Paul Hollywood Stollen Food

BEST AUTHENTIC STOLLEN (GERMAN CHRISTMAS BREAD)

Steps:

• Place the raisins, candied citrus peel and almonds in a medium bowl and pour the rum over it. Stir to combine. Set aside and let the fruit mixture soak in the rum while the dough rises.
• Stir the yeast and 2 tablespoons of the sugar into the lukewarm milk and let sit in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until very frothy.
• Place the flour, remaining sugar, egg, egg yolks, butter, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt, cardamom, mace and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast/milk mixture. Use a spoon to stir the mixture until it comes together. Knead the dough on the bread setting for 7-8 minutes. Remove the dough ball, lightly spray the bowl with a little oil, return the dough ball, cover loosely with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place or lightly warmed oven (just barely warm), to rise until nearly doubled in size, at least 1 hour (likely closer to 2 hours depending on the temperature of the environment).
• Punch down the dough and add the soaked fruit/nut mixture to the dough (it should have absorbed all the rum by now but if there is excess liquid, pour it out before adding the mixture to the dough). Using the dough hook, knead the fruit/nut mixture into the dough until combined. If the dough is too wet to handle, add a little bit of flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and cut it in two equal halves. Press or roll each piece into an oval to about 1 inch thickness. Roll each piece of marzipan into a log the length of the oval. Press the marzipan gently into the middle of the dough. Fold the left side of the dough over to cover the marzipan, then fold right side over on top of the left side so that the edge of it sits just left of the middle of the stollen (see pics). In other words, don't fold the right side all the way over to the left edge of the stollen. Pinch and tuck the top and bottom ends of the stollen to cover the marzipan. Use the bottom edge of your hand to press down along the length of the stollen towards the right of the center to create a divot and characteristic hump (see pics). Place the stollen on a lined baking sheet. Cover the stollen loosely with plastic wrap and let them rest in a warm place or lightly warmed oven for 40-60 minutes until puffy. At that point you can pick off any raisins that are sticking out of the dough (they will burn during baking).
• Towards the end of the last rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the stollen for 30-40 minutes or until golden. You can use an instant read thermometer to aim for an internal temperature of 190 degrees F. Let the Stollen sit for 5 minutes, then use a toothpick to poke holes all over the stollen (this will allow the butter to seep in), then generously brush the stollen with the melted butter while the stollen are still warm. Immediately sprinkle with a generous amount of powdered sugar, rubbing it into the creases and down the sides. Let the stollen cool completely. You may want to give it another dusting of powdered sugar once cooled.
• The stollen can be sliced and eaten now or wrapped tightly (wrap in plastic wrap then foil) and left to "ripen" in a cool place for 2 weeks. The liquid from the dried fruits will further penetrate the dough for more flavor and moisture. Stollen can also be frozen for longer storage.
• Makes 2 large or 3 medium Stollen.For eating, I like to warm the slices up for a few seconds in the microwave, it makes the crumb nice and soft.

PAUL HOLLYWOOD'S STOLLEN

Steps:

• Put the flour and sugar in a large bowl. Add the yeast on one side of the bowl and the salt on the other. Add the softened butter and 200ml of the milk and stir together. Add the remaining milk and knead well on a generously floured surface for 6-7 minutes, until smooth and pliable.
• Mix together the nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and almond extracts, almonds, dried fruit and mixed peel in a bowl. Add the dough on top and knead from the outside into the centre. When everything has been fully incorporated, return to the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1-1½ hours in a warm place, until doubled in size.
• Flatten the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle about 45cm x 35cm. Brush with the melted butter. Roll out the marzipan to about 25cm x 15cm and place on top of the dough. Roll the dough up to enclose the marzipan and transfer to a lined baking sheet. Cover and leave to rise for 45 minutes-1 hour, until risen and doubled in size.
• Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/Gas 5 and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, brush with melted butter, and dust with icing sugar. Serve cold.

