December 25th
2005
I grew up in a family of raisin lovers: milk chocolate with hazelnuts and raisins, pilaf, apple-strudel, Milirahmstrudel, apple crumble with raisins, raisins covered in chocolate, various cakes, Christmas Stollen, cookies and many more - I had a pretty hard time avoiding those little vulgarities. But I learned to deal with it, my way that is: Either I sweet-talked my dear grandma to make an additional - sans raisins - version of the dish (yes, she was a heart of a grandma) or I started the dissection of the dish, picking out the tiniest little raisin - receiving disapproving looks. And to top things off, Oliver looooves them. He could probably survive on just a handful of nuts and raisins...GREAT!
Growing older and getting tired of hunting down each and every raisin (in a dish I wanted to try for all the other reasons), I tried hard to getting used to them - or even like them? No such thing. Zero progress, nada. Not even the slightest improvement. What's the reasoning behind my raisin-dislike, is it the texture, their taste, or both? As I do like dried fruit in general (prunes, apricots, cranberries), it can't be their looks or haptic. And why should their taste bother me? I enjoy sweet and fresh grapes whenever I can, and the same with wine. Since I can't figure it out on my own, I feel I need to get with "Unresolved Mysteries"...
In the end I still do what I've done over the years: Removing the tiniest bit of a raisin, choosing a raisin-less version of a dish or avoiding it altogether. Concerning our Christmas Stollen: Option #2 was the way to go. Sacrilege you think? Salvation, I say!
Stollen is a traditional German Christmas cake - show me one family not having one during Christmas season and I start eating raisins. Well maybe not, but "Dresdner Christstollen" is said to be the most famous and oldest stollen, with lots of raisins, currants (dried equally bad), orange peel and candied lemon (even worse than raisins). So this particular one never really was an option. But there are several other variations, much better suited for a picky stollen-eater like me: Mohnstollen (poppy seed), Nußstollen (nuts), Mandelstollen (almonds, marzipan), Quarkstollen (curd cheese). Having tried several recipes over the past years, I haven't found one I wanted to stick with. But this year I was lucky. Very lucky. In fact, as I'm writing this, the third batch of Quarkstollen is giving our kitchen a wonderful aura. The recipe is absolutely fool-proof, the preparation time (minus dough rising and baking) is less than 15 minutes, but the outcome is indescribably yummy! As it doesn't contain typical Christmas spices, which one could add of course, this will be a regular cake/sweet bread on our table throughout the year. Perfect for lazy Sundays with a cup of tea, prepared just a day before. Which leads me to the next benefit: This stollen doesn't need to sit and rest for some days until you’re allowed to cut off the first slice. I even tried it lukewarm from the oven and had Oliver pull me away from it...it was so good.
Merry X-mas and happy holidays to all of you!
In a medium sized bowl, dissolve yeast with 4 tbsp of lukewarm milk and 1 tsp sugar; let the mixture rest for about 15-20 minutes. The original recipe suggests a cup for this step - which taught me, that yeast doughs can not only rise but literally walk away... A cup is definitely too small for this pre-dough!
In a large bowl, add the flour, remaining sugar, dig a hole in the middle and pour the yeast pre-dough into its center. Add the remaining milk and place the butter in small pieces along the edge, then add the curd, lemon zest and a pinch of salt.
Knead very well, feel free to use a food processor/KitchenAid of your choice. If you feel the dough is too "soft/wet" add more flour by the spoon. When the dough has begun to pull together, cover it up and let rise for about 60 minutes at a cozy, warm place.
Meanwhile chop the dried apricots into small cubes - my substitute for the soaked raisins the original recipe calls for. It worked like a charm, giving the stollen some color and a wonderful flavour. Punch dough down, return to floured work surface and add and knead in the apricot bits. Continue kneading until smooth. Preheat oven to 175°C (347°F).
Roll or flatten dough into a rectangle about 4cm thick (1,5 inch), pinching the ends to almost close and put on baking sheet.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until loaf turns golden brown. Just after removing it from the oven, brush top generously with melted butter. Once cooled off, dust amply with confectioner's sugar and wrap closely in cling film.
Tip: When ready to serve, dust with another sprinkling of confectioner's sugar. Best eaten the next day.
Quarkstollen ("curd stollen")
Recipe source: Backen für Weihnachten by Regine Stroner (p.85, adapted)
Required time: prep.: ~15 min., waiting: ~80 min., baking: ~50 min.
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Ingredients (yield: 1 loaf):
dough
40g fresh yeast
1/8l lukewarm milk
125g sugar
500g flour
150g butter
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
150g curd (Quark, 20% fat)
100g dried apricots, diced
coating
50g melted butter
confectioner's sugar
That stollen is absolutely gorgeous. And wonderful timing, as my, um, "fruit," for my very first attempt at stollen is soaking in rum even as I type this. I actually thought of using apricots--next time I think! I am definitely inspired after reading your (very amusing) post and seeing these delicious photos.
