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Stollen

16th December 2020 by Paul Merry

These rich tea breads are found all over northern Europe at Christmas time, having had ancient Christian religious connotations.  

They are German in origin, and come in endless regional variety, permitting a wide range of shape and finishing touches.   The rod of marzipan running down the middle is entirely optional, as is the use of spice, and the choice of liquor in which you soak the fruit.

In order to keep them fresh and attractively edible over the long Christmas season they would be repeatedly washed with melted butter.  In that way the outside of the loaf would be sealed so that it would keep well between its appearances at the table. Whenever it was put away in the pantry or in a tin, it was washed with the melted butter, whenever brought out to be served, it was dusted with icing sugar.

Stollen 1
One of these is clearly revealing its marzipan rod

Method

Begin with a ferment.  The ferment gives the yeast a flying start, so that it will cope better when it meets all the rich and greasy ingredients which, while making the stollens delicious, are heavy going for the yeast and separate it from easy access to its food.

Beforehand, best overnight: soak the fruit (raisins and sultanas) in half a cup of rum. Yeast is upset when alcoholic liquor is added directly to dough, hence it is best to deliver the flavour of rum in the fruit

The ferment

  • 350 ml. (5/8 pt.) warm milk
  • 40 gm. ( 11/2 oz ) fresh yeast
  • 15 gm (1/2 oz) sugar
  • 110 gm ( 4 oz) strong bread flour

Whisk all these together in a deep bowl and put it aside in a place which is at room temperature.  In less than an hour it will have gassed up sufficiently to be used. It is ready when gas bubbles are bursting on the surface.

The dough

Add the ferment to the rest of the ingredients, making sure that you gather the dough together BEFORE adding all the butter.

  • 2 eggs
  • 800 gm ( 1lb 12oz) strong flour
  • 15 gm (1/2oz ) salt – less if using salted butter
  • 75 gm  ( 21/2oz ) brown sugar
  • 175 gm  ( 6 oz ) butter                       

The aim is to have a moist and light dough. Adjust with more flour if it seems too sloppy, but it should remain a soft and pliable dough.   When you think it is silky and the gluten is sufficiently developed,

Add the following

The fruits

  • 350 gm ( 12oz ) sultanas/raisins/chopped cherries
  • Zest of  1 or 2 lemons

Let the dough sit, well covered, for at least an hour, longer if it is cool. It will have reached full proof when it has doubled in size, and looks so puffed up that it is almost ready to collapse.

This quantity will make two large, or four small stollens.  Divide the dough into the number you want.   Mould them by rolling and patting until you have gently expelled all the gas and got them into a neat oval shape.

They need another short rest before you flatten them out to the width of a bread and butter plate for the small ones, or a dinner plate for the large ones. Rather than having them round, try to keep them in an oval shape.  With quick and gentle movements of the rolling pin make a hollow down the length of the oval and lay the marzipan rod along the groove.   With the marzipan rod as a backbone fold the back towards the front so that the spread oval is turned into a half-circle.  Leave the edges puffy, not pressed hard together, so that they resemble a pair of lips.

Egg wash thoroughly , and prove them before baking in a moderate oven, which for most domestic ovens would be about 170 – 180 degrees C, or 330 – 350 F.  Squeeze them gently and feel their sides spring back to know that they are done.  After baking they are repeatedly washed over with melted butter.  Before serving they can be dusted with icing sugar and tied in a satin ribbon.

The marzipan, or modelling paste

  • 120 gm  ( 4oz )  ground almonds
  • 60 gm  ( 2oz )  icing sugar
  • 90 gm  ( 3oz )  castor sugar
  • 1 small egg
  • Optional – the zest of an orange

Mix all together by hand or with a wooden spoon until it is properly gathered together.   It should not stick to you when it is rolled into rods on the bench.  Add some more almonds if it seems too wet.

Fashion the marzipan into a thick rod on the bench, then cut it into four. Now roll each segment into a slender rod about as long as your handspan, to neatly fit the width of the folded stollen.

