Christmas Stollen with Marzipan

The title of this post is a bit of a mouthful, I know. But I didn’t want you to think this was just any old stollen. First, I baked this stollen in honor of the Bon Appetit holiday bake-off and party, which I was super thrilled to be asked to participate in. Second, I think that this stollen has lots going for it. Candied fruit, tons of butter, marzipan, and a delicious almond-rum filling. Some of you may be asking, “But what is stollen, anyway??” Well, I’m here to tell you. Stollen is a German yeasted sweetbread-cake thingy that is traditionally served for Christmas. It was apparently invented in Dresden, Germany, and is said to resemble the baby Jesus in his swaddling clothes. (I’m not so sure about how much my stollen resembled the baby Jesus, but it makes me giggle a little bit.)  Sometimes stollen has a yummy rope of marzipan hidden in the center (I loooove marzipan), sometimes not. It almost always has candied citrus peel (e.g., candied orange, lemon, and citron), candied cherries, and raisins. And some form of booze – usually rum, but sometimes brandy or cognac.

Find yourself some high-quality candied and dried fruit – if you can, try not to use supermarket brands of candied fruit (unless you have access to a really, really good supermarket with really, really good candied fruit). This is not to be snobbish but because the candied and dried fruit form the flavor base of the stollen. You could make your own candied peel using this Bon Appetit recipe. You can even make your own marzipan if you’re feeling really ambitious. Also – I didn’t use my stand mixer for the dough; I mixed and kneaded everything by hand. (It doesn’t take very long to make the stollen dough by hand, just a bit more effort in kneading.) I did use a stand mixer for the frangipane filling.

My stollen is based on several recipes all mashed together. The first is from an old-ish German cookbook that I found in a yard sale (and that smells, deliciously, of 50 year old stale cigarettes) from 1969 called The Cooking of Germany. It’s a Time-Life book from their series “Foods of the World,” favorite classics of mine. The second is the Luchow’s German Cookbook, originally printed in 1952. Luchow’s was a famous New York City restaurant opened in 1882. (No, it’s not a Chinese restaurant – there are supposed to be umlauts over the “u”, but I’m too lazy to add them in. I’ve baked a lot of stollen over the last couple of days, OK? I’m tired.) Finally, I used elements of Richard Bertinet’s recipe, which can be found here.

It’s common to “age” stollen, wrapped tightly, for a couple of weeks before Christmas. I think this recipe won’t last for more than 5-6 days at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap. You can also freeze your stollen for up to 3 months, but freezing may affect the texture a bit (i.e., it will likely get a bit dry). Stale stollen can be toasted and spread with (even more) butter.

Lastly, just know that making stollen is an all-day project (or at least a half-day project) due to the various risings that the dough needs to go through.

Ingredients:
Makes 4 medium-sized stollen

For the Stollen Dough:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried currants
1 cup mixed candied citrus peel (I used equal amounts of candied citron, orange, and lemon peel)
1/2 cup candied cherries, quartered (if your cherries are really syrup-y, rinse them in cold water first)
1/2 cup golden rum
1/4 cup lukewarm water
Two 1/4-oz. packages active dry yeast (I used Red Star brand)
1/2 cup plus a pinch of granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon peel
5 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (one and a half sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small bits and softened
1 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 tablespoon butter, melted

For the Rum Frangipane:
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup finely-ground almond meal or almond flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons golden rum

To Assemble and Fill the Stollen:
Rum Frangipane filling (see above)
14 oz. marzipan, cut into small chunks
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter

For the Glaze and Topping:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden rum
Confectioners sugar

Procedure:

For the Stollen Dough:

