LEFTOVER STOLLEN? - STOLLEN TORTE WITH BLUEBERRIES

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Left to his own devices while working on some projects, the best of all husbands didn't want to spend much time on cooking or going into restaurants. But men have to eat, especially if they are tiling and putting up sinks, so he went to the supermarket and grabbed a piece of stollen, a leftover from Christmas (and heavily discounted!) 

Most of it he brought home (who can live of stollen for a sustained time?) and there it was, waiting for eager eaters, where there were only people who, after the holidays, were "stollened-out" for the rest of the year. 

Stollen leftover, ready for recycling

St. Honoré, the patron saint of bakers, must have heard my weary sigh, when I saw this Stollen of Christmas Past.

The very next day I found in my blog list a post by master baker Wolfgang Süpke: the leftovers Stollen Torte!

Having a smaller piece of stollen, I downsized the recipe from 28 cm/11" diameter to 21 cm/9".

Since the store bought stollen was quite sweet, I reduced the sugar a bit, and added some lemon and vanilla.

And, living in Maine, I used (frozen) wild blueberries instead of a preserve (and doubled the amount.) The quark in the filling I substituted with cream cheese.

We liked the torte very much. The sweetness of the stollen bottom was balanced by the berries and slightly lemony cream filling.

Stollen Torte looks nice with a simple blueberry topping, too

STOLLEN TORTE  (adapted from Wolfgang Süpke)
(12 servings)

Cake
560 g/20 oz blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used wild Maine blueberries)
420 g/15 oz stollen, cut in thick slices (1.5 cm/0.6")
130 g/4.5 oz sugar
17 g/0.6 oz gelatin powder
56 g/2 oz cold water
225 g/8 oz whipping or heavy cream, at room temperature
225 g/8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
225 g/8 oz low fat yogurt, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. lemon juice, or more to taste
2 tsp. lemon zest, or more to taste

Frosting and decoration
1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream
blueberries

Cook blueberries with 20 g of the sugar, until they break down, and the liquid is reduced by about a third (too much juice will leak out of the cake bottom.)

Grease 21-cm cake rim (or ring of a springform pan), then dust with powdered sugar.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Fill ring with stollen slices, filling out holes with smaller pieces.

Fill cake ring with stollen slices

Spoon cooked blueberries evenly over stollen bottom. 

Distribute blueberries over stollen layer

In a small bowl, stir gelatin into the water, and let sit until water is absorbed. Microwave until mixture is dissolved, stirring now and then.

Mix cream cheese filling

Whisk cream until soft peaks form. In second large bowl, mix cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest, until well combined. Stir in whipped cream, mixing well.

Spread filling over blueberries

Temper melted gelatin by adding 3 tablespoons of the cream mixture, one by one, mixing until well combined.(If the gelatin clumps because you didn't work fast enough, briefly nuke it in the microwave again.)

Pour gelatin in cream mixture, stirring until well blended. Pour filling over blueberries, smoothing surface with rubber spatula. Cover, and refrigerate torte overnight.

After removing the ring, the sides have to be frosted

To serve, remove cake ring. Frost sides with whipped cream, then decorate the top. (I made small circles on top and fill them with blueberries.) Or simply sprinkle it with blueberries.

Update 12/30/15: In the meantime, I have made the Stollen Torte with leftover stollen, panettone, and poppy seed stollen - all tasted wonderful!

Stollen Torte with Blueberries

MOHNSTOLLEN - GERMAN POPPY SEED STOLLEN

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The kids no longer living with us, I get late into Christmas mode. No Adventskranz (traditional wreath with 4 candles lit for each Sunday before Christmas) on the table, no calendar window to open.

Toasted hazelnuts: one of my favorite things

Having to limit my output I'll do two of the best: Mohnstollen (Poppy Seed Stollen) and Lebkuchen (German spice cookies).

Before I came to Maine I never made either of them. Stollen I always got from my mother, and I never cared too much for Lebkuchen (something that should change dramatically.)

To find a perfect recipe for Mohnstollen wasn't easy - there are so many of them. Finally I settled on one whose list of ingredients I liked best - it had hazelnuts!

I would add an overnight fermentation, reduce the sugar, and exchange some of the white flour with whole wheat, and half of the raisins with cranberries for a little bit of tartness.

So far so good! But what about the most important part of the Stollen: the poppy seed filling?

