Christmas Stollen

Stollen also known as Christstollen is a traditional Christmas cake like bread that dates back to the 14^th century.  The lumps in the bread represent the camels that the wise men road to welcome Jesus Christ into the world.  The sweet dried fruits represent the gifts and jewels given to the Christ child. Stollen recipes include dried or candied fruits, nuts, spices, and either powdered sugar or a light icing on top.

Originally when stolen was first made, bakers were banned from using butter or milk in their recipes during advent season. Early stolen recipes were eaten during a time of fasting so they were much more plain and made of flour, oats, yeast and oil. In the 15^th century Prince Ernst of Saxony Germany and his brother wrote their famous “butter letter” to the pope urging that he allow them to use butter in their stolen.  Shortly after, the Prince was allowed to, but others had to pay a fee to the church for this allowance. Eventually the ban was removed and all kinds of things like butter, milk, dried fruits and nuts, and marzipan were used.

In 1560 a German tradition was born. A stolen weighing around 30 pounds was made special for the king during his holiday feast. In present day it’s called Stollenfest (of course) and the large stollen gets paraded through the town of Dresden Germany.  Townspeople slice off a piece to devour.  In present time, this stolen is said to weigh up to 2 tons. 

So, now onto my stollens……                               

I decided to take one basic recipe and make a few ingredient adjustments.  Keep in mind that you can substitute any fruits, nuts, or citrus.  You also don’t need to fill the center like I did, but it is more exciting that way.  I chose to dust them with powdered sugar, but thin icing made from butter, milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar is nice as well.

Marzipan Stollen

2 C Dried Fruit (cranberries, dates, raisins, apricots, figs)

2 T Brandy                    

2 T Orange Juice

3 C Flour

3 T Sugar

Pinch of Salt

¼ t Nutmeg

¼ t Cinnamon

¼ t Ground Anise (or substitute mace)

Zest of 1 Orange

¼ C Milk

1/3 C Warm Water

7 T Melted Butter (2 T is for basting the top)

2 Eggs, Lightly Beaten

1 T Vanilla

Powdered Sugar for Dusting

7 Oz Marzipan

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the larger dried fruits and put all of the fruit into a bowl.  Mix it with the orange juice and brandy.

Mix the yeast and the warm water in a bowl.  Add the milk and 5 T butter.  Stir in the spices, vanilla, zest, flour, sugar and salt.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 1 minute.  Press into about 1 ½ inch piece and put 2/3 of the fruit mix on top.  Knead it into the bread until mixed.  Press it out into a rectangle about 1 cm thick. Work the marzipan into a long cylinder as long as the rectangle minus a cm on each end.  Place it about 1/3 from the top.  Evenly sprinkle the remaining fruit on top of the marzipan. 

Roll the dough over and carefully tuck the ends under.  Set it aside on a parchment lined baking sheet for 2-2 ½ hours, covered.

 

The dough should proof and become much larger.  Brush with butter to coat. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until done.  Brush with remaining butter and heavily dust with powdered sugar.

 

 

  

Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Stollen

1 C Dried Cranberries

½ C Dried Apricots

2 T Brandy                    

2 T Orange Juice

3 C Flour

3 T Sugar

Pinch of Salt

¼ t Nutmeg

¼ t Cinnamon

¼ C Milk

1/3 C Warm Water

7 T Melted Butter (2 T is for basting the top)

2 Eggs, Lightly Beaten

1 T Vanilla

Powdered Sugar for Dusting

½ C Pistachios

1 ½ C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the larger apricots and put it into a bowl along with the cranberries.  Mix it with the orange juice and brandy.

Mix the yeast and the warm water in a bowl.  Add the milk and 5 T butter.  Stir in the spices, vanilla, zest, flour, sugar and salt. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 1 minute.  Press into about 1 ½ inch piece and put 2/3 of the fruit mix on top.  Knead it into the bread until mixed.  Press it out into a rectangle about 1 cm thick. About 1/3 from the top, evenly sprinkle the remaining fruit across it in a long line. Put 1 cup of the chocolate chips and ½ cup of pistachios down the center as well.

Roll the dough over and carefully tuck the ends under.  Set it aside on a parchment lined baking sheet for 2-2 ½ hours, covered.

The dough should proof and become much larger.  Brush with butter to coat. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until done.  Brush with remaining butter and dust with powdered sugar.

 

Chop the remaining pistachios.  Melt the remaining chocolate and drizzle it across the top. Sprinkle the top with pistachios.

