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lady_of_clunnThe weekend was cake-and-baby-juggling weekend.
My aunt and cousin were celebrating their birthdays together and asked me to bake a Gentlemen's Gateaux. I cheated. I can't get the cake base right, let alone cutting it into three layers. So I bought a cake base and instead of baking the cake, I built it.
It's the sweetest thing I ever had the pleasure to sink my teeth into. Basically: One layer chocolate cake, one layer Marzipan cream, one layer chocolate cake, one layer whipped noisette ganache, one layer chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache glazing. It is as dangerous as it sounds. Ironically, it is named gentlemen's gateaux because the glaze is made with dark chocolate, also called gentlemen's chocolate in Germany. Presumably because men don't like sweet things. Right.
Yesterday was the three-weeks-until-first-Advent marker and I needed to bake the first batch of Stollen or it wouldn't mature right.
The whole house smells like Christmas. I love it.
I give you: East Prussian Stollen, a family recipe.
- about 50g life yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 250 ml lukewarm milk
- 500g flour
- 125g sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon liquid vanilla)
- 1 teaspoon lemon baking oil or ground lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon bitter almond oil
- 1 generous pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 250g butter (melted)
- 100g raisins
- 100g candied lemon peel
- 100g candied orange peel
- 100g candied fruit mix or chopped candied cherries
- 100g ground nuts (I usually use almonds but want to try walnuts, soon)
- 100g chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, whatever is available)
- 200g Marzipan
After baking:
- 100g butter
- some sugar
- liberal amounts of powdered sugar
A lot of people don't dare to ever try baking a Stollen because they shy away from the sheer amount of ingredients or think it will be very difficult or don't know how to deal with yeast. Comparing home-made Stollen to the bought variety, it is so very worth the try!
In a bowl that has to be much larger than one would think, crumble together the yeast and sugar. Life yeast is best, I was succsessful with dried yeast that needed to be activated with a liquid and have so far always failed with dried yeast that is simply mixed into the flour.Add about 100ml of the lukewarm milk, carefully dissolve the yeast, cover the bowl and let rest in a warm place for 15-20 minutes. There should be absolutely no draught. It frightens the yeast. *nods*
Meanwhile, mix all the dry ingredients including the ground nuts plus the baking oils together in again a larger-than-you-think-it-has-to-be the yeast needs space to grow and there are a lot of ingredients to add.
Add the yeast mixture, the rest of the warm milk and the melted butter. I always gently heat the milk (warm, not hot - you don't want to kill the yeast) and let the butter dissolve in it while the yeast rests.
With your hands or the dough hooks of your mixer, mix until everything is well blended. The dough is not heavy or hard to manage. If so, add a bit of warm milk.
Cover bowl with a clean dish cloth and let the dough rest for about 20-30 minutes I either put the bowl under the duvet in my bed or into the very, very slightly warmed oven. In any case, it should be a warm place without any draught.
Add the raisins, candied fruit and nuts to the dough and knead well.
Take half of the dough, flatten to a roughly rectangular shape on a surface dusted with flour. Shape half of the marzipan to be rather flat and long-ish. Place on dough. Roll dough up around the marzipan, place on a baking tray covered with baking paper, cover with clean dishcloth (or the one you used before for covering the bowl), repeat with the other half of the dough.
Let rest for 20-30 minutes in warm place. Again, I usually put the tray under my duvet.
Preheat oven to 250 C, bake at 150 C for one hour.
Immediately after baking, brush with melted butter and add a fine layer of sugar. Let cool for a few minutes, brush with butter again and add a thick layer of powdered sugar.
You can also quarter the dough and marzipan for gift-size Stollen:
My aunt and cousin were celebrating their birthdays together and asked me to bake a Gentlemen's Gateaux. I cheated. I can't get the cake base right, let alone cutting it into three layers. So I bought a cake base and instead of baking the cake, I built it.
It's the sweetest thing I ever had the pleasure to sink my teeth into. Basically: One layer chocolate cake, one layer Marzipan cream, one layer chocolate cake, one layer whipped noisette ganache, one layer chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache glazing. It is as dangerous as it sounds. Ironically, it is named gentlemen's gateaux because the glaze is made with dark chocolate, also called gentlemen's chocolate in Germany. Presumably because men don't like sweet things. Right.
Yesterday was the three-weeks-until-first-Advent marker and I needed to bake the first batch of Stollen or it wouldn't mature right.
The whole house smells like Christmas. I love it.
I give you: East Prussian Stollen, a family recipe.
- about 50g life yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 250 ml lukewarm milk
- 500g flour
- 125g sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon liquid vanilla)
- 1 teaspoon lemon baking oil or ground lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon bitter almond oil
- 1 generous pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 250g butter (melted)
- 100g raisins
- 100g candied lemon peel
- 100g candied orange peel
- 100g candied fruit mix or chopped candied cherries
- 100g ground nuts (I usually use almonds but want to try walnuts, soon)
- 100g chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, whatever is available)
- 200g Marzipan
After baking:
- 100g butter
- some sugar
- liberal amounts of powdered sugar
A lot of people don't dare to ever try baking a Stollen because they shy away from the sheer amount of ingredients or think it will be very difficult or don't know how to deal with yeast. Comparing home-made Stollen to the bought variety, it is so very worth the try!
In a bowl that has to be much larger than one would think, crumble together the yeast and sugar. Life yeast is best, I was succsessful with dried yeast that needed to be activated with a liquid and have so far always failed with dried yeast that is simply mixed into the flour.Add about 100ml of the lukewarm milk, carefully dissolve the yeast, cover the bowl and let rest in a warm place for 15-20 minutes. There should be absolutely no draught. It frightens the yeast. *nods*
Meanwhile, mix all the dry ingredients including the ground nuts plus the baking oils together in again a larger-than-you-think-it-has-to-be the yeast needs space to grow and there are a lot of ingredients to add.
Add the yeast mixture, the rest of the warm milk and the melted butter. I always gently heat the milk (warm, not hot - you don't want to kill the yeast) and let the butter dissolve in it while the yeast rests.
With your hands or the dough hooks of your mixer, mix until everything is well blended. The dough is not heavy or hard to manage. If so, add a bit of warm milk.
Cover bowl with a clean dish cloth and let the dough rest for about 20-30 minutes I either put the bowl under the duvet in my bed or into the very, very slightly warmed oven. In any case, it should be a warm place without any draught.
Add the raisins, candied fruit and nuts to the dough and knead well.
Take half of the dough, flatten to a roughly rectangular shape on a surface dusted with flour. Shape half of the marzipan to be rather flat and long-ish. Place on dough. Roll dough up around the marzipan, place on a baking tray covered with baking paper, cover with clean dishcloth (or the one you used before for covering the bowl), repeat with the other half of the dough.
Let rest for 20-30 minutes in warm place. Again, I usually put the tray under my duvet.
Preheat oven to 250 C, bake at 150 C for one hour.
Immediately after baking, brush with melted butter and add a fine layer of sugar. Let cool for a few minutes, brush with butter again and add a thick layer of powdered sugar.
You can also quarter the dough and marzipan for gift-size Stollen:
