Stollen (B&P#33)

For me, holiday baking has to include something decadent.  That means I need to make one of the different types of Christstollen or stollen.

It is a traditional German Christmas season fruit filled bread covered in powdered sugar. The fruits (golden raisins, raisins, currants, lemon peel, orange peel, citron peel and zests) can be soaked in dark rum or white wine. It can also have nuts, almond paste and other dried fruits in the dough. The bread itself has only a slight bit of sweetener with the vanilla and powdered sugar coating providing an incredible finishing touch.

Stollen isn't one of my husband's favorite breads, so  it always means more for me.  Unfortunately, I have to make sure there isn't more of me by the time New Year's rolls around.

While collecting all the ingredients to make my stollen, I found myself perusing the virtual aisles of Fantes (it's one of my favorite online baking and pastry supply stores). They carry a very nice non-stick stollen pan made in Portugal. I decided to buy one to give it a try with my gluten free version. (It's okay, you can say my will was weak...it was.)

This pan will make up to a 2 lb/.907 kg loaf. I was making a 1 lb/.454 kg loaf, so I turned the stollen pan upside down and evenly filled out the pan with the bread dough. After rising, the bread dough had filled out the shape nicely, creating the classic stollen shape.

This is a fabulous tasting bread and goes extremely well with a steaming cup of French Roast coffee. So, break down, make some stollen. Then afterwards, you can join me in working it off with Jillian Michaels. Well, maybe you don't want to...she's helping me rediscover my post radiation pecs. So, my language isn't always that nice. Or maybe I should do it the other way around...that way I can recover from trying to get my right pectoral muscle to remember how to move and stretch with stollen and a hefty dose of French Roast.


Recipe

Protein Content:

Original Content: 20.28 g
GF Content: 19.84 g


Sponge

100  - 130 ml milk, room temperature
30 ml agave syrup
30 g instant dry yeast
14 g brown rice flour (1.26 g)
12 g sweet rice flour (.072 g)
14 g arrowroot starch (0.042 g)
18 g almond meal (3.6 g)
20 g white bean flour (4.3 g)

Fruit & Nut Mix

1028 g golden raisins
37 g candied lemon peel
16 g candied orange peel
13 ml dark rum or white wine
47 g blanched almonds

Final Dough

14 g brown rice flour (1.26 g)
12 g sweet rice flour (0.72 g)
14 g arrowroot starch (0.042 g)
18 g almond meal (3.6 g)
20 g white bean flour (4.3 g)
6 g chia seed meal
4 g agar agar powder
7 g cane sugar
4 g sea salt
1 g lemon zest, grated
pinch ground allspice
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground ginger
7 g almond paste
136 g fruit & nut mix
85 g butter, softened
125 g sponge (from above)
60 - 90 ml milk, room temperature

Finishing

clarified butter, as needed
vanilla sugar, as needed
powdered sugar, as needed


Directions

Fruit & Nut Mix

Place all the ingredients in a resealable container and shake together. Put the container in the refrigerator and allow the mixture to blend together for at least 24 hours before using in the recipe.

Sponge

Pour all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and blend together. Then add the milk and agave syrup and stir until incorporated.  Set the bowl in a warm location to rise for 40 minutes.

Final Dough

1. Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir together.  Then add the milk and softened butter and stir until the dough forms a soft ball.  If the dough is too soft work in a small amount of arrowroot starch to help firm up the dough (i.e. 1 Tb/15 ml at a time). 

2. You can either use a stolen pan or shape the loaf by hand. For the stollen pan, place the pan upside down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Prop up the sides with sides with balls of parchment paper, then line the pan with parchment paper.  If you shape the loaf by hand, lay out a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle it with arrowroot starch.  Then pat out the dough until it is an oval shape and about 1/2 inch/1.27 cm thick. Then fold one side of the dough over the other until about 1/3 of the dough is uncovered. Use arrowroot starch as needed to shape the loaf.  Set the loaf in a warm location to rise for 2 hours.