 

  

 

 

 

The Bûche de Noël

The Bûche de Noël, also known as Yule Log, is a traditional French pastry that is served during the Christmas holiday season. It’s considered a jelly roll which is made from genoise or sponge cake and is typically filled with buttercream or preserves. It then gets shaped into a log and frosted with chocolate buttercream frosting.  Many times a log pattern is made into it by hand or with a special log pattern tool that you can find in a hardware store.  You can garnish it with meringue or marzipan mushrooms, holly, ribbons, berries, or anything else that reminds you of the French woodland forests. There are many recipe combinations for your Bûche de Noël.  Usually the yellow sponge cake remains the same in all logs.  The frosting should be chocolate for its log-like color, but there are also recipes where you would pour ganache over it or you can make a mocha buttercream.  The filling is an area for you to have fun with.  Traditionally the filling is the same chocolate buttercream that is on the outside, but that’s not very exciting for an inquisitive housewife to make. For mine I made a chocolate mousse and spread raspberry preserves on the inside. Try a layer of preserves like raspberry, orange, or apricot. For the buttercream, try flavoring it with espresso, citrus zest, eggnog, or berries.  You could even brush a little brandy or other liqueur on the cake before rolling it up. 

The name Bûche de Noël means “Christmas Log”.  So why did people in the 19^th century originally decide to make a cake resembling an actual log? Real Yule Logs (that come from trees) are linked to a long lived tradition of burning a log during winter solstice as a symbol of rebirth. Later it was burned to represent the light of the Holy Spirit. This tradition was not only in France, but in many countries like Ireland, Greece, and Scandinavia. The logs were decorated with ribbons, berries, and greens which resembles the Bûche de Noël. The French would burn yule logs on the fire on Christmas Eve. Napoleon Bonaparte issued a proclamation that the people of Paris had to close their chimneys during the winter months to stop the spread of illnesses. Since they couldn’t burn their logs the French had to find another way to celebrate. During this period the Bûche de Noël was born.

                                                                                                      

Bûche de Noël

                                                                                                                                      

Sponge Cake:

4 Eggs

½ C Sugar

1 C Flour

Pinch of Salt

2 T Unsalted Butter, Melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the eggs and sugar for several minutes until it reaches ribbon stage.  This is where it gets whipped up so much that when you move the whisk, a “ribbon” of the egg mix lightly sits on top of it.  Carefully fold in the remaining ingredients except the butter with a spatula. Pour the butter in slowly and fold that in s well.

I lined a large restaurant grade sheet pan with parchment paper.  If you use something of this size I would make this recipe 1 ½ times.  When I made mine it was a little thin and as you’ll see in the pictures it cracked a little.  If you use a 9x13 cake pan, your log will be a little shorter but will have a perfect amount of batter for the above recipe.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until done.

Chocolate Mousse:

16 Oz Heavy Whipping Cream

6 Oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Melted

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. 

Now here’s the tricky part, the chocolate will seize if you don’t do this quickly.  Rather than a smooth mousse, you’ll have whipped cream with chocolate chunks in it.  Take about a third of the whipped cream into a bowl and very quickly mix in about half of the chocolate.  Add the remaining chocolate to that mix.  Then fold it in with the rest of the whipped cream.  Let it chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before using.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
3 ½ C Powdered Sugar (sift if clumpy)
1 C Cocoa Powder
12 T Unsalted Butter
½ C Milk, Room Temp
1 T Vanilla

Mix the butter with a paddle. Add the remaining ingredients.

Assembling the Log

You will also need a 10 oz jar of Raspberry Jam

 

Peel the paper off of your cake to loosen but then make sure that it’s on the bottom of your cake.  Spread out a thin layer of the jam over the entire cake.  Spread out the chocolate mousse about a centimeter thick (recipe may have leftover) making sure to leave about ½ of space at the top of the cake.  This is just in case the mouse starts to squeeze out the top. 

Then roll it from the bottom to the top.  Use your paper to help you roll it up if needed.  Either use this shape as the log, or slice an angled piece off of one end and attach it to the side to make it more "log-like".

Frost your log with the chocolate butter cream.  This recipe with give you plenty of frosting so you will most likely have extra.  Use a toothpick or a fork to create a wood grain pattern.

Decorate it with holly, ribbons, meringue mushrooms or marzipan mushrooms.  I took prepared marzipan and shaped it into different sized mushrooms.  Then I took red dye with a little water and painted the tops of them.  With the others I took cocoa powder with a little water and painted the tops with my finger. 

You could also dip the tops in melted chocolate.  If you want to cheat, at Christmas time many stores carry already prepared marzipan characters and mushrooms that you could use. 

Have a Cool Yule!