SLIGHTLY ALTERED PAUL HOLLYWOODS CHRISTMAS STOLLEN

Steps:

• Place all your dried fruit, candied peel and chopped almonds in a bowl and pour over the alcohol or orange juice and give everything a good stir and place to one side.
• Place the flours and sugar into a large bowl. Add the yeast on one side of the bowl and the salt on the other. Add in the softened butter and the milk and stir together.
• Knead the dough until it is smooth and stretchy. This should take 6-7 minutes if you are using a stand mixer and about 10 minutes if doing it by hand. It was at this stage that I needed to add extra flour not in the original recipe. If you too find you need to add extra flour add it in at 1 tablespoon at a time.
• Mix the spices into the soaking fruit, along with the almond and vanilla extracts.
• Carefully knead the fruit into the dough by hand until it is evenly dispersed throughout the dough.
• Lightly grease a large bowl with a touch of oil and cover the bowl with cling film (plastic wrap) and leave to rise for 1-2 hours in a warm place, or until doubled in size.
• Split the dough into 2 and flatten each piece of dough and roll out on a lightly floured work surface into a rectangle.
• Split the marzipan into 2 and roll it out in a sausage shape, the length of the dough. Roll the dough up to enclose the marzipan and transfer to a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cover and leave to rise for about an hour, or until risen and doubled in size.
• Preheat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Once hot and your loafs have risen bake in the lower third of your oven for 35-40 minutes. If you feel it needs a little more time but is golden enough then cover with tin foil and bake for a further 5-10 minutes.
• Once baked through remove your stollen's to a wire rack. While still warm brush your stollen's with the melted butter and dust with the icing sugar. Leave to fully cool down.
• These stollen's freeze really well, just make sure to wrap up really well and eat within 2 months. Kept in an airtight tin this stollen is best consumed within 5 days.

STOLLEN

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, mace, nutmeg, and yeast. Stir in warm milk, 1 1/4 cups melted butter and 1/2 cup warm water. Add eggs and stir to combine. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until fairly smooth.
• Add the dried fruits, candied fruits, almonds, and lemon zest to the dough and continue kneading on a floured board for about 10 minutes. If dough is sticky, knead in more flour.
• Place dough in buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
• Roll each portion of marzipan into a 12-inch log. Punch down dough and cut into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 12-by-8-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter to coat, place marzipan log in center of dough and fold one long side to the center then fold the other long side over first side, overlapping it by 1 inch.
• Turn loaves over, taper the ends, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets. Cover loaves with plastic wrap and let rise again in a warm place, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake stollen until golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush all over with room temperature butter and sprinkle with superfine sugar to cover. Let cool completely before serving.

APRICOT & MARZIPAN TWIST

Steps:

• The night before, put apricots and orange juice in a bowl and set aside.
• To make the dough, put flour, 1 tsp salt, butter, milk, yeast and egg in a bowl, and mix together to form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 6 mins.
• Transfer dough to a mixing bowl. Cover, then set aside to rise in a warm place for 1 hr.
• Meanwhile, drain the apricots. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and muscovado sugar until fluffy. Mix in the apricots, flour, raisins, walnuts and orange zest.
• Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to a rectangle, about 25 x 33cm. Evenly spread over the apricot mix, then roll out the marzipan and lay it on top. Roll up the rectangle tightly so it looks like a Swiss roll. Roll slightly, then cut lengthways along the roll, leaving 1 end joined. Twist 2 lengths together, then shape into a ring on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Set aside to rise for 1 hr.
• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Bake the twist for 30 mins until risen and dark golden. Towards the end of the baking time, gently warm the apricot jam in a small pan. Brush the freshly baked loaf with the warm jam to glaze it, then set it aside to cool. Once cooled, drizzle the twist heavily with the runny icing.

PAUL HOLLYWOOD'S STOLLEN RECIPE

Steps:

• Melt the butter over a gentle heat and set aside to cool.
• Warm the milk and add the yeast. Stir until the yeast has dissolved.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, nutmeg, ground cloves, vanilla and almond extract. Stir in the melted butter and the milk and yeast mixture and knead well, until smooth and pliable.
• Mix in the almonds, dried fruit and chopped peel. When everything has been fully incorporated, return to the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1-2 hours in a warm place, until doubled in bulk.
• Knead the dough again and roll out to a rectangle on a floured surface.
• Roll out the marzipan to a slightly smaller rectangle and place on top of the dough. Roll up to enclose the marzipan and transfer to a lined baking sheet. Leave to rise again for another hour.
• Preheat the oven to 190C,gas 5 and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, brush with melted butter, and dust with icing sugar. Serve warm or cold.