3.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/177 degrees C. Place the stollen in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool before you remove it from the pan.

Finishing

Place the stollen on a serving tray and brush with clarified butter. The press on the vanilla sugar and sprinnkle with powdered sugar. Slice and serve.


Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts


Index of the Baking & Pastry Project

Baking & Pastry Project Week 17- A Sponge & A Poolish
Baking & Pastry Project #32 - Gugelhopf
Baking & Pastry Project #31 - Panettone
Baking & Pastry Project Week 16 - Holiday Breads
Baking & Pastry Project #30 - Multigrain Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project #29 - White Bean Lean Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project Week 15 - Lean & Multigrain


Want More?

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I'm glutenagogo.

Panettone (B&P#31)

I have a love - hate relationship with yeast. There are days when it works wonderfully for me. When all my tricks to get it to perform with gluten free flours are spot on.  Then there are days...where it doesn't matter what I do...it just sits there...leaden.

Unfortunately, I've been making mini panettone brick bats this week. I had to go out and buy more raisins, since I used up what I had. I ran out of small panettone wrappers making the different batches. Then last night, it worked...a panettone loaf worth eating.

These are my tips for working with yeast and gluten free flours:

- Use double the amount of yeast called for in a bread recipe

- The yeast rises better when it has a sugar to feed it

- Do all the shaping first and then allow the dough to rise

- Let the bread rise in a warm location

- Never use water or other liquid hotter than 115 degrees Fahrenheit

- Try not to bake bread on a rainy day

How was the panettone? Delicious! Rich and smooth on the tongue.  The touch of wine brought out the flavor of the fruit and peel. We enjoyed it with a cup of espresso for breakfast.

Recipe

Protein Content:
Original Content: 26.26 g
GF Content: 26.094 g


Sponge

13 g sweet rice flour (.78 g)
13 g arrowroot starch (.038 g)
15 g millet flour (1.725 g)
27 g white bean flour (5.805 g)
6 g chia seed meal (1.26 g)
30 g instant yeast
33 g cane sugar
120 ml milk

1. In a medium sized bowl, dump in the flours, meal, yeast and sugar, then stir together. Pour in the milk and stir again.

2. Place the sponge mixture in a warm location and allow to ferment for about 45 minutes.

Fruit Mixture

28 g candied orange peel
28 g candied lemon peel
28 g raisins
28 g golden raisins
2 g lemon zest, grated
2 g orange zest, grated
40 ml white wine, Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc

1. Dump all the ingredients in a container with a lid. Shake the mixture until it is throughly blended.

2.  Allow the mixture to sit for at least 45 minutes, but you can allow it to sit and soak longer. This can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.

Final Dough

25 g brown rice flour (2.25 g)
20 g sweet rice flour (1.2 g)
20 g arrowroot starch (.06 g)
38 g almond meal (7.6 g)
25 g white bean flour (5.375 g)
4 g agar agar powder
6 g sea salt
fruit mixture (from above)
sponge mixture (from above)
51 g eggs
4 g glucose syrup
43 g butter, softened
30 ml agave syrup

Egg Wash

1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
smidgeon sea salt

1. In a large bowl, dump in the flours, agar agar, salt and fruit mixture. Stir together, making sure that the fruit is blended throughout and not clumped together.

2. Add the sponge mixture, eggs, syrups and butter to the bowl. Stir together until it forms a soft ball. If the dough is still loose, add a little arrowroot starch until the dough forms a soft ball.

3. Grease and flour a panettone wrapper (1 large or 4 small). Take the panettone dough and place in the center of a sheet of parchment paper that has been sprinkled with arrowroot starch. Form the dough into a smooth ball and then place in the large panettone wrapper. Or divide into 4 equal pieces and place in the small wrappers.  Lightly brush the egg wash over the top of the dough. Then place the wrappers in a warm location so it/they can rise for 3 hours.