1. At least an hour before you start baking: Combine the raisins, currants, candied citrus peels, and candied cherries in a medium bowl. Pour the rum over the fruit, tossing to coat. Soak for an hour, and up to 2 hours.
2. Pour the lukewarm water into a small bowl and sprinkle with the yeast and a pinch of sugar, stirring gently to combine. Let the mixture stand in a warm place for 5 minutes or so, or until the mixture gets frothy and doubles in volume.
3. Meanwhile, drain the fruit mixture and reserve the rum. Pat the fruit dry using paper towels. Place the fruit into a clean medium bowl and toss evenly with the 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Set aside.
4. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the milk, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, and the salt. Heat over medium heat to lukewarm (110-115 degrees), stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and stir in the reserved rum, the vanilla extract, the almond extract, and the fresh lemon peel.
5. Add the yeast mixture to the milk mixture, stirring gently to combine.
6. Measure 5 cups of the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast-milk mixture with a fork, about a cup at a time.
7. Beat the eggs with a balloon whisk until frothy. Stir them into the dough.
8. Using a wooden spoon, work in the bits of softened butter several tablespoons at a time. The dough will be very wet and buttery.
9. Spread your counter top or work board with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Flour your hands lightly, gather the dough into a loose ball, and place on the floured board. Knead the dough for 15 minutes, flouring your hands from time to time if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic. (The dough will be uniform in texture, all of the butter and flour will be incorporated, and it will feel very smooth to the touch.)
10. Add the slivered almonds to the reserved fruit mixture and toss briefly to combine.
11. Flatten the dough into a rectangle shape (the actual size is not important) and press in half of the almond-fruit mixture. Fold the dough over onto itself and again press out into a rectangular shape. Press in the remaining half of the almond-fruit mixture. Knead the dough very briefly to distribute the fruit and almonds. (Don’t knead for too long or the dough will discolor.)
12. Coat a deep bowl or rising container with melted butter. Add the dough to the bowl. Brush the top of the dough with additional melted butter. Drape a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) over the bowl and let rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

For the Rum Frangipane:

1. Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer (or using an electric mixer) on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
2. Add the almond meal/flour and mix until incorporated.
3. Mix in all-purpose flour, then add eggs and rum. Mix on medium speed until the mixture is light and creamy.
4. Set mixture aside in a cool spot (do not refrigerate) until ready.

To Assemble and Fill the Stollen:

1. Lightly flour a work board or counter top. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Let rest for 10 minutes.
2. With your fingertips, shape the dough into rectangles approximately 9 inches by 6 inches.
3. Spread the rum frangipane filling onto each rectangle, leaving an inch border all the way around. Sprinkle each dough rectangle with the bits of marzipan.
4. Fold the stollen: bring one long side of the dough rectangle to the center and press the edge down lightly. Then carefully fold the other side over to the center of the rectangle, overlapping the seam down the center by about an inch. (Like a letter.) Press the edges gently. Lightly flour your hands and taper the ends of each loaf sightly, pinching gently to seal the ends of the dough. Don’t worry if some of the filling seeps out a bit – just wipe off with your fingertips.
5. Brush two 11-by-17 inch sheet pans with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Gently transfer two loaves of stollen to each sheet pan, leaving at least 4 inches between the loaves. Brush the loaves with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon melted butter.
6. Set the loaves aside in a warm place for about an hour, or until almost doubled in bulk. (You do not need to cover the loaves with a towel if you buttered them in step 5, above.)

To Bake, Glaze, and Top the Stollen:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the breads, switching positions of the pans halfway through baking, 35-40 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
2. Make the glaze: Just before the stollen loaves finish baking, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the rum.
3. Take the stollen out of the oven and immediately brush with the melted butter-rum glaze, then thickly dust with sifted confectioners sugar.
4. Cool stollen completely on a wire wrack.

Starters and Nibbles

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter – Serve with cheddar or brie (or any cheese that is cheddar-or-brie-like) and crackers. Can be made several days in advance. Uses the crock-pot, which frees up your stovetop and oven. Would also be a nice sauce with turkey. And a nice host(-ess) gift.

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Chicken Liver Mousse – Quick and easy to make. Can be made several days in advance. Serve with toast squares, crackers, or sliced baguette.

Chicken Liver Mousse on a crunchy little toast square

Manchego Cheese, Quince, and Walnut Crostini – Make the quince jam (or buy it) in advance. Toast the bread in advance. Easy to assemble.

Manchego, Quince, and Walnut Crostini

First Course

Easy Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons - Serve as a first course. Beets can be roasted several days in advance. Soup can be made and refrigerated 1-2 days in advance (without the croutons, of course). Swirl a bit of heavy cream or yogurt on top for an elegant little touch. When I make a large meal like Thanksgiving dinner, I serve creamy soups like this in teacups – it’s just the right amount of soup so your guests aren’t stuffed before the main course.

Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons

Quick Breads

Bacon Muffins – quick and easy to bake. Can be made 1 day in advance.

Bacon Muffins

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper – Quickbread (no yeast) – takes only a few minutes to mix. Can be made 1-2 days in advance.