Working with stoneground flour

6th October 2020 by Paul Merry

Stonground flour
N R Stoates & Sons , Cann, Shaftesbury. Millers of stonground flour

Stoneground flour is a niche product

Stoneground flour, in the vast field of flour milling, is a niche product. Although it is putting the clock back, there is an explanation for why it has not simply died out, and that explanation is found in its inherent nutrition. The stone-grinding process retains an admirable amount of vitamins and minerals, leading to high nutrition when compared with industrial flour which is so refined that it would be fair to call it emaciated, hence the Flour Act makes it mandatory for it to be fortified with synthetic vitamins, iron, and calcium.

It’s more nutritious

Working with stoneground flour 2
The wheat berry

Stoneground is nutritious because it is barely refined. While its sieving mechanism may remove about 28% of its bulk as the bran is removed, a beige coloured flour results which still contains fine fragments of bran. Further, it contains significant amounts of the layers between the outer bran and the endosperm (the inner white part). These under-bran layers (particularly the aleurone layer) are highly nutritious, particularly for minerals. Regarding vitamins, not only does it contain the B group of vitamins gained from the endosperm, but more importantly it is suffused with the precious germ oil, that contains three vitamins alone.

Higher levels of enzymes

Along with all this nutrition, stoneground flour has higher levels of the enzymes that lead to brisk fermentation. These are the enzymes that convert starch into the types of sugar that yeast wants to devour. They come with the endosperm, but bigger deposits of them occur around the germ and the under-layers of bran – those layers mentioned earlier that lie between endosperm and outer bran, including the aleurone layer.

Added enzymes mean that the baker must be careful to lower the amount of yeast, and make sure the temperature of the dough is on the cool side. I aim for 22-24 deg C., and I would have yeast at 2% of flour as the upper limit.

The presence of added enzymes and minerals causes the dough to break down more rapidly, and this factor when combined with brisker fermentation activity, leads to the releasing of more water into the dough, which in time becomes softer, and sticky. Hence the baker must be careful to reduce dough water a little and make slightly tighter dough than would occur with industrial flour.

Lower loaf volume

When working with stoneground white, there will not be the same loaf volume as is yielded by industrial white flour. All those tiny fragments of bran will undermine the gluten, even cutting gluten strands, and generally inhibiting the stretchiness of the gluten.

Enhanced signs of ripeness

Finally, the signs of ripeness will be more obvious when the dough is made with stoneground flour. Rather than seeing an array of surface bubbles, at full ripeness the surface of the dough will be more generally deteriorated, looking pock-marked along with surface gas deposits. The baker must be watchful to work the dough before that deterioration is too marked, resulting in the over-proved dough, which will never make the best bread

Working with stoneground flour 3
Ripe dough, pock-marking

Kugelhopf – popular in the Alsace

15th July 2020 by Paul Merry

The many spellings of the name indicate the provenance of this bread to be from countless places and nations of Central Europe. It is very popular in Alsace, where it is Kugelhopf, and it became a staple among the vast array of cakes in Vienna, where they say Gugelhupf. Other places that lay claim to it, include Switzerland, the Balkans, Czech Republic and Poland. It is found at Christmas and Harvest Festivals, as well as private celebrations like weddings and baptisms.

Kugelhopf or Gugelhupf
Gugelhupf is made on the Nordic-Germanic course (28th Nov 2020)

The bread is rich and soft, and often features raisins and almonds. Like a brioche it is easily described as cake rather than bread.  In Alsace and through the southern German regions, the name is used to refer to any type of coffee bread which has the distinct shape of the central hole with steeply fluted sides and top. The fluted sides make the bread look very imposing. It is thought that the shape of the mould inspired its name since in medieval times it was known in some places as the hat bread. Gugel in ancient German means hat or pointy hood.

The original moulds were enamelled ceramic, but metal is most common today. The ceramic moulds can be so pretty that they are hung up as decoration when not in use, and the Alsatians would include an elaborate mould as part of a woman’s trousseau, with the family’s kugelhopf recipe being given to her by her mother on her wedding day.

The shape of the mould ensures easier cooking as the heat penetrates quickly to the centre of the loaf. This would not necessarily be the case with a heavier ceramic mould which would take a longer baking time.

