Stollen-An Egg less Tea Time Bread

Stollen is a bread like fruit cake baked with yeast, flour and dried fruits and nuts in it. This is a wonderful Tea time snack and a great breakfast treat which is quite easy to make. It stays good for many days and is extremely flavorful with loads of citrus zests, candid peels and spices in it.

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.

Since I bake without eggs, I replaced it with yogurt and the result was extremely satisfying. I further added wholewheat flour to give a healthy twist to my Stollen, and did get good honey comb texture. This recipe is surely for keeps.

The other changes I made were replacing sugar with honey, butter with vegetable oil and sprinkled cinnamon powder while rolling, to make the flavorful wreath.

Ingredients;

(makes a large wreath to serve 4)

2 cups of All purpose flour
1/2 cup of wholewheat flour
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 1/4 tsp.Dry instant yeast
3 tbsp. of warm water
1/2 cup of fresh Yogurt
Juice of half orange
A pinch of salt
1 tsp. of Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp. of Cinnamon Powder
2 tsp. of sugar

Fruit & Nuts mix;

1/4 cup of Black Raisins
1/4 cup of green Raisins
4-5 Glace cherries
20 Almonds
2 tbsp of shelled Walnuts
Zest of half Orange
Zest of one Lemon

For Dusting

Icing sugar
Butter

Method: Dissolve the dry yeast in warm water and leave it to froth for 10 minutes. Take a large mixing bowl and add both the flours, slat, sugar and the zest in it. Mix it thoroughly.  Add the yogurt, oil and the orange juice in the above mix and rub it lightly.

Make a well in the rubbed in mixture and pour the yeast into it. Mix it into a dough using oil to grease your hands. The dough will be a bit sticky at this moment. Add all the fruit and nut mix in the dough and knead it again.

Spread dry flour on a flat surface a knead the dough using more flour to make an elastic ball from it.

Oil another large vessel and put this dough into it. Cover it with a cellophane sheet and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. The dough can be kept for a week in the fridge and baked it later.

Rolling the dough: Take out the dough from the fridge the next day and keep it in warm place for 2 hours before rolling it. Take the dough and punch it lightly for a few minutes. Sprinkle dry flour on a flat surface and roll out the dough into a rectangle shape using a rolling pin.

Sprinkle cinnamon powder and 2 tsp. of sugar over the rolled out dough. Start folding the flat dough into a cylindrical shape log. Join both the ends together and make a big circle and shape it in a wreath.

Make half cuts on the outer side of the roll using a kitchen scissors to make it look like a wreath. Place the wreath on a greased flat baking tray, cover it with a plastic sheet and keep it for proofing for about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven for 10 minutes and bake the wreath for 25-30 minutes at 180°C or more till the bottom sounds hollow wen tapped lightly.

Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and sprinkle powder sugar over it. Stollen stays good for about 2 weeks and can be frozen for 3 months in refrigerator.

Notes;

Makes a good Tea time snack, and to pack in kids snack box to school.
Adds up to a great breakfast with hot coffee to go along.
I liked the slight tangy taste of yogurt in it, which I used as a substitute for eggs.
Honey as sugar substitute gave a light golden color to the dough beside the flavors.
And I am happy that I added wholewheat flour too in my Stollen, as it did not make much difference, but gave me an added health benefit.
Stollen is a recipe for keeps. Easy to make, flavorful and a delicious baked goody. Thanks Penny and Daring Bakers for this delicious challenge.

Some other healthy bakes at Lite Bite;