It just won't be complete without it

Those of you who know me, know that I love bread. Fresh white, still warm from the oven, with loads of real butter; crusty brown with cheese; stale, so that I can use it for bread-and-butter pudding; white or brown, toasted, with marmalade; eggs and soldiers. There is something comforting, homely and wholesome about bread. More so than anything else, in my (not so) humble opinion.

Breakfast, and dinner, just wouldn't be complete without it.

Throughout Europe, you can find festive loafs for all kinds of occasions. Pretzels (Germany) were traditionally eaten at New Year; the dough would contain lemon peel, cut into three even pieces and braided and then shaped into a pretzel shape and baked (no salt on top). Braid (Switzerland), traditionally eaten at breakfast on festive days; cut into two even pieces for a 4-part braid. Easter Bread (Finland), as the name suggests, eaten at Easter; the dough is made with condensed milk and contains dried fruit, citrus peel,

cardamom and almonds and is baked in an enamelled pan. Vasilopita (Greece), traditionally eaten on the first day of the year to celebrate St Basilius; a golden or silver coin is baked inside the dough (whoever finds it will have a year of good fortune). All Souls 'Braid' (Bavarian), eaten on All Hallow's Eve; the dough is cut into thirty-six pieces and shaped into a complex braid before being baked.

This is just a very, very, very small selection and if I were to look at the various 'plain' breads I could fill three posts with just the variations of breads within Germany, where every region has its own breads.

In Germany and the 'low countries' it is traditional to eat Stollen at Christmas and Easter. The bread is chock-full of dried fruits, candied peel, almond paste and wears a pretty coat of icing sugar and slightly browned almond slivers. (As breads go, you could go worse.)

The tradition of eating Stollen at Christmas dates back to the 1400s; it was created for the first time in 1427 at the Saxon Royal Court in Dresden and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water, the result was a 'bread' that was very hard and rather tasteless. In those days the Advent season was one of fasting and bakers were not allowed to use butter. That changed in 1490,

when Pope Innocent VIII allowed the Prince Elector Ernst, his family and household to use butter. If other people wanted to use butter, they could do so but had to pay an annual fee (this fee was used to build the Freiberg Minster. When Saxony became Protestant the ban on butter was lifted. Over the years the hard, tasteless 'bread' evolved into a lighter, sweeter cake with richer ingredients such as almond paste and dried fruits. But the traditional Stollen that is still baked in Dresden is not as light, airy and sweet as copies that are now made the world over.

It is best to bake the bread a couple of days in advance as the flavours will mature a bit and the bread will get slightly denser. Good (finger thick) slices, served with real butter and a slice of good cheese (optional). Grilling or toasting the bread works a treat as the sugar in the almond paste will start to caramelise.

And so, as promised in my blog on 27 October: Tradition, here is the recipe for this tasty bread.

Christmas Stollen

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons dried yeast (20 gram) (you can use fresh yeast, you will need about 50 gram)
• 350 millilitre warm milk (45ºC)
• 2 large eggs
• 150 gram icing sugar
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 150 gram unsalted butter, softened
• 700 gram bread flour
• 150 gram sultanas
• 150 gram glacé cherries (quartered)
• 150 gram raisins
• 200 gram mixed candied citrus peel, chopped small
• 400 gram almond paste

Decoration

• icing sugar to dust
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon, mixed in with the icing sugar (optional)
• toasted almond slivers for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Add the yeast to the warm milk and leave until it becomes 'creamy', about 10 minutes (if you are using fresh yeast, crumble the yeast into the milk and leave until dissolved)
2. In a separate bowl, mix the dried fruit, candied peel (recipe here) and glacé cherries
3. In a large bowl, mix the yeast mixture with the eggs, icing sugar, salt, butter and three quarters of the flour and mix thoroughly
4. In small quantities, start adding the rest of the flour and knead this into the dough
5. As soon as the dough comes together into a ball and is releasing from the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly flour work surface and knead in the mixed dried fruits
• Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes
6. Oil a large bowl, put the dough in the bowl and turn it around a couple of times to cover it in the oil, cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave the dough to prove, in a warm and draft-free space, until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour
   
• Grease a baking sheet, ready for when the bread is shaped
7. Take the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly work surface and beat it back, form the dough into a big square
8. Form the almond paste (recipe here) into a roll and put this in the middle of the dough (see right)
9. Fold one half of the dough over the almond paste and press the seam down (traditional, see below for photo)
10. Place the loaf onto the baking sheet, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size, about 40 minutes
11. Preheat the oven to 180ºC
12. Put the baking sheet (with the loaf) into the oven and bake for 10 minutes
13. Lower the temperature to 150ºC and bake for a further 30-40 minutes until the bread is a lovely dark golden colour
14. As soon as the bread is out of the oven, brush with a little melted butter and sprinkle the toasted almond slivers over the (now) sticky bread
15. Leave the bread to cool on a rack
16. Sift the icing sugar (mix in the cinnamon, if using) over the cooled down bread

Variations:

• You can change the taste of the bread by adjusting the quantities of dried fruit, candied peel and glacé cherries to your own taste
• For a fruity burst, replace the raisins with 150 gram dried cranberries
• You can add dried apple and/or pear, replacing the glacé cherries
• For a slightly more 'adult' version, try soaking the dried fruit in either rum or brandy
• Leave the fruit to soak as long as possible, preferably over night, but for a minimum of 1 hour
• drain any leftover liquid off the fruit and add it to the milk in step 3
• If you don't want to use alcohol for soaking the fruit, try using tea but do not use the leftover liquid in the dough
• You can add 2 teaspoons of your favourite 'Christmas' spice(mix), such as cinnamon, to the flour
• Mix even quantities of ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground nutmeg and about half the used quantity of ground cloves and add two teaspoons of this mix to the flour (I usually make a larger quantity and use this to bake spiced Christmas cookies and spiced Christmas Wreaths)
• If you want to use star anise, add two stars to a pan with 350 millilitre cold milk and slowly bring to a simmer, leave to cool to 45ºC. Remove the stars before you add the yeast (step 1)
• You could use the Stollen as a centre piece on the table:
• Once you have reached step 9, place the 'loaf' inside a greased 'turban' mold and follow the rest of the steps

• After the bread has cooled down and has been dusted with the icing sugar, place on a large serving platter and place a candle in the centre of the bread

As they say in Germany:

Gutten Appetit

or, in English

Enjoy