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. Stollen is a bread-like fruitcake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus is often also added.
Over the centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless “bread” to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients. The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard.
What a delightfully Christmassy challenge this was! I really enjoyed it! Alot of the process of making stollen is waiting around, which actually suited me quite well over the last few weeks as it was doing its thing in the background (proving, resting, baking) while I was busy with other Christmas preparations.
I admit to tweaking the recipe to suit my tastes. I despise mixed peel, so there was no way it was making the cut. I made the original dough (of which I used half to make the traditional stollen wreath) with dried cranberries, and I used the remaining half of the dough to make 2 stollen loaves, adding sultanas and currants. This recipe has been a bit hit with all who have tasted it. It has a lovely spicy Christmas flavour, and is especially delicious toasted with real butter.
The Fuzzy Times 