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Dresden Stollen... Stolen my heart, it has!!
?Sometimes I want to clean up my desk and go out and say, respect me, I'm a respectable grown-up, and other times I just want to jump into a paper bag and shake and bake myself to death? Wendy Wasserstein  It's all her fault. I wish I could have stolen it. Jamie tweeted she was pulling out a freshly baked Stollen from her oven a few days ago. 'Pleeeeeeeease' came the shout, 'we want some too!!' Diva & me fought for it, but I knew I had to make mine soon. Diva had a better chance of getting to Nantes to Jamie's oven before me, so I took a stab at making my own pretty quick.  The recipe for the Christmas Stollen (Dresden Stollen) is a beautiful one from Murasaki Shikibu or Ayako @ Samurai Viking Cuisine. Once the Stollen is baked you need to let it mature for 2 ? 3 weeks. Leave it in a cold dry room, wrapped in aluminum foil. If you don?t have a nice cold, dry room ? you?ll have to let it mature in your refrigerator, in which case wrapping it up in Saran Wrap is recommended. Typically this is done in the last week of November in German households.  Made the Stollen and it was absolutely delicious. Used the changes Jamie suggested, and made some additional ones like substituting fruit with whatever I had on hand. I used quark which I made at home. You can find the recipe here. The only issue I had was the crumbly texture. I didn't get a smooth, beautiful crumb like the one Jamie's picture had, and I think I can blame that on differences with oven temperatures, the kind of flour available here, and my impatience.  More importantly I think too on the lack of self restraint. The Stollen had flooded the house with delicious warm smells, and I just couldn't resist hacking some off ... too soon maybe. The timer was set on 30 minutes once the loaves were out ... At the buzz, I was there with my bread knife. Crumbly or not, this was mighty delicious stuff!  There is an interesting tale about Stollen... According to some sources, this sweet bread which dates back to 1400 A.D., used to be much more boring due to a 'butter ban' which had been implemented by the Roman Catholic Church. However an appeal was made to the Pope, and the Pope decided that after doing appropriate 'penance' you could use butter and milk!  Thank you Ayako...nom nom nom. My first Stollen was made, the remainder of which was soon sitting wrapped in foil in a cool place. Trying (seriously am) to leave it 2-3 weeks in hibernation. Am trying to feed it to my blog meanwhile...  With temptation as strong as this, I'm back with news that it now slices beautifully. Yes, I have not been able to resist temptation & was back pulling the foil of this morning. Sliced some for the kids 'tiffin'/snack for school, and have to say it still tastes divine. Cake like, rich & yet not heavy. You must make some...still a month to go for Christmas! Christmas Stollen (Dresden Stollen)The recipe is from 'Backen macht Freude' (Dr Oetker) Ingredients: 500g AP flour 2tsp baking powder 1tsp baking soda 200g Sugar 1 sachet vanilla sugar 4 drops sweet almond extract (Use bitter if you can get some, or bitter almond oil, the edible kind - don't put arsenic in your Stollen!) 1tbsp Rum 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 2 eggs 175g butter 250g "Quark" (I make my own. Link here) 100g dried currants 100g raisins 100g dried craisins 50gm candied ginger/orange peel Zest of 1 orange 150g ground almonds  For the 'icing':50g butter 50g powdered sugar  Method:Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, almond meal, cardamom & nutmeg in your processor & give it a whiz. Add chilled grated butter & process till you have breadcrumbs. In a bowl whisk together quark, eggs, almond extract, rum (if using). Add wet ingredients to flour mix and stir together until all the dry ingredients are moistened, and start to come together into a ball of dough, sticky but workable. Knead on a well-floured work surface, adding just enough extra flour until it forms a nice, soft, smooth but not sticky dough. Preheat the oven to 250°C. Bake it for 45 minutes at 180°C and then for another 15 minutes at 160°C.  The 'icing':As soon as the Stollen is done brush melted butter onto the hot stollen and dust it with the powdered sugar.  ? Thank you for stopping by ? I have to add that I used golden raisins in my Stollen that Madhuli mailed to me very recently. She sent me a beautifully wrapped gift & I was so touched. Each bit packed with love, a separate card on each, handwritten notes & even a recipe of her grandmothers with a masala mix her aunt made.  My Stollen also happily used parchment paper that Avanika large heartedly mailed to me from Mumbai when she heard we don't get it here. Thank you, you wonderful foodies, my Stollen was sweeter because of you!  Some more happy little bits I'd like to share... I am honoured to be included in the list of nominees for 'Best Indian Food Blogs' here.
Also would like to thank EC for featuring me in the Sunday Super Blogger series here. Posted by Deeba
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