4. Place an oven proof bowl on the bottom shelf of the oven. Then preheat the oven to 385 degrees Fahrenheit/196 degrees Celsius. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash again. Next score the center of the dough with a small X and place a pat of butter in the center of the cut.

5. Place the wrapper(s) on a parchment covered cookie sheet and place in the oven.  Using a squirt bottle spritz water over the interior of the oven and on top of the bread.  Cook for 30 to 40 minutes for the large wrapper and 20 to 25 minutes for the small wrappers. Cool completely before serving.

Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread (B&P16)

Baking & Pastry Project #16 - Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I have an admission to make...I'm not my neighbor's favorite person. Actually, my neighbor isn't fond of any of us. We set her teeth on edge. We're outdoor loving, gardening, barbeque cooking, skate boarding, scootering and ball playing folks. She can't stand it. Believe it or not, she's a school teacher who believes that children should play at the play ground and not in their own yards.

And now, we're going to thrill her even more...with drums. Our son, has been taking drum lessons and is now ready for a full drum set. The set, an older one that belongs to his uncle, is coming around the end of the month. My brother got a real kick introducing our son to the drums, since he knows about our neighbor. Although, he lives in Atlanta and no where near the vocal proximity of our neighbor.

The other morning, while we were discussing what our neighbor was going to say about the noise from the drum set, we noshed on toasted slices of raisin cinnamon swirl bread and cream cheese. Well, we'll wait to see what she says. Maybe now that her kids have gone away to college, and there aren't any more situations involving friend's who need remedial driver's education, skipping school, and standardized tests, she'll be a little more charitable. One can only hope.

Recipe
Yield: 1 loaf

Protein Amounts in parenthesis
Original protein content: 17.55 g
GF protein content: 17.005 g

3 1/8 tsp/15 g brown rice flour (1.35 g)
1 3/8 Tb/20 g sweet rice flour (1.2 g)
1 3/8 Tb/20 g arrowroot starch (0.06g)
1 3/4 Tb/25 g almond meal (5 g)
1 3/8 Tb + dash/24 g millet flour (2.76 g)
1 3/4 Tb/ 25 g white bean flour (5.375 g)
1 1/4 tsp/ 6 g chia seed meal (1.26 g)
2 3/8 tsp/11 g instant dry yeast
3/8 tsp/2 g agar agar powder
1 1/2 Tb/21 g cane sugar
1 tsp/5 g sea salt
3 Tb/42 g raisins
1/3 - 1/2 cup/100-125 ml whole milk, room temperature
1 1/2 Tb/21 g butter, soft
1 1/2 Tb/21 g eggs
5/8 tsp/3 g ground cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, except the cinnamon. Pour in the butter, eggs and milk then stir together. As you stir, pour in the cinnamon, so that it creates a swirl through the dough. Line a 7 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 2 1/4 inch(19 x 10 x 6 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper. Pour the dough into the loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise for 1 ½ hours.


2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F/191 degrees C and bake for 20 minutes. Prop open the door of the oven and allow the bread to cook for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool about 1 ½ hours before cutting.



Notes:

1. White Bean Flour – You can purchase white bean flour from Barry Farm or you can grind your own using a coffee grinder. Make sure to sift your bean flour before using to make sure any bits that weren’t ground are removed

2. Chia Seed Meal – You can purchase chia seeds from Barry Farm and use a coffee grinder to turn them into meal.


Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Baking & Pastry Project #15 - Rustic Raisin Bread
Baking & Pastry Project Week 8 - Raisins & More Raisins
Baking & Pastry Project #14 - Cheddar & Onion Mock Rye Batard
Baking & Pastry Project #13 - Prosciutto & Provolone Bread
Baking & Pastry Project Week 7 - Ham & Cheese
Baking & Pastry Project #12 - Belgian Apple Cider Bread
Baking & Pastry Project #11 - Beer & Cheese Bread
Baking & Pastry Project Week 6 - Beer, Cheese & Cider


Want More?

