It’s not often that I totally and completely screw something up – but when I do, I really do it big-time! Welcome to one of those times!
A friend of ours gave us her Oma’s Christmas Stollen recipe last year and I’ve thought of making it ever since. Thought of it. I hadn’t made it. On Thursday, in the midst of baking Christmas Cookies, making candy, and being my festive little self, I decided it was time to make it. (I also want to make a traditional Christmas Pudding and about a bazillion other things, but we can only haul so much stuff up to North Jersey.) But I digress…
I had all the ingredients (no big surprise here) and decided to make a half-recipe. Even I couldn’t eat 8 loaves of Stollen.
I am not sure exactly what went wrong, but the dough just never came together right. I’ll use the excuse that I was interrupted a couple of times, but I just wasn’t paying attention when I started out the mixing. The recipe calls for lots of butter and it just never incorporated with the flour right. It was heavy. It was greasy. It wasn’t right. I had never made this recipe before, but I’ve made enough different doughs to know when one is “smooth and elastic” and when it’s tough and greasy. This one was not smooth and elastic. But Mr. Determination had to follow it through. I did the first pitiful rise, and then formed into loaves and did the second. Pitiful. Recipe says 350F for 35 minutes. At 55 minutes it wasn’t baked inside.
The loaves spread forever but didn’t rise as I imagined they should have. It smelled fabulous. It wasn’t baked inside. I tried to convince myself it tasted great. The following morning, Victor toasted two slices for breakfast. It was okay, but it wasn’t Stollen. We tossed them. I conceded defeat – for the moment.
Saturday dawned, and I decided I was going to make them, again. I was not about to let a supposedly fabulous recipe get the better of me. Am I ever glad I did!
I followed the recipe once again. This time I paid attention. I worked the dough. I made sure the flour incorporated correctly. It was night and day different. Smooth and elastic. Silken perfection. Rise. Form. Rise, again. Into the oven.
Exactly 35 minutes later, they were ready. Rich, light, buttery heaven! We pretty much devoured one on the spot. And two of them are heading up with us to North Jersey.
Merry Christmas, indeed!
And speaking of Merry Christmas, the cookies are done, as well! I made up a huge tray for work, today, and have started on trays for the neighbors…
And I am going to have to work twice as hard at the Gym… I’ve been eating an awful lot of them…
Oma’s Christmas Stollen
Okay, here’s my Oma’s stollen recipe. It’s actually quite easy, but it’s a day-long thing since the dough has to rise several times.
This recipe is huge and makes 8 loaves (it freezes well – in Germany, it’s traditional to consume the last Christmas stollen on Easter) so feel free to cut it in half. It isn’t overly sweet and heavy and nasty like traditional fruitcakes – it’s more like a sweet bread, and the butter in the recipe makes it very flaky.
- 6 pounds flour
- 2 cups white sugar
- 7 oz yeast
- 1 lb golden raisins
- 1 t almond extract
- 3 t salt
- 3 lb butter
- 1 quart whole milk
- 1 lb dark raisins
- 1 lb blanched almonds, ground finely (but not overly fine – you get it)
- 1/2 lb citron, chopped finely (as above) and floured
In a saucepan, heat the milk. Remove from heat and add butter, sugar and salt. When just warm, add yeast. Put into large mixing bowl and begin to add flour, about five pounds, mixing well after each addition. Stir in raisins, citron and almonds. Add almond extract. Mix well and knead on floured board (dough will be a little sticky – you’ll use probably half a pound of flour doing this, which accounts for the six pound total) until it’s very smooth and elastic (about 20 minutes). Put into a covered bowl and let it rise until doubled. Divide dough into 8 parts and flatten each piece into a circle and fold over *almost* in half – the bottom diameter will be larger than the top. Let rise again until doubled and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. When cool, dust heavily with powdered sugar.