December 25, 2012 - 3:09pm
Not So Stollen - 6 Weeks later
Ihe been 6 weeks since we wrapped up the stollen in a cotton tea towel and put it on teh back patio to age gracefully in a tin here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30996/not-so-stollen
and here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/31088/not-so-stollen-thanksgiving-take
We buttered it, put the GMA's cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice drizzle on it and then frosted it with powdered sugar just to make sure the sugar gods were pleased.
Have to wait till after dinner to see if it tastes as good or better than the un-aged one at Thanksgiving.
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But how was the aged one??? I am curious. I will let Barb tell you all about her aged one. She has been waiting for this post.
Diane
the aged one had a drier crumb than the original one. I expected this since the cotton tea towel was still damp after 6 weeks. I also think it would have been better if my apprentice had buttered and sugared it before being stored outside too. - no question about it. I also think that the tea towel could have had a small splash of rum every week for the first 3 weeks like a fruit cake with brandy. That said this was pretty tasty and I had 3 slices before going back for two more bigger ones in less than 2 minutes,
If I had to take one or the other I think that I would have to vote for the fresh one...... or the aged one if sugared and rummied up for a few weeks but we didn't have one of those to test so it has to be the fresh one. Still we will have to try out the other aged variation for next year :-)
Cna't wait to see what your sister has to say about her aged one?
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Either way...it looks amazing. I have to go and make lunch now since your posts are making me so hungry!
Regards,
ian
lunch with Italian Dipping Sauce and posted some more pictures, a sunset and cleaned up the spelling. Had another piece of the stollen too. Soon it will be half gone already! It tastes the same to but is just drier and a little more crumbly than one a cpouple of days old. We really like the Lemon Cream Cheese and Powdered Sugar GMA's Drizzle. I could see that being put on just about any unadorned desert cake, cookie or even flip flops for that matter.
Go have some lunch ...but skip the flip flops even though I fully expect to see them in one of your future bakes :-)
Happy New Year's Ian.
The verdict is in...well, sort of- When I compare the memory of the fresh Stollen with the taste of the aged one it is difficult to compare them because they are so different in texture as well as taste.The fresh one is lighter, more like a raisin bread in texture. In this aged one, although more dry than the fresh, I think the fruit is more intense in flavor. The taste of the raisins is distinct enough to notice that there is more than one type (golden and dark). As it turned out, the mistake I made in adding the lemon glaze before aging was okay after all. The glaze became brittle and the lemony taste provides a nice contrast to the sweet bread.
I am 1500 hundred miles away... but I can tell from here it is still good!.Happy New Year to you all on TFL.Diane (the middle gma)
I love Stollen, so fresh or aged, even from the bakery, it is all good. Have to admit though, the more authentic Dresden Stollen that I made last year was well worth the extra work, aged it was not as dry and it was definitely richer in taste.
changed in the recipe was to cut the amount of soaked dried fruits about in half and that was a mistake even if the girls around here don't like them much. I just had another slice (for testing purpose only in order to answer your post of course :-)) and agree that it is the fruits that make this bread and get better when aged. I also noticed that the pistachio nuts were also a much darker solid green too, they tasted better and were soft.
The first changes I will make next time is to not cut the fruits. Also, the fruits for non aged one I will age separately for 6 weeks in the hooch ahead of time so they will be as good in the non aged one.
I will also butter and sugar the aged one before wrapping it in the cotton cloth and sealing it in the tin that should help the moisture content of the crumb later. I will also lightly dampen the cotton cloth in some arancello and limoncello so that it doesn't wick out any moisture from the bread itself and hopefully keep the aged one a little more moist and crust more tasty.
What do you think?
Happy New Year.
With those ideas, how can our poor assistants wait for Thanksgiving time 2013? They all sound great, especially the additions of arancello and limoncello. I dunk cheesecloth in brandy and wrap it around a dark English style fruitcake to age. There is more fruit than cake but I wonder what that dampness would do to the breadlike stollen crust?
Afer collecting the goodies for a Carol Field's Gubana, common sense closed in and I decided to wait until Easter to make it. Have to look for a recipe for King's Cake for next week. Do you make that one? From what I've seen so far it is a brioche dough with cream cheese filling and then frosted in green, gold and purple- what's not to love?
Happy New Year
or even had King Cake but I sure might like to bake and eat one. It sounds terrific. I still have one of Michael Wilson's Pannetone's to make with 40 minutes of slap and folds. I've been in training for it for some time and am ready .....for about 20 minutes if broken into 2 segments :-) I slice them into 1" disks and put a half inch of whipped cream on top with a drizzle of chocolate sauce to cap it off and maybe some Mocha ice cream on the side. After New Year's its off to detox somewhere where there isn't a kitchen or a desert of any kind :-)
I had to take my apprentice for a 2 mile walk today as she's manage to put 5 pounds on me in less that a week.
Happy Srollen Baking for Eaaster !