the remaining dough with the chopped cherries. (As an option you can add some chopped prunes and figs if they are soft enough). Form into a a thick crescent shape let rise until it is 1½ times its original size then slash decoratively.
Bake in a preheated moderate oven 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 for 15 minutes then rotate and bake for 15 minutes. Coat with ½ cup butter (once) and dust (three times) with ⅓ cup icing sugar waiting a couple of minutes between dustings (for a total of 1 cup of icing sugar) while the stollen is still hot from the oven. Let cool and let dry out for a day or two before slicing.

I usually add a tablespoon or so of Kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), and some chilli powder 1/2 teaspoon to my chocolate desserts and these would go well in this stollen I forgot this time if I make it again I will add them.

Wild sour cherry stollen
I also have friends who really despite fruit cake etc so I made a stollen just using wild sour cherries as the filling flavour also I used cheery juice instead of the milk in the recipe. Cherry juice seems to produce a very airy and light stollen.




Light Bright Stollen
I'm in far North Queensland at the moment on my mum's station (ranch) she asked me to make stollen for the jackaroos (young ranch hands) using sultanas, lemon peel and almond meal as the flavouring ingredients. So before I left I made four traditional 2 kg loaves for them and made one small taste-test stollen for me.

This worked out so well I thought, so light and tasty, it has a clean smooth taste and the marzipan leaves a lovely after taste.

I totally forgot about this version until they arrived in the mail today luckily I had the photos on the laptop already.