XP: Christmas Stollen (2019)

[Peter Creasey]

An annual tradition.





From Wikipedia...

Stollen (German pronunciation: is a fruit bread of nuts,
spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar
or icing sugar. It is a traditional German bread eaten during the
Christmas season, when it is called Weihnachtsstollen (after
"Weihnachten", the German word for Christmas) or Christstollen
(after Christ).

Ingredients
Stollen is a cake-like fruit bread made with yeast, water and flour,
and usually with zest added to the dough. Orangeat (candied
orange peel) and candied citrus peel (Zitronat), raisins and
almonds, and various spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are
added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum,
eggs, vanilla, other dried fruits and nuts and marzipan, may also
be added to the dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is
quite low in sugar. The finished bread is sprinkled with icing
sugar and cinnamon. The traditional weight of Stollen is around
2.0 kg (4.4 lb), but smaller sizes are common. The marzipan rope
in the middle is optional. The dried fruits can be macerated in
rum or brandy for a superior-tasting bread.

We have it for breakfast, but it would be very wine friendly.

Sorry for the diversion!

. . . . Pete

 

[MLipton]

Stollen was a family tradition in my German-American family. It’s oretty much what Christmas fruitcakes badly parody. It also makes great French toast, but I’d rather have coffee than wine with it.

Mark Lipton

 

[Peter Creasey]

Mark, interesting.

The one I made seems to be like what the Wikipedia describes.

Out of curiosity, how similar does the one I made look to the genuine ones you used to have?

. . . . Pete

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Mark, interesting.

The one I made seems to be like what the Wikipedia describes.

Out of curiosity, how similar does the one I made look to the genuine ones you used to have?

. . . . Pete

I am not Mark, but as a German I would say the shape looks pretty good. Seems to lack enough raisins and fruit though. And yes to coffee (or brandy), wine only if one enjoys heartburn.

 

[Rahsaan]

Stollen for breakfast seems like a bit much. But then I don't like eating sweet cakes of any kind for breakfast. Around here, it is slotted in the afternoon coffee and cake routine and never considered pairing with any alcohol. But I suppose schnapps/aquavit could work.

As a side note, we get the annual stollen from my wife's mother in Germany. I haven't tasted this year's version yet but was just informed by my wife that it was more successful than usual. Something to look forward to.

 

[Peter Creasey]

Georg, that's interesting. The recipe calls for 1 1/3 cup of fruit and 1/3 cup each of raisins and walnuts. I always measure these items on the plus side (rather than shortchanging).

It seems to have enough fruit/raisins/walnuts, but maybe next time I'll try increasing the quantities if you recommend it.

As you probably know, this is not a sweet bread except for the marzipan rope.

My "wine" comment was only to facetiously pay homage to the main topic of this board.

. . . . Pete

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Georg, that's interesting. The recipe calls for 1 1/3 cup of fruit and 1/3 cup each of raisins and walnuts. I always measure these items on the plus side (rather than shortchanging).

It seems to have enough fruit/raisins/walnuts, but maybe next time I'll try increasing the quantities if you recommend it.

. . . . Pete

Pete
Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And halft that weight in butter. And no walnuts, but sweet and bitter almonds. As for marzipan, it is better eaten on its own imho, but that is just a preference.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by georg lauer:

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Georg, that's interesting. The recipe calls for 1 1/3 cup of fruit and 1/3 cup each of raisins and walnuts. I always measure these items on the plus side (rather than shortchanging).

It seems to have enough fruit/raisins/walnuts, but maybe next time I'll try increasing the quantities if you recommend it.

. . . . Pete

Pete
Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And halft that weight in butter. And no walnuts, but sweet and bitter almonds. As for marzipan, it is better eaten on its own imho, but that is just a preference.

Yes, marzipan in stollen seems odd to me. It’s plenty sweet from the fruit already. Bitter almonds can be hard to find in the US (though I’ve occasionally found a bitter sport or two in normal almonds). Fun fact: the late 19th C organic chemist Gatterman wrote a very influential note advising people working with cyanide to smoke cigars in lab because toxic HCN gas imparted “a distinctive flavor to tobacco smoke that tastes of bitter almonds.” A labmate in grad school used to smoke cigarettes in lab when working with cyanide, a convenient excuse.

Mark Lipton

 

[Peter Creasey]

originally posted by georg lauer: Pete Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And half that weight in butter.

Georg, thanks for the good info.

Instead of 2 cups of fruit and raisins, I guess I should use 2 1/2 cups...which is the amount of bread flour used. I'm partial to walnuts so since the recipe calls for walnuts, I might stick with them.

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of softened butter plus 2/3 cup of warm milk and an egg. It's hard to imagine upping this to 1 1/4 cups of butter.

. . . . Pete

 

[Peter Creasey]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

originally posted by georg lauer: Pete Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And half that weight in butter.

Georg, thanks for the good info.

Instead of 2 cups of fruit and raisins, I guess I should use 2 1/2 cups...which is the amount of bread flour used. I'm partial to walnuts so since the recipe calls for walnuts, I might stick with them.

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of softened butter plus 2/3 cup of warm milk and an egg. It's hard to imagine upping this to 1 1/4 cups of butter.

The recipe stipulates the marzipan is an option (which I like but JoAnne doesn't).

. . . . Pete

 

[MarkS]

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by georg lauer:

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Georg, that's interesting. The recipe calls for 1 1/3 cup of fruit and 1/3 cup each of raisins and walnuts. I always measure these items on the plus side (rather than shortchanging).