Towards the end of the mix I predict you will become in awe of the amount of eggs and butter that can be beaten into the dough. A well made kugelhopf is so runny that you could virtually pour it into the mould.

I like the look of whole almonds studded into the outside crust, right at the top of the splendid-looking bread. For this feature, you must remember to toss a dozen or so almonds into the greased mould before pouring the mix into it.

Kugelhopf Recipe

Ingredients

The recipe below will make one large bread in a mould of 23cm (9inch) wide. 

  • 400 gm (14oz) white flour of medium-strong strength
  • 5 gm (1/2 teaspoon) salt
  • 200 ml (7fl.oz) milk, warmed
  • 20 gm (2/3oz) fresh yeast
  • 60 gm (2oz) sugar
  • zest of either one lemon or orange
  • 3 eggs
  • 120-140 gm (4-5oz) butter, room temperature – still firm, not soft
  • 150 gm (5oz) sultanas and raisins (soaked in rum-optional)
  • Almonds for decoration, about 50 gm

Method

  1. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl wide enough to make a well in the centre.
  2. Disperse the yeast in the warm milk and pour the liquid into the well. 
  3. Draw enough flour down from the steep sides to make a wet batter in the centre. 
  4. This is the first stage, the ferment, which will get the yeast feeding actively. At this point make sure the butter is out of the refrigerator.
  5. After about half an hour, when the ferment is frothing vigorously, add the eggs and begin making the dough.  It should be a wet dough, but it should be firm enough to leave the sides of the bowl when it starts becoming stretchable and elastic. 
  6. Beat it with a rotary action with your hand or a wooden spoon, employing a lifting action that pulls and stretches it.  A mixing machine would be a fine alternative if you wish to avoid any risk of exhaustion. When the dough feels pliable and elastic it will also appear glossy.
  7. Beat the butter into it in two or three bursts. 
  8. Stop the kneading when you are confident that the butter has been worked in evenly.  Don’t be alarmed if the dough is so slack it will almost pour.
  9. Now gently incorporate the fruit and zest. If you have soaked the raisins in booze, make sure they are well-drained before mixing them in.
  10. The proof will occur in the mould, which should be made ready by a  heavy greasing with butter, and whole or slivered almonds strewn around the indentations at the bottom (which will be the top of the cake when it is baked).
  11. Scrape the dough out into the mould, which should be approximately half full. 
  12. Cover it carefully, and prove in a warm place until it has risen almost to the top of the mould, about an inch short of the top. This will probably take 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
  13. The oven should be medium in heat. Brick Oven. In brick oven baking this means all the bread baking is over and the temperature of the oven has slumped down to temperatures suitable for casseroles, pastry, cake. Domestic Oven. For domestic, ovens you must make sure your oven is not too hot, because the Gugelhupf is a sugary bread which will burn easily.  Somewhere around 190C, 380F or gas mark 6 should be the setting. 
  14. The baking time will be 30-40 minutes.  The colour should be a deep golden brown, and a test to see whether it is done can be the skewer test: when inserted into the belly of the bread, the skewer should come out clean if it is properly baked.
  15. Further, after turning it out, you can confirm that it is baked by a gentle finger poke to the inside top, whereupon it springs back when you poke a dent in it.
  16. Turning it out must be done with care. Gently shake it out of the mould onto a cooling wire. Before serving, dust with icing sugar when it has cooled.
Learn to bake this bread on my Nordic-German class

Green dough

21st May 2020 by Paul Merry

In the same way that unripe fruit is described as green, the jargon of the craftsmen bakers applied the same expression to wheaten dough that had not developed fully and hence was considered unripe. When I began baking in the seventies, I was fortunate that I could still meet and work with these old tradesmen/craftsmen, and I learned many of their expressions, customs and yardsticks.

There is a price to pay for working green dough, and you will never make your best bread with it. There is a tightness to the structure, and the loaves are of a mean and small stature because the lack of fermentation leaves the gluten undeveloped and less stretchy. To develop fully, gluten needs more than simply time to enable the water to merge wih the gluten proteins (glutenin and gliadin) to form an expandable webbing. There must also be the process of adequate fermentation activity which, by leaving organic acids in its wake, mellows and strengthens the gluten so that it has the capability of expanding fully as it traps the gas made by the yeast. Proceeding to work off a green dough means that you are carrying on with something that has not reached its full potential.