Thanks for having such a wonderful site. And thank you for helping to make Farmgirl Fare one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. Wishing you both a very very Merry Christmas!
Hi Nicky and Oliver,
Thanks for sharing the recipe for stollen. It looks absolutely delicious!
I hope the two of you have a Delicious Holiday Season!
Joyeux Noël et Bonnes Fêtes de fin d'Année ! Nawal.
Ps : I agree with David, seeing that I think too, that : "Everything on your site looks very Delicious !"
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !
oh, i was just about to look for a recipe for stollen, as i had a slice from a lovely (japanese-made) one last night. now i don't have to look any further.
happy holidays to you two--may your day not only be delicious, but filled with good cheer!
[...] h jedesmal aufs neue sehr delicious ist Deliciousdays.com, mein lieblings Koch Blog, heute Stollen. Nun habe ich aber erstmal genug qualitativ hochw [...]
That stollen looks great even without the raisins. :) Your photos are always so appetizing too!! Happy Holidays to you!!
Beautiful stollen, which I'm sure is only made better by the presence of apricots. Merry Christmas!
Als Kind habe ich auch überall die Rosinen rausgepickt. Inzwischen mag ich sie in pikanten Gerichten und trockenen Kuchen (Rosinenstuten, -brötchen oder Panettone) ganz gerne, verabscheue sie aber immer noch in feuchten Kuchen wie Käse- oder Apfelkuchen. Seltsam... ;-)
Euch wünsche ich auch wunderschöne Festtage!
Delicious sounding recipe! Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year 2006! Thanks for an enjoyable blog!
Best,
Paz
Vielen Dank für Eure wunderbaren Rezepte!
Merry Christmas and a happy new year -
eine Rosinen- und Korinten- Liebhaberin ;-))
Just what I need ... another excuse to eat Stollen!!
A very Merry One to you and yours ... and here's to Peace (please!) in the coming year.
Richard
Good to know someone else 'gets it' about the raisins! I spent my childhood picking them out and early adult years trying to come to term with them and now I feel ok about simply avoiding the things! This looks great and I get a chance to cook with quark in the bargin.
Fabulous!
hey nicky
thanks for dropping by my blog.
you got a wonderful blog here... just simply inspiring. the stollen recipe looks amazing, i must try it out.
happy holidays.
I totally agree with you on the rasin issue, can't figure out myself either why I don't like them ;)
A tip on Apricots, the best and healthy ones are the "unsulphered" ones, which are darker-brown in color (not the perfect orange), but it is really good for you...
I love your site...all the best for 2006...elif
I also made a Quarkstollen this year for the first time and it was luscious despite a goofy mistake I'm sure I'll write about at some point. We used dried cranberries in addition to raisins and the various candied citrus peels which made the Stollen look like it was studded with all kinds of jewels. Wonderful to look at and eat. Froehliche Weihnachten!
Hi Nicky and Oliver! Hope you both had a lovely holiday season :) Your stollen looks delicious...just like the rest of your blog :)
Who needs the raisins? This looks gorgeous and sumptuous, as always. My goodness, if I could eat gluten, I'd be trying to eat the photographs off my computer screen!
Have a wonderful New Year, both of you.
Mmmmm, delicious!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy New Year from Argentina.
This stollen looks just fabulous. I'm towards the end of the long process of making glacéed fruits (clementines, oranges, pineapples and kiwis). These little edible jewels will be ready to use in nice concoctions in 2 or 3 days. I intended to make a light fruitcakes with them. Now that I read your recipe, I'll keep some glacéed fruits to add to your version of the traditional stollen, in lieu of dried abricots.
Happy New Year!
so with you on the raisin problem down to every other member of the family loving them.
what is it about foodbloggers and raisins?
we should start a gang.
the other day I was snowboardng with my friend and for a quick lunch she went to get us a power/health bar. I asked for anything no raisins. Unfortunately even the ones that looked like they wouldnt contain the little blighters actually did.
I felt really stupid, as an adult, handing the bar back to my friend who had so kindly bought it for me, and admitting "I am sorry, I will have to snowboard hungry, I just can't do it, I just can't eat it because it has raisins inside"
My mom always puts candied fruit in our stollen and I can't stand it... I always leave the pieces in a pile on my plate. This year though, we made another stollen after Christmas with dried cranberries, dried apricots, and pecans and it was wonderful.
Like everything on your site, your stollen looks delicious! Happy holidays & thanks for all your beautiful posts throughout the year...