Paulchens FoodBlog?!

It’s December and we all are busy preparing for Christmas, Hannukah or however you call this high feast at the end of the year in your country or culture area.

Me and my fellow Babes are busy this time of the year too bzt we would not ne THE BBBabes if we didn’t provide you with a bread this month, no?

December it was Susan who invited us to her Kitchen and she made us bake Stollen.

Yes – my dear readers – you read right, the Babes baked Stollen. What could be more appropriate for this time of the year?

She said on our Babe Blog when she announced the recipe to bake:

I’m doubly excited to be hosting for December because, although I didn’t know this at the time I signed up, our posting day will be my wedding day! (Since my wedding dress is black, I guess I’ll have to wear a pretty good apron to keep all the flour from showing up. By my estimate, I’ll be pulling the Stollen out of the oven right about the time we need to head up to San Francisco City Hall, with our kids in tow, for the simple ceremony.)

That’s right, Stollen it is. This is one of my favorite holiday breads, and quite easy to make. (I though about Panettone, but that would have just been evil.) It is a traditional bread from Dresden, Germany, and the shape is supposed to resemble the swaddled child in the manger. You kind of have to use your imagination to see this.

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So first of all and before we proceed with our regular BBB posting we have to say:

Dear Susan,

The Happiest of Wedding Days to you! I truly wish me and all the other Babes could be there in person on your special day, but be sure we are with our minds and hearts right beside you!

Wishing you a rainbow, for sunlight after showers
Miles and miles of smiles, for golden happy hours
Shamrocks at your doorway, for luck and laughter too
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!

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Stollen

Adapted from San Francisco Baking Institute

Yield: 1500 grams (3 loaves, more or less)

Time:
Candy and dry citrus peel: 12 hours or more (can be done ahead)
Soak the fruits: 12 hours
Mix and ferment sponge: 12 hours (can be simultaneous with fruit-soaking)
Mix dough: 20 – 30 minutes
First fermentation : 30 minutes
Preshape, rest, and shape: 30 minutes
Proof: 90 minutes
Bake: 30 minutes

Sponge Ingredients:
120 grams flour
80 grams water
0.1 gram (small pinch) instant yeast [or 0.13 g active dry, or 0.25 g fresh]

Soaked Fruit Ingredients:
130 grams raisins dried cranberries
75 grams dried cherries (or more raisins)
61 grams candied orange peel
92 grams candied lemon peel
since I do not like candied citrus peel I used about 160 grams of dried apricots, apples, pears and prunes
82 grams slivered almonds
34 grams rum

Final Dough Ingredients:
348 g flour
53 g milk
25.3 grams (2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) instant yeast [or 18.6 g osmotolerant, or 31.6 g active dry, or 63.3 g fresh]
8 g (1-1/3 t.) salt
8 g (2-1/3 t.) diastatic malt powder (omit if you don’t have it)
51 g sugar
50 g egg (about one large egg)
5 g grated lemon zest (one average lemon)
5 g grated orange zest (one small orange)
1/3 t. of each of these ground spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice, nutmeg
273 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (should be pliable)
all of the sponge
all of the soaked fruits

Finishing Ingredients:
clarified butter
fine granulated sugar
powdered (confectioner’s) sugar

Method:

1. Toss the soaker fruits with the rum in a medium bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature for about 12 hours. Meanwhile, combine the sponge ingredients in another medium bowl. Cover and ferment at room temperature for 12 hours.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine all of the final dough ingredients except the soaker. Mix in slow speed until all the ingredients are incorporated.
3. Continue mixing in medium speed until the gluten reaches full development. The dough should come together around the hook and should no longer stick to the sides and bottom of the bowl. This could take about 20 minutes or more, but will depend on your mixer.
4. Add the soaked fruits and mix on slow speed just until they are evenly distributed through the dough.
5. Transfer the dough to a lightly buttered container. Cover and ferment for 30 minutes at room temperature.
6. Turn the dough onto the counter. Divide into three pieces, or however many you would like. Preshape the dough into balls and let them rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
7. To shape each loaf:
   Form a blunt-ended batard and dust it lightly with flour. With a thin rolling pin, press down firmly, separating about 2/5 of the dough from the other 3.5. Roll out the flap of dough connecting the sections so it is about 2 inches wide. Flatten the larger section slightly with your hand, then fold the smaller section over to rest on the larger one.
8. Place the loaves on parchment-lined baking sheets (two per sheet) and slip them into a large plastic bag with a bowl of warm water. Proof for about 90 minutes, replenishing the water when it cools.
9. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 on convection setting or 400 on regular bake setting. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.
10. Bake for 10 minutes, open the oven door briefly to allow any remaining steam to escape, and bake for another 20 minutes. If you do not have convection, you may need to rotate the position of the baking sheets halfway through the bake to ensure even browning and keep the one on the lower rack from burning on the bottom.
11. While the loaves are still warm, brush them with clarified butter. Dredge them in fine granulated sugar, brushing or shaking off the excess.
12. To finish, sift powdered sugar over the loaves.
13. Cut when completely cool. You can leave the stollen out overnight to let the loaves dry and the sugar crust up a bit.

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Yeastspotted!

I send this over to Susan’s Yeastspotting.
YeastSpotting is a weekly showcase of yeasted baked goods and dishes with bread as a main ingredient. If you are not familiar with YeastSpotting just scroll the archive and you’ll know what I am talking about. To submit your post simply klick here!

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You sure want to bake this bread as well, don’t you?

Please do so, you will not regret it. If you snap some pics and share your thoughts about this month’s bread on your blog Tanna will be more than happy to add you to the BBB Buddy round up on November 29th.  If you do not own a blog, no worries, you can also post your picture to Flickr or any other photo sharing site and share your thoughts there.

One word about that whole Buddy thing: 
The Bread Baking Babes are a closed group but we thought it would be fun to reward people who take the effort of baking our breads with us and give them a nice Buddy Badge and mention in a round up post every month. Just to say thank you for baking along and sharing your thoughts with us.

Since we are Babes and do no obey to rules, there are nearly no rules for Buddies, except these two:

1. Bake the featured bread, snap a pic & share your thoughts about how you liked it (or not liked it)
2. Send an email to the Kitchen of the Month to notify  us and make it easier to write the round up.

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Don’t forget to visit my fellow Babes and see what they did with this lovely Bread this month.

Oh and don’t forget to visit Katie our BBBBB (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire) who writes up such lovely round ups of all the BBB Breads every month!

Bake My Day – Karen | blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth  | Feeding my enthusiasms – Pat  | Living in the Kitchen with Puppies – Natashya | Lucullian Delights – Ilva | Notitie Van Lien – Lien | Wild Yeast – Susan | My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna

Busy, Busy Babes on Hiatus: Canela and Comino – Gretchen | Grain Doe – Görel | Living on bread and water – Monique  | The Sour Dough – Breadchick Mary | Thyme For Cooking – Katie | Cookie Baker Lynn – Lynn | I Like To Cook – Sara

Thinking of you with Love: Glenna (Alumni Babe) | Sher (Angel Babe)

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