Another fault with green dough is that the resulting bread will stale quicker for the same reason as it has poor stature – the lack of fermentation development results in a rapid staling process as the starches and proteins expel more easily the water bound to them.

There are three signs by which you will recognise that you have worked green dough, well before it reaches the oven:

  • open, self-supporting shapes like cobs will slump badly
  • the dough will retain bubbles to the extent that it is difficult to mould (shape), and will have ungainly bubbles on its surface when shaped and
  • the loaves will be uncharacteristically slow in final proof.

After the oven you will see that the crust colour is strangely bright, even reddish, since there will be a greater amount of residual sugars left behind in green dough owing to the reduced yeast activity. This reddish crust colour was called “foxy” by the craftsmen bakers.

How to avoid green dough?

By being in tune with the clear signs of ripeness of a fully developed dough, and being patient as you await that state.

Green dough 4
Sideways view of ripe dough

Yeasted Dough

For conventionally yeasted doughs there must be gas deposits on the surface, or the surface must be pock-marked; if abruptly slapped the surface of the dough should sink away; if poked with a floury finger, the resultant hole should not be able to close, but should stay as a distinct cavity. If, as I recommend, you prove the bulk dough in a clear plastic (or glass) vessel, whereby you can see the sides of the bulk dough, you can learn through practice what exactly are the size of the gas bubbles visible at the side when the dough is fully ripe.

Wheaten Sourdough

For wheaten sourdough, which may only rise about a quarter or a third in its bulk, you will learn to recognise the look of the side bubbles as well as the tiny blisters on its surface. With sourdough you will also appreciate the feel of strength and gluten development as you give it a series of folds in the earlier stages of its bulk proof. By the last fold you will feel that it is feeling floppier as fermentation gases are lodging in it.

There are occasions when you may be aware that a green dough has been taken to the table. The situation can sometimes be rectified by giving it an abnormally long bench rest (usually called by me “intermediate rest”), and in that way some more fermentation maturity can be achieved, with the final bread being saved from the most unappealing aspects of green dough.

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BAKER’S TOPICS

  • 20 degree temperature threshold
  • A New Approach To Sourdough Wheat Leaven
  • Autolyse
  • Bagels and the water bath
  • Baker’s Tip: Coarser flours take more water
  • Baker’s Tip: Simple Plaiting
  • Baker’s Tip:. Quantities of different yeasts
  • Baking on a tile
  • Chelsea Buns
  • Dough fermentation: The Fold
  • EASTER BAKING
  • Finishing a cob
  • Firing a cold oven
  • Flour too strong?
  • Green dough
  • How To Make The Devonshire Split
  • Kneading dough
  • Kugelhopf – popular in the Alsace
  • Large ovens: separate furnace or fire on the floor?
  • Making a cob (Part 1)
  • Making the Round Shape, Both Loose and Tight – Part 1
  • Making the Round Shape, Both Loose and Tight – Part 3
  • Malt, Maltose, Malt Products
  • Oxygen in dough
  • Plaiting
  • Plaiting – Part I
  • Poolish
  • Read Paul’s views on “craft”, as they appeared recently in two published articles
  • Rolling Olives & Oil Into Finished Dough
  • Salt
  • Scalded flour
  • Shaping for a tin
  • Stollen
  • Stoneground Flour
  • Sweet pastry
  • Table skills – Part I
  • Table skills – Part II
  • Temperature chart
  • The “ferment”
  • The baguette
  • The Chelsea Bun
  • The Country Housewife’s Outdoor Cloche Oven, 1897
  • Types Of Yeast
  • Understanding acidity & sourness
  • Use of the Sponge
  • Volume in a loaf
  • Water temperature and yeast
  • Wedding Rolls: How to Make Them
  • What’s special about wood-fired ovens?
  • Working with stoneground flour
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Teaching Breadmaking Since 1997
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