You can find me on Twitter at glutenagogo.

Rustic Raisin Bread (B&P15)

Baking & Pastry Project #15 - Rustin Raisin Bread

We spent a busy weekend cleaning up after the carpenter and working on our yard. It was such a pleasure to see the changes in our kitchen. The carpenter takes care to vacuum while he works, but all the little bits of saw dust seems to float through the air and wedge into cracks around the kitchen. It's amazing how it travels, even though he's cutting all the wood outside.

It is taking him a while to trim all the entry ways, and each connection of the boards. You realize while he's working on the boards that there will be all these intersection points to work, but seeing him work all the angles and cuts is beauty and the mastery of wood with geometry. One area near our pantry looks almost like old English wood work.

I worked up some bread for our breakfasts for the weekend. Since we were trying to finish off some yard projects. I fixed us a breakfast of scrambled eggs with pancetta and a fresh fruit salad to go along with this bread. Afterwards, I headed out and finished off painting our patio furniture, a job that will hopefully last another 10 years.

Recipe

Yield: 1 loaf

Protein Content follows the flour in parenthesis

Original Protein Content: 22.88 g

GF Protein Content: 22.96 g

2 Tb/30 g brown rice flour (2.7 g)

1 3/4 Tb/25 g sweet rice flour (1.5 g)

1 3/8 Tb/20 g arrowroot starch (.06 g)

2 7/8 Tb/40 g almond meal (8 g)

1 7/8 Tb/26 g millet flour (2.99 g)

2 Tb/30 g white bean floour (6.45 g)

1 1/4 tsp/6 g chia seed meal (1.26 g)

3/8 tsp/2 g agar agar powder

2 3/8 tsp/12 g instant dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp/7 g sea salt

1 1/2 Tb/21 g cane sugar

6 1/2 Tb/92 g raisins

1/2 - 2/3 cup/125-135 ml whole milk, room temperature

1 tsp/5 g honey


1. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients, along with the raisins. Pour in the honey and milk then stir together. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper. Sprinkle the parchment paper with sweet rice flour and place the bread dough in the center of the paper. Shape into a round ball and score four slashes down the top of the dough. Cover and allow to rise for 1 ½ hours.


2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/204 degrees C. If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven at the same time on a shelf in the top third of the oven. Gather an oven proof bowl that can hold water and a squirt bottle filled with water for steaming your bread. Place the water bowl on a shelf in the bottom third of the oven.


3. Remove the stone or brick from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the loaf onto the baking stone. Squirt the sides of the oven with water and the top of the bread. Then bake for 30 minutes. Prop open the door of the oven and allow the bread to cook for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven, then let the bread cool about 1 ½ hours before cutting.




Notes:


1. White Bean Flour – You can purchase white bean flour from Barry Farm or you can grind your own using a coffee grinder. Make sure to sift your bean flour before using to make sure any bits that weren’t ground are removed


2. Chia Seed Meal – You can purchase chia seeds from Barry Farm and use a coffee grinder to turn them into meal.


Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Baking & Pastry Project #14 - Cheddar & Onion Mock Rye Batard
Baking & Pastry Project #13 - Prosciutto & Provolone Bread
Baking & Pastry Project Week 7 - Ham & Cheese
Baking & Pastry Project #12 - Belgian Apple Cider Bread
Baking & Pastry Project #11 - Beer & Cheese Bread
Baking & Pastry Project Week 6 - Beer, Cheese & Cider



Want More?


You can find me on Twitter at glutenagogo.

Baking & Pastry Project Week 8 - Raisins & More Raisins

Baking & Pastry Project Week 8 - Raisins & More Raisins

I'm moving a little slowly this week with my kitchen under construction again. It's been quite a process and has taken almost a year. What we're working on now is all the finish carpentry work, trimming out the board and batten paneling and the door and window trim. Next it will be the last of the floor trim and rebuilding the screens for the windows over the kitchen sink.

