Guest spot: The Mildred Mittens Manufactory recipe for Stollen
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas | 24 comments
I love Stollen. When Mildred sent me her recipe I was delighted. This sounds so good I just had to put it on the blog. I will be making this with my mum when I have a few days off over Christmas.
Mildred wrote
“Have you ever made Stollen I wonder? The recipe in Andrew Whitley’s ‘Bread Matters’ book is superb! I tweaked it a bit and the resulting Stollen is wonderful! Andrew’s recipe has made a nice sized loaf and every step was explained very well. Everything I have made from this fantastic book has worked perfectly!
Here’s my ‘take’ on his recipe. It differs in that I use all white flour and add some mixed spice, and a few cherries for some festive ‘red’. We both roll the marzipan so it is distributed through the roll instead of a heavy sugary dollop through the middle, I was surprised how much more I enjoyed it like this.
Mix the fruits up the night before:
Pop 70g Sultanas, 60g Raisins, 50g Mixed peel, 30g chopped glacé cherries and 20g Brandy in a strong poly bag and leave to soak, shaking up a bit from time to time, if you remember.
The next day, make the Dough:
Place 5g sugar, 5g fresh (or dried, a little less) yeast and 60g warm milk in a bowl and stir together until dissolved, add 50g Strong White bread flour. Mix together well. Cover and leave in a warm place for about an hour until the ‘sponge’ has risen and then dropped a little.
Add to the sponge mix, when it is ready, 30g sugar (I used castor throughout), 110g Strong White Bread flour, 1 beaten egg and 50g soft salted butter.
Mix well to combine then knead for about 10 minutes. It will feel a little sticky, this is ok!
Leave to prove for about an hour until well risen.
Meanwhile, make the Marzipan:
Simply mix together 60g ground almonds, 20g castor sugar, 20g icing sugar and 20g of beaten egg to form a paste, pop this in a poly bag in the fridge.
To make the Stollen Dough:
Tip the mixed fruits into the bowl of risen dough and carefully fold/mix it in with a good pinch of mixed spice, don’t overdo the mixing or the fruits will break up! Relax the dough for 10 minutes while you roll out the cold marzipan to about a 20cm x 15cm rectangle. Roll the dough a bit bigger then place the marzipan on top of the dough and roll up like a Swiss roll, firmly with the join ending up underneath.
Place on a tray with baking parchment and brush the Stollen roll with some beaten egg (I used the leftover from the marzipan).
Cover with a large bowl and leave to rise in a warm place.
When it has proved, pop it in the oven (180c/160c fan). I left the glass bowl OVER the Stollen for the first 15 minutes of baking (like I would my bread, you need to ensure you use an oven proof bowl in this case). You do not have to do this, all I can say is though it helped the dough rise a little more and stopped it getting a hard crust which I personally didn’t want. I removed the bowl then carried on baking for about another 30 minutes, covering it with some tinfoil towards the end so it didn’t over brown.
Remove from the oven and place it on a cooling tray and brush over with melted butter. When cool sieve some icing sugar over it (or when you are ready to serve it). It won’t keep really fresh for long, (unlike the ‘bought’ varieties which are full of preservatives!). It is so scrumptious it is unlikely to hang around for very long either! You can freeze it, slice it first if you like. It is also lovely toasted.
What a wonderful gift it would make! Or to use instead of Christmas Cake!”
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Mmm. Look at the time….. it’s stollen o’clock. Will definitely be trying this….. after the Christmas rush has finished. Forget the traditional Christmas cake I’m a die-hard stollen fan.
www.thecotswoldfoodyear.com
This week our Newspaper has printed some corrections for a series of recipes published last week. A bit late if you had already tried the recipe and found it didn’t quite work, through no fault of your own!
I made my Stollen (as above) today and studied the recipe carefully. Once again, it worked very well BUT I knew to use a SMALL egg! And if the final dough is a too soft to knead (this can depend on the flour) it is OK to add a bit more flour – you want a soft dough that is still knead-able.
I think a lot of recipes assume some experience on behalf of the cook. I use my instinct quite a bit and when it comes to relaying a good recipe it is difficult to record every little detail.
The joy of cooking! Each dish we create teaches us something new!!
Hi Pat,
I am going to freeze some in slices. It will be perfect to fill that 4 o’clock gap!
Oh this sounds really lovely!!! And Brian likes Stollen. I may well give this a go this year.
Hi Kate
I reckon that it’s more scrummy with marzipan. I love it with poppy seeds so I am going to add these.
Hi Mildred,
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It looks so tasty. I checked with my mum and she loves Stollen and is keen to make it at Christmas with me!
Hi Veronica,
This recipe looks fun to make. I am looking forward to making Mildred’s bread too.
Hi Virginia,
Snap. Danny doesn’t like marzipan but he reckoned that it would be ok as it is cooked in the dough.
Recently we ate a free range guinea fowl and it tasted gamey (slightly). Perhaps you have to hang them for a bit? Glad that it was delicious and tender. It would be easier to eat a bird from a flock rather than a chicken that you have got to know more closely. D would not eat our gf or chucks. The problem is that the flock is too small.
The cranberry sauce went down very well with friends last Christmas. It has to be kept in the fridge but lasts a good couple of months and is heaven compared to most of the commercially produced jars. Very tangy and great in blue cheese or turkey sandwiches after Christmas.
Hi Celia,
Ahh. Cliff is an old romantic. What a great story.
Oh Yummy!!!!! I love marzipan in any form and Stollen especially! This is why . . . shortly after I met Cliff he turned up at my cottage one Saturday afternoon just before Christmas with a bag full of ingredients and a recipe for Stollen! the rest is history!!!!
Stollen sounds delicious but hubby not keen on marzipan and I love it! He eats most things though so I’ll make it anyway. The Guinea fowl was delicious and very tender but disappointingly not very different from a home-grown Chicken. I was hoping it would be a bit gamier. Still, I think I prefer eating our own GF to own chicken, I can’t tell one GF from another when I pick one for the pot ! I get to know the hens and young cockerels more personally and so know who I’m eating; not so good.
Thamks for the apple chutney reminder, and others. That’s next on my list of “Things to Do”
oooh, Stollen! Your blog is getting to be a daily must-read:-)
Like Mildred I can’t imagine Stollen without marzipan. I shall tear myself away from Lidl’s offering this year, and make my own 🙂
The recipe I spotted in our newspaper didn’t have marzipan in either Kate, I can’t imagine it without! I love marzipan!!
Thanks Fi, it is so lovely to share recipes!!
My mother makes stollen every Christmas, although her recipe does not call for Marzipan. I will have to tell her about this!