Make your own Christmas stollen

You may not immediately recognize the name Nigel Slater, but this man is more important to our food than Nigella and Jamie combined. Nigella and Jamie think so too. His latest book is now in stores, and you need to get your hands on it as soon as possible.

In his A Cook’s Journal: A Winter Diary, food writer Nigel Slater takes you through winter one bite at a time. Each day, he tells you what he is up to, but more importantly: what he eats. Of course, you can’t get through winter without celebrating Christmas—and have you ever made your own Christmas stollen? This is the year!

Method

1. Put the raisins in a mixing bowl. Chop the candied citrus peel into small cubes and add them to the raisins. Finely grate the orange zest into the bowl. Squeeze the orange juice into the bowl and add the rum or brandy and vanilla. Mix everything well and leave to stand for an hour.

2. Melt the butter in a pan and leave it to cool again. Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. There is no need to sift it. If using fresh yeast, warm the milk to body temperature (it should feel pleasant—not cold or burning hot—when you put your finger in it), crumble in the yeast and stir until dissolved. Add the sugar and salt to the flour and mix everything.

3. Beat the egg. Stir the egg, warm milk and butter into the flour mixture. (If using dried yeast, add it directly to the flour and stir in the remaining ingredients, followed by the warm milk, egg and butter.) Mix everything well—the dough should be soft, shiny and quite sticky. To be honest, it can be very sticky.

4. Turn it out of the bowl onto a generously floured work surface and knead for about eight minutes. As you knead, the dough will gradually become less sticky and increasingly resemble bread dough—although it is heavier because of the butter and egg. Once the dough is soft and supple and no longer sticks to the work surface, gather it together and place it in a floured bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean, dry tea towel and leave it in a warm, draught-free place for just over an hour, or until the dough has risen well. (It will not have fully doubled in volume, but it will be well on its way.) Alternatively, mix and knead the dough in a food processor fitted with a dough hook until it comes away from the sides of the bowl by itself.

5. Split open the cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Crush them finely in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, then mix them in a small bowl with the poppy seeds, cinnamon and almonds. Dust the work surface
with flour and turn the risen dough out onto it. Knead the spice-and-seed mixture and the soaked fruit into the dough, leaving most of the liquid behind in the bowl.

6. Shape it into a rectangle measuring approximately 22 x 16 cm and press it slightly flatter. Roll out the almond paste into a log the same length as the dough rectangle and place it down the middle. Brush the edges with beaten egg, fold the dough over the almond paste and press the dough edges together. Turn the whole thing over and place the loaf on the lined baking sheet, cover it with the tea towel and leave it to rise in the warm spot for another hour and a half.

7. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Put the loaf in the hot oven and bake for thirty-five to forty minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Melt the butter for the glaze and brush it all over the loaf. Leave the loaf to cool on a wire rack, then dust it all over with icing sugar. It seems to me that it should be dusted very generously.

Storage: once the loaf has cooled completely, wrap it loosely in baking paper or plastic wrap and store it in a bread bin or cookie tin.
Tip: For the filling, try using chopped dried apricots, dried cranberries or chopped pitted prunes. A baked stollen freezes very well.

Title: A Cook’s Journal: A Winter Diary
Author: Nigel Slater
Publisher: Fontaine
Price: €29.99

FavorFlav.com, Amayzine.com and Franska.nl are published by PilotStudio. With this article, we wanted to bring it to your attention. We hope you enjoy it!