#6 Grandma's Classics: Thüringer Stollen (Thuringian Christmas Cake)

When two people marry, it usually involves a fusion of traditions. Especially in the time of Advent and Christmas I love to go back to a recipe that I learned from my family in law: The Thuringian Stollen!

My family used to bake basketfuls of Christmas cookies, but no Stollen at all, so I adopted the Thuringian version as my own.

Now, of course, Dresden is the hometown of the world's most famous Stollen. I love to buy Dresdner Stollen (yes, there are certain bakeries where people queue up in the darkest and ugliest mornings before  opening hour to leave the shop with armfuls of Mohn- and Rosinenstollen. And obviously I don't buy just one!). I also enjoy it at my friends' houses with a good cup of coffee. But when it comes to homebaking it always will be the Thuringian one.

Our family recipe is lighter, less rich, less packed with dried fruit than the Dresden one, but with plenty of milk soaked almonds. It feels more like a wintery, fruity brioche.

Thüringer Stollen (old family recipe)

1kg flour
250g sugar
250g butter
1/2 l milk
80g yeast (or 4 sachets of dry yeast)
200g peeled and chopped almonds (soaked in milk)
200g sultanas (soaked in rum or port wine)
125g candied lemon peel
125g candied orange peel
the pulp of a vanilla pod
the grated zest of a lemon
a teaspoon Stollen condiment (a mixture of ground cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and allspice)

125g butter to spread on the Stollen once out of the oven
a few tablespoons of icing sugar

Make sure that all your ingredients have room temperature.

Soak the almonds in milk. Soak the sultanas in rum or port wine. Chop the citrus peel if you bought it in a whole piece. Scratch out  the vanilla pod and prepare the Stollen condiment.

Fill the flour into a large bowl, form a small cavity in the middle for the yeast, a bit of luke warm milk and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
Add the sugar, butter, milk, vanilla pulp, condiments and grated lemon peel. Beat well using the dough hooks.

When the dough has begun to pull together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead in the sultanas, chopped almonds and candied citrus peel. Continue kneading until smooth.

Lightly flour a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about one hour. Knead it deflating the dough and let it rise for the second time.

Cover a baking tray with a baking sheet, form two loafs of the dough and place them on the baking tray. Fold a piece of baking sheet between the loafs to prevent them from sticking together.

Let them rise again for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 160° and continue baking for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

Once out of the oven, immediately coat the loafs with butter using a baking brush. Dust the cooled loafs with icing sugar.

finally found a hot second to post some NewYork

highest top of the Empire State Building

Juicy Couture

Henri Bendels

Le Parker Meridien, poolside

paper weight Christmas dinner

on the Highline

Meatpacking District

fish market in Chinatown

Prada store

Museum of Natural History

Metro Station 6 weeks after hurricane "Sandy"

Wall Street

I love the eclecticism of NY architecture

room service

it's not a fire, just fog

view onto the One World Tower

the Hudson

Brooklyn Bridge

MoMA, Shadow Monsters, 2004, Philip Worthington (my favourite!)

the famous Christmas decorations of Bergdorf Goodmans

Chanel on stage

The Knave, Le Parker Meridien

Merry Christmas to all of you

Terrace Heart Biscuits

My dear friend Mela sent me a recipe of her grandmother and a picture of herself (cute!) as an extra feature for this blog! I was so excited about the submission so I felt rather guilty for taking so long with the actualization of the blog post! Mela, I finally baked the terrace heart biscuits, so what do you think?

I must say, they were fingerlicking good!

The recipe (as seen above):

120g sugar
250g butter
peel of one lemon
1/2 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
400g flour
some tablespoons of jam, I took raspberry because of the nice red colour, although the original recipe requests apricot
icing sugar

Prepare a short crust working together the sugar, butter, lemon peel, the inside of the vanilla pod, egg yolk and flour.
Let it sit in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.
Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and cut out the biscuits with a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Bake on a tray at 180°C for about 15 minutes (until the pastry turns slightly golden).
Assemble the hearts using the jam as glue and dust with icing sugar.

Bon Appetit! Enjoy the terrace hearts on your terrace or elsewhere... if your terrace is currently frozen to -5°C like mine, a little bonfire and some mulled wine (bah!) will help your toes to stay alive.

December 16th

In a land of myth and a time of magic...

Dresden Christmas Stollen

... as rich as the treasury chamber of King August the Strong.

Click here to find out all there is to know about Dresden Stollen, history, recipe, beautiful step-by-step pictures!

December 2nd

making Advent wreathes

It has already become a great tradition that the day before first Advent Christiane, Carina, Nancy and myself get together to turn fresh pine green, ivy, box, holly and laurel into the most beautiful Advent wreathes.

We make wreathes for our doors, for the windows, for the childrens' school and the typical wreathes with four candles to be lighted one more every Advent Sunday.

I'm horribly untalented in tying together the wreathes. My part rather consists in decorating. I love using the hot glue machine to stick on crab apples, nuts, pinecones and apples. I love choosing ribbons, drinking coffee, chatting around and eating Christiane's freshly baked waffles....

 

If you are interested in the recipe,  I'd be happy to request it for you. The only thing I know is that they are made with cream instead of butter. Just sublime!

When everybody had gone I stayed a moment longer to continue chatting with Christiane and, you won't believe it, while talking, my fingers all by themselves had made that sweet little heart from the last twigs remaining on the table.