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper

Cheddar-Sage Biscuits – Can be made 1 day in advance and re-heated. Sage goes nicely with turkey.

Cheddar Sage Biscuits

Sides

Broccoli Raab with Pecans – can be made 1-2 day in advance and re-heated.

Broccoli Raab with Pecans

Mashed Potatoes - can be made several hours in advance. Hold in a metal bowl over simmering water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Add more cream or milk before serving if the potatoes have dried out a bit.

Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon – can be made up to a week in advance. Made in the oven so it frees up your stovetop. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower – can be made several hours in advance. Pop back in the oven for a few minutes to re-heat. Grate some Parmesan over the cauliflower for a little more richness.

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad – believe it or not, this salad can be made several days in advance. Unlike lettuce, the kale is hearty enough to not get slimy under the weight of the vinaigrette. Flavors actually get better if made a day in advance. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Raw lacitano kale for Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

Dessert

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider – pie can be made one day in advance. I usually serve apple pie with this Calvados Ice Cream (it’s heaven). You can omit the boiled cider to save time. Add a bit more sugar to compensate.

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider

Bourbon Milkshakes – can’t really be made in advance, but really easy to make using store-bought ingredients. And a perfect ending to your fabulous Thanksgiving meal. Give yourself a round of (bourbon-y) applause!

Bourbon Milkshake

Honey Caramels

Honey Caramels come to you in honor of NYC’s Pollinator Week (this week!), which is coordinated by Just Food. Beekeeping is currently illegal in New York City (sign a petition to make it legal here), although there are quite a few rogue beekeepers in Brooklyn and in the rest of New York City. Read more about urban beekeeping here.

I found this recipe in the Puerto Rican Cookbook by Elizabeth B.K. Dooley, an antique cookbook that is part of my growing collection of ye olde cookbooks. It dates from the mid-40s, and is a fascinating collection of Puerto Rican food from the era of American colonization (i.e, prior to Puerto Rico becoming a Commonwealth). It’s got an entire chapter dedicated to recipes made with honey; pretty interesting coming from an island that grew a heck of a lot of sugar cane.

If you’re a novice candy maker, it really, really helps to have a candy thermometer on hand. The various stages of candy making (soft ball, firm ball, hard ball, etc.) tend to happen really, really quickly – you can take your candy from firm ball to hard ball in just seconds and then be totally screwed (mind out of the gutter, people). Without a proper candy thermometer, you will have to drop a bit of your candy into ice water to determine its stage in the candy making process. Don’t be intimidated – it’s really not that difficult, you just have to pay close attention to what’s going on in your pot.  Also – hot sugar is one of the hottest, most dangerous things you’ll come across in the kitchen. I kid you not. If you get hot caramel on your skin, it just keeps on burning and burning. (Speaking from experience here.) So be careful, OK?

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup honey (mild honey works best here)
1 cup raw sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Fleur de sel or other sea salt for topping

Special Equipment: 8×8 pan, candy thermometer (optional)

Procedure:

1. Line an 8×8 pan with aluminum foil, letting the edges of the foil hang over the side of the pan, and spray with cooking spray, or butter generously.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan.
3. Add the honey, sugar, and heavy cream. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has mostly dissolved.
4. Turn the heat to medium low. Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan….carefully.
5. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches firm ball stage, which you can determine in one of two ways: a. the mixture reaches 248ºF (give or take a degree or two) on a candy thermometer (it will be marked with “FB” or “firm ball”) or b. Drop a bit of the mixture into a small bowl filled with ice water. It should immediately form a ball that you can squeeze together with your fingers without it dissipating.
6. Immediately remove from the heat, quickly stir in the vanilla (it will bubble slightly) and pour the mixture into your greased pan. Sprinkle with fleur de sel or other sea salt.
7. Let cool, lift out of the pan using the foil, then cut into squares and wrap in squares of parchment paper or cellophane.

Note: If you happen to accidentally take your caramels past the firm ball stage (i.e., if the caramel mixture gets a little too hard after it has cooled), remelt the candy over low heat with 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the mixture is totally combined, then do the ice water test to check the consistency of the mixture (dropping the mixture into cold water is a reliable indicator of what the texture/consistency of the caramels will be when cool). Immediately pour into a newly-foil lined and greased pan, and cool completely.