Part of the day, the kitchen is the property of the carpenter. The counters are covered with tools and pieces of wood. The floor is covered with hoses, cords, an air compressor, power tools and the vacuum cleaner. For the other part of the day, it's mine in a rather limited fashion.

Regardless of the dust, bits of wood and paint lying around, it infinitely satisfying to see the kitchen nearing it's completion. Especially when we remember how it looked before we started working on it. Or what it looked like when we gutted the room down to the subfloor. It is turning into the kitchen/gathering area we wanted, rather than our old squashed galley kitchen.

Mr. Carptenter - Thank you for all your hard work!

Schedule

Monday - Rustic Raisin Bread

Wednesday - Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread

Shopping List

Brown Rice Flour (Fine or Superfine Grind)
Sweet Rice Flour (also called glutinous rice flour)
Arrowroot Starch
Almond Meal
High Protein Flours, such as: Soybean, White Bean, Black Bean
Whole Grain Flour, such as: Buckwheat, Millet, Sorghum, Quinoa, Teff
Instant Dry Yeast
Sea Salt
Binding Agents, such as: Xanthan or Guar Gum, Chia Seed Meal, Agar Agar Powder
Honey

Raisins

Cinnamon

Resources

Flours & Binding Agents: Authentic Foods, Barry Farm, Bob's Red Mill
Instant Dry Yeast: Barry Farm
Agave Syrup: Wild Organics, Native Seeds

Equipment

No specific or unusual equipment is needed this week.

What's Going On?

I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their culinary dvd's from my family for my birthday and our anniversary. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.

Want More?

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I'm glutenagogo.

Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Baking & Pastry Project #14 - Cheddar & Onion Mock Rye Batard

Baking & Pastry Project #13 - Prosciutto & Provolone Bread

Baking & Pastry Project Week 7 - Ham & Cheese

Baking & Pastry Project #12 - Belgian Apple Cider Bread
Baking & Pastry Project #11 - Beer & Cheese Bread
Baking & Pastry Project Week 6 - Beer, Cheese & Cider

Irish Soda Bread - Gluten Free

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, I worked up a gluten-free version of Irish Soda Bread. My baking efforts began with my copy of "Beard on Bread" by James Beard. I worked on modifying the recipe, whipped it up and then eagerly awaited the results.

It was beautiful coming out of the oven, although the aroma from the bread was rather like baking soda. How did it taste? Well...vile. No second tastings...straight to the compost bin it went. And by the way, don't try brown rice, oat, arrowroot, teff flours and hazelnut meal as a gluten-free flour blend...trust me.

Pondering the flavors lingering in my mouth made me wonder if I ought to start with a different recipe. At Epicurious.com I found a recipe from Bon Appetit, February 2005 issue. The Irish Soda Bread with Raisins recipe was created by Anitra Earle of Yonkers, NY, and it seemed to be perfect base to modify into a gluten free version.

Recipe

2/3 cup rice flour
2/3 cup oat flour
1/3 + 2 Tb sweet rice flour
1/3 + 2 Tb almond meal
2 Tb Turbinado sugar
2 Tb cane sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
3 Tb butter, chilled
7/8 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1/2 cup raisins
2 tsp kudzu powder, dissolved in buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 6 inch round cake pan with parchment paper. Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and blend. Cut in the butter with a fork until mixture is crumbly. Then add the buttermilk and raisins. Blend. Pour the batter into the cake pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a pick comes out clean.

How did it turn out? Beautiful and smelled delicious. The bread has a lovely rich taste with a lingering hint of soda. It was perfect with a small swirl of butter. My son liked the bread, but would have preferred it without raisins. Eating it with butter is the only way to go, according to my daughter. My husband didn't have any preferences, he said it was great.