Baking| STOLLEN PUDDING … a Daring Bakers Stollen in Bread Pudding

“The Sky is the daily bread of the imagination.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daring Bakers Christmas Stollen {Pudding}Hello there. It’s time for the Daring Bakers to strut their bakes! {Before you panic that I’m posting the challenge early, because of the holidays you can post any time between December 23 through December 27, 2010}. This is the most exciting Daring Bakers month of the year, a month where I eagerly await a Christmas bake. My first year with the DB’s had a Yule Log hosted by the talented duo – Hilda of Saffron & BlueBerry and Marion of Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. That was quite the mother of all challenges. I still have a picture  in my mind of the beautiful log Hilda presented that year. Gorgeous! Last year was Gingerbread Houses … and I loved it so. Such a canvas for creativity and so many special houses. This year has been wonderful too …

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book………and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

I stole the stollen and made pudding! This time around, we were enticed by the sweet Penny from Sweet Sadie’s Baking to make Christmas Stollen. Stollen is a bread-like fruitcake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus is often also added. Over the centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless “bread” to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients. The recipe is a combination of recipes put together by Penny, and includes a bit of a recipe from her German friend who bakes Stollen every year, from a Peter Reinhart recipe, and the wreath concept from Martha Stewart. I was tempted to bake my Christmas Stollen {Dresden Stollen} that I made last year. It had quark as an ingredient, and was certainly the best Christmas bread we’ve had to date. I hope to make it once again this winter, hopefully in January. In a last minute daring change of mind and spirit, I decided to go with Daring Bakers recipe. Am I glad I did! It’s always a challenge and an adventure to try a new recipe, something that holds intrigue and a surprise in the end. That said, once baked, the stollen was H U G E. It was like a football field … don’t know why I said that, but that was precisely the thought racing through my head. Whatever would I do with so much stollen? Should have listened to my head, not my heart, and made half the recipe! Then again, we had a few slices of warm stollen each. Mmmm…wonderful warm straight from the oven. The crumb was soft and well risen, quite delicious. Next morning, I sliced up some more. Toasted it for breakfast. Slathered with slightly salted butter, it was luxury in every bite. For once too much was too good, and the morning seemed very delicious. I still had a lot to mull over though. Still so much stollen left… after all 770gms makes a lot. I had to put it to more creative use. Contemplated freezing some, but then had a better idea. Bread pudding! STOLLEN PUDDING! Yes, that was a good idea. If brioche could make a fab bread pudding, then stollen couldn’t be far behind. I began with adding a scraped vanilla bean to 2 cups of milk, simmered it, and then thought some low fat cream might make it better. So in went cream, simmered again. Left it awhile for the vanilla flavours to mingle…mmm … this was beginning to feel like fun.Pastry creams, custards, pot de cremes … all need eggs to set, and my pud was going to be no different. Milk, cream, sugar, eggs…and of course, vanilla bean! The sugar and the eggs, yolks & are all whisked immediately;  if you don’t then the yolk gets stringy and lumpy…beware! The recipe is much like a pastry cream. Warm simmered vanilla milk poured over the yolk mixture, whisked and then strained over the sliced bread, dressed with dried tart cherries {I do love those}, and slivered almonds. Into the oven it went, in a bain marie. The aromas were enticing. I was like an expectant father, pacing the ground outside my oven to see if it would work, and my pud would set!Get set it did! YAY! If you daring kinda folk, like me, made a HUGE stollen, then you MUST try this pudding. WE LOVED IT!! The dried tart cherries, the now roasted slivered almonds, the wonderful vanilla flavours …  a sifting of sugar later. It was ever so good,  just perfect for a cold winter day. Another great satisfying dessert, another favourite added to my list. I still have a hunk of stollen saved up, and I have an idea for that too. Though I still do prefer the stollen I had made last year with quark as a slice and eat Christmas bread, I do love the versatility of this one. Will make this again, even if it’s just for a bread pudding, well half of it anyway!

Thank you Penny for the fun, festive and fulfilling challenge, and thank you as always Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!!

Stollen Wreath
Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people
¼ cup lukewarm water
28gms fresh yeast {or 14 grams active dry yeast}
1 cup milk
140gm unsalted butter
5½ cups {770 grams} all-purpose flour ,  plus extra for dusting
½ cup{130gm}  vanilla sugar {I added an extra 15gm in error}
¾ teaspoon  salt {if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement}
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 2 oranges
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 teaspoon orange extract
1/2 cup currants
1 cup firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons rum
12 red glacé cherries {roughly chopped} for the color and the taste.
1 cup almonds, chopped
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Powdered sugar for dusting wreath
Note: If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange.
Method:
In a small bowl, soak the raisins and currants in the rum {or in the orange juice from the zested orange} and set aside.
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla and orange extract, and scraped vanilla bean. Reserve.
Melt the milk and butter gently in a pan. Stand until lukewarm. {I warmed the milk and poured it over the butter, and gently stirred it over low heat to hasten the process}
Pour ¼ cup warm water into a small bowl, add fresh yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange zest.
Then stir in {or mix on low speed with the dough hooks} the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
Add in the soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!
Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading {or mixing with the dough hook} to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes. The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn’t enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.
Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge {since the butter goes firm} but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.Shaping the Dough
Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.
Forming and Baking the Wreath
Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.
Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.
Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.
Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh – especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!
When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.
Stollen Pudding
350gms Stollen, sliced
200ml milk
200ml low fat cream
1 vanilla bean, scraped
2 yolks
1 egg
1/2 cup vanilla sugar {or plain sugar}
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup dried tart cherries, snipped
Powdered sugar for sifting
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C.
Place sliced bread in 9″ baking dish, slightly overlapping each slice as in pictures.
Put milk, cream and scraped vanilla bean in a saucepan and simmer till bubbles appear around edges. Take off heat and let the flavours seep for 20-30 minutes.
Place egg, yolks and vanilla sugar in a largish bowl, and whisk immediately to mix.
Bring the milk mixture back to a simmering boil, take off heat, and slowly pour over egg mixture whisking all the time to prevent lumps getting formed.
Strain this over the bread slices in baking dish, sprinkle over dried cherries and almonds. Bake in a bain marie for 30-40 minutes/ until the edges of the custard appear to be firm and set If the top browns too soon, loosely place a sheet of foil over it.
Remove from oven, and then from bain marie as soon as it’s warm enough to handle. Sift with powdered sugar. Allow to stand for 20-30 minutes. Serve hot or warm.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

