Stollen shenanigans (Advent baking 3)

Operation Cook And Eat All The Christmas Baking is still a-go. The big deal this week was Stollen, but there have also been the first batch of mince pies (I haven't started the quincemeat yet though -- reports on that to follow), and (as promised, but earlier than expected) a piernik. Let's start with the toughest (literally and metaphorically): Stollen

STOLLEN

I haven't had a Stollen in years. Once upon a time I wasn't noticeably allergic to almonds, and would eat English shop-bought Stollen without trouble. And then I was became allergic to them and that all stopped. But German Stollen don't necessarily actually have the marzipan filling, so this year I finally went on a recipe hunt.

I say 'hunt': I googled 'Stollen Rezept' and chose pretty much the first result: Granny's best Stollen recipe. 

Now, it does include ground almonds, but I've just ignored those. Essentially it's a rich yeasted dough with soaked fruits, heavily dressed in butter and icing sugar once cooked. Sounds straightforward? 

Well, yeeees. And no. I didn't want to make the full 850g of flour*'s worth, so I decided to halve the ingredients. On the fly. All went well until I didn't halve the sugar. Ach well. It's Christmas, right? Sweet things are in vogue. 

And then I took leave of my senses: I do enough yeast baking to know what works for me, namely warming the oven gently and leaving things to prove in there for a good long time. But the recipe said 'leave for 30 minutes' and reader, that's what I did. Regardless of the milk I added not being very warm. Regardless of the kitchen not being very warm.

The poor thing did rise a bit during baking, but once cool the following morning resembled nothing so much as a sugary house brick. Nevertheless, I've wrapped it up tightly and will leave it for the recommended week or two. Maybe it will be a nice surprise. If not, we've resolved to turn it into stale cake things: bread-and-butter pudding, trifle, cheese crackers, etc.

At least it looks OK.

The horrible thing was so saddening that I had another go, with better rising done in my usual fashion. The wrapped package isn't that much softer and lighter feeling, but who knows. That's enough trying for now!

My Dad also tried the recipe. He turned half into buns, eaten fresh and from the freezer and proclaimed 'a very nice eat'. He left his whole Stollen a week, proclaimed it 'err very dense' when eaten cold immediately after removal from its Cold Place, and 'quite nice but rather dense' when toasted. Hmm. I'll let you all know my results.

MINCE PIES

Self-explanatory, really. Home-made pastry* of 8oz flour and 4oz block Stork (my nan used to use half-and-half butter and lard, which makes a lovely pastry but is a bit, well lardy) to make 12 deepish pies.

PIERNIK

Piernik is a Polish honey gingerbread, often served filled with plum jam and topped with chocolate. The overall taste is a bit like Lebkuchen in cake form, but with a a cakier texture. 

My recipe is copied from my mum, who copied it from her cousin. That's what you call heritage. You warm oil, honey (or syrup) and dark sugar together, stir it into flour and spices and egg yolks, and then fold in whisked egg whites.

But mum has said in the past that the cousin in question 'surely never bothers to whisk egg whites' and I was in a hurry this weekend and so neither did I. Even without that extra lift the cake --having risen a lot-- sank quite dramatically after I opened the oven (I know, but I couldn't see the top of it at all with the door closed and I was genuinely wondering if it was done), and I think that the extra tsp of baking powder on top of self-raising flour is probably also contributing to an over-aggressive reach for the stars and consequent fragility. Next time I shall leave that out and see what happens.

It was still very tasty: the spice mix is very clove-forward, which seems a mistake in its raw form, but works very well with the sugar flavours. I sandwiched it with the end of the mirabelle plum jam, and made a speedy chocolate ganache (heat a lump of chocolate and a splosh of cream in the microwave, stir, apply) for the top.

*A note on flour: I caved to pandemic panic and bought a huge sack of plain flour from Shipton Mill, and boy is it good. It appears that good quality flour (I've only ever used supermarket own brand before) really does make a difference, especially with pastry.