So, Stollen is a well-known german seasonal treat...an enriched bread with dried fruit and marzipan. in my continued experiments with the Gifflar (which is Swedish for Croissant) I thought I could do a nice number in a gifflar flavoured as a stollen, only then I started hitting all sorts of language issues...sould I use German, Swedish or french (or maybe even English??)
I settled on German, and so "Steigand" is German for the French of "Croissant" (or so Google reliably informs me). What you actually have is an enriched dough, a marzipan core, and some dried fruit rolled in. These went down very well in the office...seasonal enough for Christmas, and most people actually know what a Stollen is! I used a simpler dough recipe for these than the full-on Gifflar, the end result is the same. I didn't take many photos while making these, as I was also making the Gingerbread Village Cake, which was more of a space-priority!
Stollen Steigand Recipe - Makes 24
Dough Ingredients
- 500g strong white flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 10g salt
- 150ml milk
- 10g fast action yeast
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- 50g room temperature butter
- 20-50ml warm water
2) Stir the yeast into the milk with a fork, and leave for 10 minutes until it's got a layer of bubbles on top
3) Place the flour, sugar and salt in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment
4) Mix the eggs into the developed yeast mixture
5) Pour the yeast mixture into the flour, and begin to mix
6) When the dough forms, if it looks a little dry add the water sparingly until it softens the dough
7) Add the butter to the dough in parts, allowing each chunk to combine into the dough
8) Mix the dough for 8-10 minutes on a medium speed, until the dough starts to clean the sides of a bowl.
9) Transfer to an oiled bowl, and leave to prove until tripled in size. While it is proving, make the fillings
Filling Ingredients
- ~250g mixed dried fruit
- ~500ml hot (just boiled) water
- ~100ml orange juice
- 200g ground almonds
- 200g icing sugar
- 1 egg white
- ½tsp almond extract
2) Pour the orange juice and hot water over the fruit, and leave to soak (this can be done before you start)
3) Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a stand mixer bowl with the dough hook attachment
4) Add the egg white and extract, and mix on a medium speed. Eventually a stiff paste will form (marzipan).
5) Wrap the marzipan in clingfim and chill in the fridge
Assembly
- 50g melted butter
- 2 egg yolks
- Splash of milk
1) Drain the mixed fruit, and place in a bowl2) Take the proved dough and knock back
3) Split into equal thirds (approx 300g each)
4) Roll each part out on a floured surface into a circle roughly 30cm in diameter
5) Brush the circle with melted butte
6) Cut the circle into 8 "pizza slices"
7) Take a piece of marzipan (~15g) and hand roll into a sausage slightly shorter than the "crust" of a pizza slice
8) Spread a generous teaspoon full of the mixed fruit over the rest of teh slice, staying away from the edge and the point
9) Roll the slice up from the crust edge to the tip
10) Place on a baking sheet. repeat for all the dough
11) Leave to prove for ~1 hour
12) Pre-heat the oven to 160'C
13) Mix the egg yolks and a splash of milk in a small bowl
14) Brush each stollen with the egg yolk mixture
15) Bake for 20-25 minutes. the egg yolk means they will brown quickly, so if your oven has a hotspot you may want to turn them.
16) Remove to a wire rack to cool