Ground poppy seeds

Germans use "Mohnback", a ready-made poppy seed mix you can buy everywhere. Luckily I found a recipe for a DIY Mohnback, with almond paste, semolina flour, milk and eggs.

Our Cuisinart coffee mill that we were about ready to trash - it did a miserable job with coffee beans - now got a second chance.

And, lo and behold, it ground the poppy seeds as if it were made for just that purpose.

The Mohnstollen turned out so good that now I sell some, too - and I won't tell my mother that mine is better than hers!

 
MOHNSTOLLEN - GERMAN POPPY SEED STOLLEN  (1-2 loaves)
(adapted from "Essen & Trinken")

SPONGE
125 ml milk, lukewarm
125 g all-purpose flour
17 g instant yeast

POPPY SEED FILLING
148 g milk
10 g semolina flour
143 g poppy seed, ground
26 g honey
1 pinch salt
1 egg yolk
57 g raisins, coarsely chopped
11 g almond slices
100 g almond paste, grated

FRUIT SOAKER
50 g raisins
50 g dried sweetened cranberries
50 g orange peel
50 g citron
50 g rum (or orange juice)

DOUGH
all sponge
50 g whole wheat pastry flour
275 g all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
20 g honey
10 g milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
200 g butter, softened
100 g almond paste, coarsely grated (box grater)
50 g hazelnuts, toasted, chopped
50 g butter, melted, for topping
50 g powdered sugar, for topping

Fruit soaker

DAY 1
For the rum fruits, chop all fruits in a food processor (or with a chef's knife) to desired size. Transfer to a small bowl, add rum (or juice) and mix well.

For the sponge, stir together flour, yeast and lukewarm milk until all flour is hydrated. Let rise at room temperature, until foamy and just ready to collapse.

The sponge is bubbly and about ready to collapse - just right!

For the filling, bring milk to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and stir in semolina flour.Add poppy seeds, honey, salt, egg yolk, raisins and almond slices. Mix well. Add almond paste and combine. Cover and keep cool until using.
  
Place sponge, flours, honey, salt, milk, vanilla extract, butter and almond paste in bowl of stand mixer (paddle attachment), and mix at low speed (or mix by hand). Add hazelnuts and rum fruits, and continue mixing until everything comes together. Switch to medium-low speed (or continue kneading by hand) and knead for 4 minutes.

Fruity, nutty dough

Let dough rest for 5 minute, then resume kneading for another 1 minute. Place dough ball in oiled container with lid, and refrigerate overnight.

DAY 2
Remove dough from refrigerator at least 2 hours before using, to come to room temperature.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into an 18 x 12 inch/45 x 30 cm square. (For smaller individual loaves, cut dough into 2 equal pieces, and roll them out separately, the short side should be about the depth of the baking sheet.)

Spread poppy seed filling over dough square, leaving the edges free

Using a spatula, spread poppy seed filling evenly over dough square(s), leaving the edges free (1/2 inch). Fold short sides in, then loosely roll up from long side. Place stollen, seam side down, on parchment lined baking sheet.

First fold the short sides in, then roll up from the long side

Cover stollen with plastic wrap,  and let rise at room temperature for 60 - 120 minutes, or until it has grown about 1 1/2 times its original size, and a dimple, made with your finger, stays visible. (If the stollen doesn't rise long enough, it might split open in the oven.)

Stollen: speckled from nuts and fruits (here a small one)

Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC.

Bake large stollen for about 60 - 70 minutes (smaller ones: 45 - 50 minutes), rotating them 180 degrees after half the baking time, for even browning. They should be golden brown and register at least 195ºF/90ºC on an instant read thermometer.

Stollen fresh from the oven

Brush with melted butter while still hot. Dust generously with powdered sugar. Repeat this procedure once again. This sugar coating doesn't only protect the stollen from drying out - it also covers a lot of sins, like cracks or blemishes in the crust!

Let the stollen cool completely on a rack. (I then usually cut larger stollen in halves.)

Brush with butter followed by a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar

Keep stollen cool, wrapped in aluminum foil. It takes a day or two to develop its full flavor. Mohnstollen keeps for at least 2 weeks.

Two who are happy about the snow - and don't have to shovel!

December 2016: Following suggestions by my family, I modified the ingredients for the final dough slightly, reducing the amount of whole wheat flour and adding a bit of milk and honey (therefore I removed the BreadStorm formula from the post.)

Submitted to Yeast Spotting

Submitted to Panissimo:  Bread & Companatico                                       
                                        Indovina chi viene a cena