Tuesday 28 December 2010

Daring Baker's December 2010 Challenge: Stollen Wreath

Didn't think I would like it....

I'm weird. I don't like raisins, sultanas or currants. I don't like candied peel either.

You probably guessed - I'm not a fruitcake person.



But there was loads of fellow Daring Bakers who don't like raisins! And there's me thinking I was a rare breed! And on the forum there were so many ideas flying around for ideas without the usual dried suspects and I was liking it!


I needed to take something in to my daughter's last week of nursery before the holidays. So the stollen seemed like the best idea. I decided to make a date, cranberry, marzipan and cinnamon stollen. I soaked the dates and cranberries in orange juice with some orange zest overnight with a cinnamon stick. It turned out very heavy once baked and quite dense :-(

But I brushed the melted butter on top and the several dustings of icing sugar hoping it will soften the stollen but it didn't unfortunately. I'm sure I followed the recipe but I was rushing things so I can't blame the recipe! I couldn't give that in to the teachers! Instead I went for the easy and chilled out route of a tin of chocolates. Bet they weren't expecting that from moi, Mrs WWW!

The next morning I must've woke up on the 'good' side of bed. I went downstairs and decided to saw into the stollen for breakfast. I used my Kitchen Devils serrated knife and managed to slice up nice thick, even slices. I then toasted them up golden brown and crisp.


I then buttered them well with salted butter to add flavour to the sweet bread. I had grated the marzipan into the stollen dough to have it distributed throughout the bread and you can see the flecks in the picture. I loved that touch.

And would you believe it?!!
It. Was. Absolutely. Gorgeous!

Seriously, I'm not even kidding. They were soooo delish.... I feel like lickin' my lips as I type...mmmm....

And the lovely icing top slightly caramelised accentuated the sweetness with the salted buttery gorgeousness.


I will be definitely be doing this again with different flavour variations and a thorough read of the recipe instructions.
I wont be adding the recipe below as it is quite lengthy but you can find the recipe in the link below with tips as well as seeing all the lovely and well-executed challenges from my fellow daring bakers.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DARING BAKERS CHALLENGE STOLLEN RECIPE

7 comments:

  1. Great idea to tost the stollen and serve with salted butter!
    I guess it'd be good with jam either!

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  2. This recipe surprised me as well. I wasn't expecting it to be so delicious. I'm drooling just to hear about your toasts with butter... I intended to make "rabanadas" (Brazilian French toast, sort of) but there were no leftovers...
    Happy New Year!

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  3. I am so glad you liked the stollen in the end, it was yummy huh? Cranberry and date is a great idea, I'll add that to my list, lol!

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  4. Your stollen turned out delicious! I too was hesitant at first but loved the end result!

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  5. Cranberry & date stollen sounds delicious! Great job on the challenge. I bet it was sooooo good with the salted butter after it was toasted. YUM! :)

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  6. This is as pretty as those in the window of our German bake shop. You did a great job with the challenge. I'm new to your blog, so after reading this entry I browsed through some of those that came before it. I'm so glad I did. I really like the food and recipes you feature here. I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

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  7. Hello, ive just seen the comment you left me, a very long time ago! Thank you for reading my blog. Your stollen looks so tasty, I love it but im a massive marzipan, raisin lover so I was bound to! Happy New Year.

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