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. The recipe is here http://thedaringkitchen.com/sites/default/files/u11/50_Stollen_-_DB_Dec__2010.pdf
I followed the recipe and made a large as well as several small stollens. However, instead of following the yeast rising schedule, I used the method I learned from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in which you just mix the dough without kneading and let it rest in the fridge (I use the fruit cellar in the winter – it works perfectly). In the book they say you can leave the dough for as long as a week, and I have done this and the bread is great. In the book they have a recipe for brioche that is a similar dough recipe to the stollen, so I just used the long rest method and let the dough sit for three days before I had time to make the actual stollen. The advantage of this method is that by letting the dough rest in a cool place you get essentially a sour dough development, with resulting more complex flavour.
There are various methods on this cool rise technique, but I highly recommend this book. I use this method for all yeast doughs now. They also have a new book with healthier recipes including gluten free.
My kids were here for the holidays, and the stollen little buns were eaten quickly. Today with the kids gone and a quiet house, I tried another use for this cake – I cut it up into chunks and put caramel sauce over it with left over whip cream. Mmmmmmmm, sort of like a Christmas version of Baba au Rhum! Try it.
Thanks to Penny for this challenge, it made a great treat for the holidays.