It seems to have enough fruit/raisins/walnuts, but maybe next time I'll try increasing the quantities if you recommend it.

. . . . Pete

Pete
Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And halft that weight in butter. And no walnuts, but sweet and bitter almonds. As for marzipan, it is better eaten on its own imho, but that is just a preference.

Yes, marzipan in stollen seems odd to me. It’s plenty sweet from the fruit already. Bitter almonds can be hard to find in the US (though I’ve occasionally found a bitter sport or two in normal almonds). Fun fact: the late 19th C organic chemist Gatterman wrote a very influential note advising people working with cyanide to smoke cigars in lab because toxic HCN gas imparted “a distinctive flavor to tobacco smoke that tastes of bitter almonds.” A labmate in grad school used to smoke cigarettes in lab when working with cyanide, a convenient excuse.

Mark Lipton

I personally find all almonds to have a bitter note.

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

originally posted by georg lauer: Pete Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And half that weight in butter.

Georg, thanks for the good info.

Instead of 2 cups of fruit and raisins, I guess I should use 2 1/2 cups...which is the amount of bread flour used. I'm partial to walnuts so since the recipe calls for walnuts, I might stick with them.

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of softened butter plus 2/3 cup of warm milk and an egg. It's hard to imagine upping this to 1 1/4 cups of butter.

. . . . Pete

Pete

I am always puzzled how one can bake by cups instead of grams.
So everything I said was relating to weight, not volume.
Usually for two Stollen one uses roughly:
1200 g of flour
30g dry yeast or 80g fresh
500g of milk
700g butter (of which 150g are kept to melt and put on Stollen after baking)
600-700g of raisins soaked in rum
150g candied lemon peel
100g candied orange peel
130g almonds plus a few bitter ones (or bitter almond aroma)
100g sugar

after baking put the liquid butter all over and dust with plenty of powdered sugar

 

[Jonathan Loesberg]

originally posted by georg lauer:

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

originally posted by georg lauer: Pete Typically one uses almost as much of raisins plus fruit as there is flour, with raisins being 70% of the overall fruit content. And half that weight in butter.

Georg, thanks for the good info.

Instead of 2 cups of fruit and raisins, I guess I should use 2 1/2 cups...which is the amount of bread flour used. I'm partial to walnuts so since the recipe calls for walnuts, I might stick with them.

The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of softened butter plus 2/3 cup of warm milk and an egg. It's hard to imagine upping this to 1 1/4 cups of butter.

. . . . Pete

Pete

I am always puzzled how one can bake by cups instead of grams.
So everything I said was relating to weight, not volume.
Usually for two Stollen one uses roughly:
1200 g of flour
30g dry yeast or 80g fresh
500g of milk
700g butter (of which 150g are kept to melt and put on Stollen after baking)
600-700g of raisins soaked in rum
150g candied lemon peel
100g candied orange peel
130g almonds plus a few bitter ones (or bitter almond aroma)
100g sugar

after baking put the liquid butter all over and dust with plenty of powdered sugar

There are standard conversion tables for going from cups to grams and vice versa, since, of course, the volume measure will have a given weight. I cook fairly readily with both English and French recipes.

 

[Peter Creasey]

Georg, okay, thanks so much for clarifying. That explains the "discrepancy".

Your calling for the raisins to be soaked in rum sounds like a good idea that I might try.

The recipe I use is a whole lot more involved than just mixing the ingredients. In fact, it is about a 5 hour project altogether.

. . . . Pete

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:


There are standard conversion tables for going from cups to grams and vice versa, since, of course, the volume measure will have a given weight. I cook fairly readily with both English and French recipes.

That works reasonably well for liquids but not really for things like sugar or raisins which can come at quite different particle sizes and densities. IMHO baking benefits from a certain degree of precision.

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Georg, okay, thanks so much for clarifying. That explains the "discrepancy".

Your calling for the raisins to be soaked in rum sounds like a good idea that I might try.

The recipe I use is a whole lot more involved than just mixing the ingredients. In fact, it is about a 5 hour project altogether.

. . . . Pete

Pete,
what do you do apart from mixing the stuff, letting it raise, shape, bake, and butter/sugar it?

 

[Peter Creasey]

Georg, let me see if I can conjure up a summary of the whole process.

The gathering/preparing/mixing/kneading of the ingredients takes me quite a while, probably close to an hour. Then there are two raising stages. The first with ball of dough containing the yeast/milk/eggs/fruit/nuts/raisins/etc. which is 1 hour. Then when this ball of dough is formed up into the bread shape (with marzipan rope), the second raising stage is also 1 hour. Then the cooking time is around 40 minutes, first 10 minutes at 350 then at 300 for the remainder of the time. Then it has to cool which takes quite a while. The final step is sifting the confectioners' sugar and cinnamon onto the loaf. Then getting it into storage packages.

Somehow it ends up taking me about a half of a day. Remember, I don't do that much pastry cooking, so my efficiency isn't what it might could be.

. . . . Pete

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

Back in the days when annual prizes were awarded around here this thread would have been up for some category involving the word involuntary.

 

[Jay Miller]

Huh, I had always thought that it was the sequel to The Grinch Who Stolle Christmas.

 

[georg lauer]

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Back in the days when annual prizes were awarded around here this thread would have been up for some category involving the word involuntary.

No prize???
And we tried so hard.