All you knead is BREAD
Jane Mason and Peter Cassidy put together an easy step-by step guide to making your own bread
ABOUT A zillion years ago, early humans crushed up grains, kernels and seeds, mixed them with water, and cooked them to make something to eat. What they crushed determined what they ate both at the beginning of time and several thousand years later when we first started to bake. Jane Mason, along with photographer Peter Cassidy, have put together this comprehensive book on making bread . . . they’ve made what, to some could be a daunting task, into an easy step-by step guide to making your own. Close your eyes and imagine that glorious smell! Following is one of their recipes: Stollen Stollen is a traditional German Christmas cake that originates in Dresden. It is made with an enriched dough full of dried fruit and almonds that have been soaked in high-proof rum or brandy to preserve the cake while it matures. Some stollen has a sausage of marzipan baked into the middle which is supposed to symbolise the baby Jesus wrapped in his swaddling clothes. That is not the kind I grew up with, so I don’t like it, but there is no reason you can’t do it. I had never been happy with the recipes I tried and so I turned to my German friend, Jules. She asked her friend Simone who kindly volunteered this excellent recipe. You can substitute butter for the lard if you must and add a sausage of marzipan if you want it, but above all please store this for at least six weeks before you eat it. Well wrapped, it will keep for three to four months.
Ingredients
250g/2 cups plain/all-purpose white wheat flour 1g/3⁄4 tsp instant yeast, 2.5g/1 tsp dry yeast, or 5g/3⁄8 cake fresh yeast 35g/3 Tbsp sugar 65g/1⁄4 cup milk, heated up to boiling point, then cooled to room temperature 5g/11⁄4 tsp salt 25g/2 Tbsp lard grated zest of 1⁄2 lemon 65g/4 Tbsp butter, at room temperature and cubed Soaking the fruit and nuts: 200g/1 1⁄3 cups raisins 60g/1⁄2 cup flaked/slivered almonds 25g/3 Tbsp mixed candied peel 60g/1⁄4 cup rum or brandy (the highest percentage of alcohol you can find, as this is needed to preserve the stollen) Glaze: 60g/4 Tbsp butter, melted 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar 4 Tbsp icing/confectioners’ sugar prepared baking sheet
Makes 1 stollen Method Day one: soaking fruit and nuts.
Put the raisins, almonds and candied peel in a bowl, cover with the alcohol and allow to soak overnight.
Day two: making a predough and the dough.
Put the flour in a bowl and make a well. Add the yeast and sugar to the well and pour in the milk. Flick some flour on the milk to close the well. Cover and allow to rest for 1 hour. After 1 hour, it will be foamy and bubbling through the top of the well. If it is not, check for signs of life by simply digging through the flour on top of the well. Sprinkle the salt around the edge of the flour, then add the lard and lemon zest to the well. Mix and then knead well for 10 minutes. Now add the butter and knead again for 10 minutes until the butter is fully incorporated. Pop it back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Gently knead the soaked fruit mixture into the dough. It will look impossible but you can do it. The raisins have a habit of jumping out of the dough and onto the floor, so watch out! Pop it back in the bowl, cover again and allow to rest for 45 minutes. Pull the dough out onto a floured surface. Gently stretch the dough into a rectangle 2.5cm thick then fold it up as you would a piece of paper to go into an envelope: fold the bottom edge two-thirds of the way up the rectangle and gently lay it down, then stretch the top edge away from the dough and fold it right over the top of the dough, placing it gently down. Using a scraper, transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet. Cover again and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 240C Gas 9. Pop the stollen in the preheated oven and immediately lower the temperature to 180C Gas 4. Bake for 50 minutes, covering it with foil after 45 minutes if the top begins to burn. Remove the stollen from the oven. Place a sheet of foil on a wire rack. Carefully transfer the stollen from the baking sheet by picking it up — paper and all — and placing it on the foil. To glaze, brush half the melted butter over the warm stollen. Sprinkle on the vanilla sugar. Using a small sieve/strainer, dust on half the icing/confectioners’ sugar. Spoon on the remaining melted butter (if you brush it on you will brush off all the icing/confectioners’ sugar). Dust on the remaining icing/ confectioners’ sugar. Allow the stollen to cool completely. Wrap the stollen tightly in the paper and foil and store it at room temperature for at least 6 weeks before eating it. Invite friends round on a winter’s afternoon and serve it with tea or coffee for instant cheer.