Holiday Baking

making a fresh cuppa Devonshire English Breakfast and looking for my favourite recipe for Stollen. It's almost time to make it, wrap it in cheesecloth sprinkled with Amaretto and pack it away for Christmas.

i stole the outline from SOAR and made modifications based on a 1910 German cookbook i've got, and the things my family likes

GERMAN STOLLEN


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 c Golden Raisins
1/2 c Dark Raisins
1/4 c Currants
1/4 c Amaretto
4 1/2 c Flour, all-purpose
2 Yeast, active dry packages
1 c Milk
1/4 c Butter
1/4 c Sugar
1/2 ts Salt
2 Eggs

1 c Almonds, blanched chopped (we like to toast these
ourselves and use them)


In a medium bowl combine
raisins, currants, and amaretto. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl
combine 1-1/2 cups of the flour and yeast. Heat milk, butter, sugar and
salt over low heat, stirring constantly until warm (120F to 130F). Add to
dry ingredients along with eggs. Beat at low speed of electric mixer for
1/2 minute, scraping sides of bowl. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. Stir in
fruit-rum mixture, almonds and enough of the remaining flour to make a
soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in enough
of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth
and elastic (5 to 6 minutes). Shape into a ball. Place in a greased bowl,
turning once. Cover. Let rise until double (1 hour). Punch dough down.
Divide in half.
Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface roll each half to a 10x8-inch oval. Fold
lengthwise in half so the top half overlaps to within 1/2 inch of the
bottom half. Press folded edge firmly. Place about 4-inches apart on
greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until double (45 minutes).
Bake in a 375F oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.

Sprinkle with amaretto (as if you were going to do some ironing). Wrap
well in cheesecloth or clean teatowels. Sprinkle well with amaretto
again. Wrap in saran. Put the stollen someplace cool for 2 - 6 weeks.

When ready to serve, unwrap, sprinkle lightly with amaretto, and then
liberally with powdered sugar. Slice, serve with good whipped cream
that you've put a whisper of amaretto in.

It's a wonderful light christmas bread. Kind of a cross between fruit
cake and raisin bread. Delicious! I get requests for this every year.

Unfortunately, I learned to cook with my granmother. That means I know how to fix all of her holiday meals... but lack recipes / measurements. Her sweet potato casserole includes brown sugar, butter and concentrated orange juice (a couple of tablespoons per on the OJ for approx 5 - 6 sweet potatoes.)

I really wish I had her cranberry salad recipe. It was the only cranberry salad I liked.

I do have a recipe for her wonderful!!!! bran muffins. I'll dig it out and post shortly. I can't stand bran, but these really are the best muffins anywhere.

Squinney - another site i hang out at just had a whole thread on cranberry relish, cranberry salad etc. - any memories of the other ingredients? i could go poke around and look for you.

Hiya ehbeth!

That stollen sounds great!
It sounds better than the recipe I used last year,..think I will try yours for this Christmas!

Hi squinney!

I have a cranberry salad recipe in my files (somewhere), I'll post it as soon as I find it!!

Hi Pharon,

I think my favorite are sourdough pancakes,..but they do involve a bit of thought ahead of time (starting them the night before).

I also have a great recipe for banana/buttermilk pancakes that are served with torrone butter, and orange spiked maple syrup,....REALLY YUMMY!!

Jerry - it's a great recipe - the main difference from the traditional one is the replacement of the candied citrus by a second type of raisins, and toasting the almonds and well, replacing rum with amaretto (that was my idea - i figured toasted almonds and amaretto were a nice flavour layering effect - and they are). So many people don't like the dark heavy fruit cake bricks but feel the need for some kind of fruit bread ... this works.

If you want some really amazing french toast use this bread and some good eggnog (made with amaretto again). Take away the car keys and let your guests at it!

Hey jerryR
what is the big difference anyway?
I must confess I am an Idiot when It comes to most things American in the food dep.
We are so culturally different it sometimes scares me. Where the hell have I been for the last 20 years.
To me I know there are different recipe's but types?
Fill me in won't you??

Hi Pharon,

I hope you're talking about the pancakes!

There are different types, or I guess you could call it recipes,...depends on how you look at it. They're both right!

For example, the differences between sourdough pancakes and buttermilk pancakes are minor ingredients,... but they do use different leavening agents..
Sourdough pancakes (like sourdough bread) use a starter, which is naturally cultivated yeast mixture (basically, you make a paste from flour and water, let it sit for days, and it collects yeast from the air around it, eventually becoming suitable for raising bread doughs or in this case pancakes).
The buttermilk recipe I posted uses a mixture of baking powder and baking soda to leaven the pancakes.

It's the same as the difference between quick breads (like date-nut or banana bread) which you can bake as soon as you mix the batter, and yeast breads which you must allow to rise a few times to develope flavor and texture.

Jeez, I hope you were asking about this, cause if not, I just bored myself to death typing about leavening!

Hope this helps

This is a recipe I tried today for the first time, and it is awesome! It is called:

REVISED, HEALTHIER SPICY PUMPKIN CAKE

1 (18.5 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup applesauce

1 cup egg substitute

1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9 by 13 inch or funnel pan with nonfat cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger. Make a well in the center and pour in pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, applesauce and egg substitute.

Beat on low speed about 2 minutes, scraping side of bowl. Beat another minute on medium speed.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Yummy!

Sounds Great!!

I think it's funny, that I really don't like pumpkin as a vegetable,...but put some butter and sugar with it, and it's delicious!!

Guess that kind of goes for anything, really, doesn't it?

Right on JerryR!

I didn't think it would turn out as well as it did, but it's moist and tasty, and I'm going to try it with ice cream on top! Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

JerryR, please, please, let us have your recipes for pancakes and torrone butter. Yummm.

Beth and JerryR, cranberry salad recipes please.

Ooops, I just read the split pancake thread. LOL

Jerry
I don't know if Pharon was looking for your answer on pancakes, etc., but I sure appreciated it!
Just don't let that Beth bore us with bagels!

i saw that, margo. I'll try not to bore you.

For all those people who live in countries where they use gas to cook, PLEASE help me wit hthe cooking times as I have never until now had to cook on gas except for camping, So 350 degrees for 50 min might not be right for and don't even know how to convert it.

Thanx

Douglas, I've cooked with gas and electric ovens. I haven't really noted a need to change cooking/baking times. The only major difference was that the pre-heating times were much shorter.

Hi All!!

I've been putting together a bunch of recipes that I will try to post here on Friday. Hellish week at work, been there late every night,..
feeding the rich can take its toll on ya!!

Hi margo!

Hi Douglas!

It's nice to meet you both!!

Douglas- They say that electric ovens are better to bake with, but I have always had gas stoves, and have never noticed that signifigant of a difference. As far as temperature settings, they should remain the same,..unless you have a convection oven (talk to me if you do).