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Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

44 thoughts on “Baking| STOLLEN PUDDING … a Daring Bakers Stollen in Bread Pudding”

  3. Gorgeous Deeba..I love the pudding idea but anyway I was barely left with any bread in spite of making it with 770gms..too many takers 😉

    Reply

  4. Deeba, I am famished now looking at these gorgeous pics. So yum. I love yeasted anything and will fave this post although will bake it w/o almonds due to allergies.
    Thanks for this lovely post. Shulie

    Reply

  8. What an undertaking! First to make your own stollen, then to deconstruct it for a pudding. You get a gold star daaaahling, and I get a fork to eat the pudding.
    YUM
    *kisses* HH

    Reply

  10. The pudding sounds great – I am making my second stollen now so I will have to see if some survives log enough to make something like that out of it.

    Reply

  12. Wow….I stumbled upon ur blog thru foodbuzzz….and i cant stop viewing every other post in here!! Just love your blog and the photos are awesome…Its so nice to find bakers frm our part of the world 🙂 …myself, i am a lazy indian baker who’s trying to find inspiration to bake more….and your blog seems to offer tons of that!!! hehehe…absolutely love all the recipes in here!!!

    Reply

  14. Wonderful idea, might use it if eight of us can’t take care of the stollen in three days 🙂 You did a great job and the pictures are beautiful. Merry christmass!!!

    Reply

  15. Aw, YUM! I wish I’d thought of that. Your photos and your stollen/stollen pudding are beautiful.

    Reply

  16. Mine is doing the final rise now and if it turns out half as beautiful as yours I will be very happy…just gorgeous and your photos are stunning..Happy Holidays

    Reply

  18. Ooo..If a pudding like that follows with leftovers, who would mind baking a football field 🙂 I really adore the wreath shape that you have given to the bread. It so festive! I learnt stollen today from your blog..see I told you, I dont leave before learning smthing from your blog each time I land up here!
    Merry Christmas to you and your family!

    Reply

  19. Wow – your stollen looks amazing any way you served it, but that stollen pudding… totally has me wishing I had some leftovers here! I will DEFINITELY be trying that next time I make this. As always, your photos are simply stunning. Truly amazing work. Happy Hloidays!

    Reply

  20. Deeba you have outdone yourself! Brilliant to turn your fabulous bread in to pudding! Now I’m extra sad that I didn’t do the DB challenge this month.

    Reply

  21. Hi Deeba, your thinking is the same as mine – what the heck am I going to do with all this stollen? I was also not that keen on the stollen, so it is in my freezer to make into pudding in the new year.

    Reply

  24. The Stollen wreath look gorgeous. Like the pudding idea. Love those tiny cute slices of Stollen in the bowl. Feels like grabbing one right away 🙂 happy holidays, Deeba.

    Reply

  26. Growing up, we had stollen every weekend; my father’s family is German and he continued that tradition from his roots. But seems someone has stolen that tradition from me and I have neither eaten nor made one in more years than I can recall.

    This looks lovely if HUGE; that photo of it in your oven says it all. You can send me some? 🙂

    Reply

  28. Wow stollen looks great and the pudding sounds absolutely yumm!!! Beautiful work on the challenge asusual. Wish you Merry Christmas and New year in advance !!! Happy Holidays.

    Reply

  29. Oh, Deeba, gorgeous Stollen, then I am no longer surprised when what you bakes comes out perfect! But I absolutely love the bread pudding and yes I need to try this with the rest of my stollen – though happy to say half went to the office with Da Man! This was indeed the perfect yeast cake and I loved it too. Beautiful post, my lovely sistah, and I want to wish you and your family the Happiest of Happy Holidays with loads of joy, good health and all that you could wish for. HUGS to you, the sweetest gift of all – being more than just your friend, being your sister! xo

    Reply

  33. Deeba, what great pictures, with such texture. I made french toast with the leftovers, but pudding must have been delicious!

    Happy Holidays.

    Reply

  37. This was the stollen you had so much of? You’ve certainly put it to excellent use in the pudding. I’m just eating some of mine (I froze half of it) toasted with butter on it. Good in this season but not for my hips! 🙂

    Seasons greetings and best wishes for a happy year.

    Reply

  40. That’s a sweet idea to make a bread pudding out of the stollen. I “cheated” with my stollen by using a bread machine (dough only cycle). I’m sure your from-scratch stollen tastes much better! You do such a beautiful job with whatever you cook!

    Reply

  42. Ok, so I am pretty much speechless! Your stollen and stollen bread pudding look amazing! What gorgeous pictures….any spare time to visit south Florida and give me some lessons on food photography?!? LOL I too really enjoyed this challenge =)

    Reply

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