Day 1: Stollen

When baking for a day still quite far away in the future, it’s important to make sure that what you’re baking will still be good on the D-day.

So what could be a better candidate than a Christmas cake that was traditionally baked in Germany around the Christmas time - and eaten until Easter? This Christmas wonder is called Stollen - and that's what I decided to start with.

Most Stollen recipes involve a lot of yeast. I’m not a big fan of yeast, and I prefer baking with sourdough starter instead. So I tried to bake my Stollen with sourdough starter, with only a tiny bit of yeast as a guarantee it would ferment properly (maybe it’s the low temperature in my house, but my starter hasn’t worked perfectly lately).

It’s impossible to say whether the recipe I’ll share withyou is a good one. I will only be able to tell in about two week's time - that's how long it takes for this cake to develop its taste fully. But judging by the taste of the dough and the smell of the Stollen, I’m very optimistic!

For two smallish Stollen (a bit less than 450g each) you need:

• 120g sourdough starter, refreshed about 6-8 hours before with milk


• about 2g fresh yeast


• 100ml milk


• 2 Tbsp rum


• 1 egg


• 80g butter, melted


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon


• 50g sugar


• a pinch of salt


• a pinch of cardamom


• a pinch of cinnamon


• 140g sultanas


• 3 Tbsp candied lemon peel


• 40g ground almond


• 250g all-purpose flour

• plus about 70g melted butter and 4 tsp confectioner’s sugar on top

This is how you make it:

Combine lukewarm milk and yeast in a baking bowl. Add starter, egg, melted butter, sugar, salt (if using non-salted butter, consider using two pinches), lemon peel, and rum. Then add almond, sultanas, candied lemon peel, cinnamon, cardamom, and lastly, the flour. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 5 minutes, and add more flour if needed. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment in a draft-free place overnight.

In the morning, punch the dough on a baking surface and divide in two. Take one part and using your hands, form a rectangle. Fold the rectangle in the middle to form a Stollen, and place it on a baking tray covered with a parchment paper. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Make sure that no sultanas are on the surface - if there are, push them gently inside the Stollen; sultanas tend to burn very easily! Proof about one hour. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake the cakes until they are golden brown on top and also well baked inside.

Once out of the oven, brush each Stollen with about 35g melted butter and sprinkle 2 tsp confectioner’s sugar on each. Let cool completely. Then wrap the cakes into a tin foil, place in a plastic bag and store in a cool place (not the fridge, though, it’s too cold and humid) for at least two weeks.

I’ll try to wait two weeks before tasting my first Stollen. I’ll keep you posted about the results!

P.S. Obviously, this recipe was no consolation for the kids - so we had some mousse au chocolat as a dessert instead! But hope they'll have better luck tomorrow.

Sweet Italian Fruit Bread

When I was on my first Inter-rail in Christmas holidays back in 1996, I travelled light, only with a 30 liter backpack or so. (Ok, most of my stuff didn’t fit in, but luckily my bf had a slightly bigger bag that could fit in the rest! How convenient.. ) So, it was quite impossible to do any kind of shopping, there just wasn’t any room left for any new treasures - except for a huge Panettone, which I hung to my backpack. It must’ve looked quite funny, the Panettone being almost the size of my bag..!

So you get the picture - I kind of like Panettone. The disadvantage is that you only get it around Christmas time - which, luckily! extends nowadays from early October until the end of January, at least. And the other downside is that it’s very difficult to bake at home. The owners of a local Italian restaurant told me they’d never even want to try such an impossible thing themselves. All the recipes I’ve seen are so complex and time-consuming I’ve decided to give them a try in some quite distant future.

Last time I was in Italy I happened to buy a book called Croissant e biscotti, written by an Italian baking celebrity Luca Montersino. I found an interesting recipe for a sourdough-based chocolate and nut bread that, unfortunately, didn’t work at all (by all means, do try it - the picture looks great!) - but that gave me an idea: why not try the same method, only replacing chocolate and nuts with sultanas, candied lemon and oranges, almonds, lemon zest, and vanilla? After a partial disaster, the second loaf turned out perfect! It would be pretentious to call the result Panettone, so I call it Sweet Italian Fruit Bread instead - until I coin a better name for it. (Suggestions are welcome!)

So here’s how you proceed to get a loaf of it:

Beat together 3 eggs and 130g sugar until fluffy, then add 250g sourdough starter and wheat flour each, 6g salt, 5g fresh yeast, zest of 1/2 lemon, 2 tsp vanilla sugar, 100g candied orange, candied lemon, sultanas, and chopped almonds each, and combine well together. Then add 125g melted butter, stir well, and let ferment for some 8-10 hours in a warm place (25-30 degrees). Transfer into a proofing basket, let ferment another hour or two. Bake in 225 degrees for 10 minutes or so, lower the temperature to 190 degrees, and bake until well done, about 45 minutes. Let it cool on a rack and decorate with some confectioners’ sugar.

This bread is great for Italian-style sweet breakfast - any time of the year! Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do...