Bacon Muffins

The Bacon Muffin is brought to you as part of a series on Brooklyn Farmhouse that showcases ye olde recipes from antique cookbooks. Sometimes recipes in old cookbooks can be a bit tricky, with unclear measurements (“a teacup”) or instructions. I have solved that problem for you by culling through my soon-to-be-vast collection of antique cookbooks, testing the interesting recipes I find, and sharing those recipes with you.

I found The Bacon Muffin in Meta Given’s The Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, first published in 1947.  This cookbook was once my grandmother’s. It’s such an interesting book – one can see the “better living through chemistry” mindset beginning to form, with lots of information about vitamins and minerals (“When you think of Thiamin…”) and lots of recipes for molded salads. But the book still has its feet firmly planted in an older way of eating, with an entire chapter devoted to game (“Muskrat Fricassee”) and a chapter called “Homemaker’s Handbook for Stretching the Food Dollar”, with sections like: Make it Yourself, Choose a Dependable Market, Use Cash-and-Carry Service (i.e., don’t rely on credit), Have Your Own Garden, and Make Use of Leftovers. And Ms. Given is clearly a bacon lover. What’s not to love about this book?

The Bacon Muffin is really more like a cross between a biscuit and a muffin. With bacon in it. The texture is a bit courser than what I normally think of as a muffin, but the batter isn’t thick enough to roll out; it’s rather like a drop biscuit that you bake in a muffin tin. The only ingredient substitution I made (aside from my Note, below), is light brown sugar for white sugar. Feel free to use either.

Note: The two slices of bacon the recipe calls for only made one tablespoon of bacon fat for me, although the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of bacon fat. I simply added 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to the 1 tablespoon of warm bacon fat, although you could certainly add melted butter or another type of oil, or just cook up another couple of slices of bacon, eat the bacon, and use the fat. The amount of bacon fat you get from a given slice of bacon will vary depending on the type of bacon you use.  Basically, you want 2 tablespoons of some kind of liquid fat.

Ingredients:
2 slices bacon, chopped finely
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons melted bacon drippings (see Note, above)

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Grease (or spray with cooking spray) a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
2. Pan fry the chopped bacon in a small, heavy saucepan until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and let cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and light brown sugar together until well-combined. Add bacon pieces and stir until they are well distributed and coated in the flour mixture.
4. Lightly beat the egg in a medium bowl. Add the milk and the bacon drippings and stir to combine.
5. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients all at once, stir quickly until just combined, then stir 5-6 more times until well blended. Do not stir until smooth.
6. Drop batter by spoonfuls into the greased muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
8. Serve hot. Maybe with some maple butter?

Makes 12 biscuit-y muffins.

This recipe for Sally Lunn (yes, that’s the name of the recipe!) is from the Francis Parkinson Keyes Cookbook, dated 1955. Who was Francis Parkinson Keyes? Well, apparently she was a novelist and a senator’s wife and had political leanings that left a little something to be desired – which is why her novels haven’t really stood the test of time. Aside from this, her cookbook has some odd little gems and so I’m going to stick with her recipes and not so much her politics or her novels.

Sally Lunn is a sort of white bread, sort of brioche-y, sort of savory, and sort of sweet. It apparently dates from the 1680s. It’s a bit of an oddity, really. Hard to classify. But so delicious. It’s a really easy yeast bread to make and only requires one rise, right in the pan. I used a 12-cup Bundt pan, but you could use a tube pan or even two loaf pans. I also used cardamom sugar to top the cake-bread-brioche, but feel free to use regular sugar (or vanilla sugar would be nice, too).

Sally Lunn

Crunchy, sugar-y top of Sally Lunn

Ingredients:

One 1/4-ounce (7 gram) package instant yeast
2 cups whole milk, heated to almost boiling, then cooled to lukewarm (about 110ºF)
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon cardamom sugar (or regular sugar)
Cooking spray

Special Equipment: 12-cup Bundt pan (or tube pan of equivalent size)

Procedure:

1. Spray the Bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the butter, flour, eggs, and salt, and beat with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the greased Bundt pan and cover with plastic wrap. Set in a warm, draft free place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the batter has doubled in bulk.
4. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
5. Sprinkle the Sally Lunn with the sugar and bake for 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
6. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, give a the pan a good rap on the counter, and invert onto a cooling wrack.
7. Serve warm with jam, honey, cheese, or any number of delicious savory or sweet accompaniments.

Cut Sally Lunn