Yey, love that my first post on this blog i dedecated to christmas baking! But to be honest I think this is a little bit to early for anything christmas but I really wanted to test the Christmas Stolle from Daring Bakers last year so I made an exception. And me and my sisters are going to have a baking day tomorrow so I took it upon my self to make the gingerbread dough.

The christmas Stolle is a german christmas bread with rasins and almonds. I tweaked the recipe a little blitt by adding plums and crabarries. I also soaked them i glögg (mulled wine) instead of rum, just to give it a more swedish taste. Have just tasted a smal piece so far but that piece tasted really grate. Have also made one with only nuts just because my sister dosn't like fruit in bread and I plan on give my sisters one loaf each.

So over to the gingerbread dough whitch I made today. Hade do split the recipe in three, didn't think my machine could take the whole thing because it has 1,3 kg (28 pounds) flour in it. And I don't want to brake my machine on gingerbread! But now that's all done and the only thing left now is do the real gingerbread cookies but that will be tomorrow. And what is even better about tomorrow is the making of the lussekatter (Saffron buns)! My absolute christmas favorit! There's nothing like a freshly baked saffron bun!


The enormous gingerbread dough.

Gingerbread

Ingredients
4 3/4 dl Sugar
3 dl Syrup
350g Butter
1 tabelspoon grounded ginger
1 teaspoon grounded cinnamon
1 teaspoon grounded clove
3 dl cream
25,5 dl flour
1 tablespoon bicarbonate

Mix sugar and syrup for 10 minutes. Melt the butter and add to the suger/syrup with the spices.
Whip the cream slightly (just for 2-3 minutes), add together with the flour and bicarbonate. DO NOT add all the flour at the same time, take it one dl at the time. You almost never nead to use all 25,5 dl, the dough should not be sticky but you should get a little bit greasy when you touch it. And you will need some of that flour when you bake the cookies. Let the dough sit in the fridge over night, this will make it easier to work with.
Roll it pritty thin with your rolling-pin and then cut out the figures that you want. Bake in the oven (200-225 C (392-473 F)) for a couple of minutes.
This recpie make a huge dough (as seen in the picture) so unless you planing on making gingerbread for a small village half of it is probably enough.


Cristmas Stollen

Ingredients
¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)
2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) milk
10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter)
5½ cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)
½ cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar
¾ teaspoon (3 ¾ ml) (4 ½ grams) salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract
¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) mixed peel (link below to make your own)
1 cup (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons (45ml) rum
12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste. (optional)
1 cup (240 ml) (3 ½ ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Soak the raisins
In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum (or in the orange juice from the zested orange) and set aside. See Note under raisins.

Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh.

Recipe from: http://thedaringkitchen.com/recipe/christmas-stollen