My culinary exposure to stollen was limited to a packaged loaf from World Market a few years back, scored half price after the season was over. I had NO CLUE when it was actually baked, but put that out of my mind and enjoyed the taste. This year I decided to make stollen the "real" way over the holidays. I would soak the fruit for 3 days in lots of booze and anoint it in Richard's butter baptism while dancing the polka around my kitchen in dirndl and braids.
Ya. That was The Plan.
Well, That was The Plan before my preciousssss block of fresh yeast hand-carried from Pittsburgh expired and died.
This weekend I spotted an easier version that combines almond meal and dried fruits into a quick bread. Anna's stollen doesn't use yeast: she uses baking powder. She doesn't soak the fruit for three days: she simply adds them. I personally don't like bitter dried citron or currants, so I used dried cranberries, dried apricots, dried bing cherries, golden raisins and hand-made candied orange peel--all cut into 1/4" dice and totally 1.5 cups of fruit with 2 TBL of Drambuie. Other than that, you know...exactly the same as the real stuff.
I made one batch as shown in the link. To make it easier to share, I made a second batch, rolled it out to 8" x 12" and cut 4 strips of 3"x 8". I then smeared most of the following blend on 2 of the strips, topped each with a strip and baked.
7 oz tube of almond paste
3 TBL butter
That way I ended up with 2 loaves that were 4"x 10", filled with sweet almond paste and easier to cut and share. I omitted the butter soak and confectionary topping, but may try that the next time.
It reminds me a sweet Irish Soda bread, even though there is no baking soda in it, it's not Irish, the German recipe was adapted by a Polish author and it was made by a Ukrainian/Serbian/German/Polish sloth. It's quite tasty considering the quickness and ease of it, although it is the slightest bit dry. Personally, this amazes me, considering there's a stick of butter and 8 ounces of cream cheese in it.
Maybe I'll rethink the butter bath baptism.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26581/christmas-stollen-my-adaptation-anna-thomas-recipe
Ya. That was The Plan.
Well, That was The Plan before my preciousssss block of fresh yeast hand-carried from Pittsburgh expired and died.
This weekend I spotted an easier version that combines almond meal and dried fruits into a quick bread. Anna's stollen doesn't use yeast: she uses baking powder. She doesn't soak the fruit for three days: she simply adds them. I personally don't like bitter dried citron or currants, so I used dried cranberries, dried apricots, dried bing cherries, golden raisins and hand-made candied orange peel--all cut into 1/4" dice and totally 1.5 cups of fruit with 2 TBL of Drambuie. Other than that, you know...exactly the same as the real stuff.
I made one batch as shown in the link. To make it easier to share, I made a second batch, rolled it out to 8" x 12" and cut 4 strips of 3"x 8". I then smeared most of the following blend on 2 of the strips, topped each with a strip and baked.
7 oz tube of almond paste
3 TBL butter
That way I ended up with 2 loaves that were 4"x 10", filled with sweet almond paste and easier to cut and share. I omitted the butter soak and confectionary topping, but may try that the next time.
It reminds me a sweet Irish Soda bread, even though there is no baking soda in it, it's not Irish, the German recipe was adapted by a Polish author and it was made by a Ukrainian/Serbian/German/Polish sloth. It's quite tasty considering the quickness and ease of it, although it is the slightest bit dry. Personally, this amazes me, considering there's a stick of butter and 8 ounces of cream cheese in it.
Maybe I'll rethink the butter bath baptism.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26581/christmas-stollen-my-adaptation-anna-thomas-recipe