Happy New Year 2011: Stamped Shortbreads with all my wish to you!

I want to make this post a special one, well, I think it's my thank for everyone around me, all the friends and family (and you the Anonymous reader, ^^) that makes me happy through the year.  

December 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge #47: Stollen Wreath

 I had a lot of problems this time -*-, well, all of them came from myself not a recipe. Because I prepared a mix fruit, (I use the one from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, I really like it when I make Fruitcakes) for making Fruitcake for my sister, and I use all dried fruit that I had in my house!!!!! So I thought about to make or not to make this challenge.

And as I told you in my last post, I had a lot to do from the start of this month, I just forgot about the post date, it's an alarm for me when I had a chance to sit down and visit Daring Bakers' website, oh! I really forgot to make this.
So, my Stollen Wreath is not perfect, I forgot to put the almond into the dough (well, I read the recipe 3 times, but because I was so hurry I misread it). For the traditional Stollen, it needs a lot of icing sugar on top and I forgot, haha. It's not good at all when you're in hurry, there are a lot of fault. But I hope that I can make it better next time.
Because I had no other dried fruits to use, I use the one that I have, and I had to reduce the amount of the recipe. I made only 1/3 of the original recipe so my Wreath is very small, ^^.
Anyway, the Stollen is very delicious (and I think it will be a lot better if I made it right). The texture is soft and very easy to knead (because I made a small one I kneaded by hand). 
If you want to make these bread, plan to start it the day before you want to serve, because it need to rest in the refrigerate for 1 night before shaping.
The Stollen Wreath can be kept longer if you brush with melt butter and coated with icing sugar (3 times to make a thick coat so you can send it by mail to anyone as a Christmas present).
So, thank you Penny from Sweet Sadie's Baking, I will make a better Stollen Wreath next time.

"The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration."

  

Stollen Wreath

Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people

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.



This is my adaptation:
Makes 9 inches Wreath
20ml ............................... Water
3g .................................... Instant yeast
80ml ............................... Milk
50g ................................. Butter
260g ............................... All purpose flour
40g ................................. Sugar
2g .................................... Salt
1 ...................................... Egg
½tsp .............................. Orange zest
½tsp .............................. Vanilla extract
½tsp .............................. Lemon extract
100g ............................... Soaked dried fruit mix

To make the dough

 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.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath

1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.
Note from dailedelicious: I roll the dough into 14x11 inches, and place 3¼ inches cookie cutter to keep the dough's shape. 
Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.

 Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.

Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.

Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

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 (my Stollen bake sooner than this about 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 

This is the part that I forgot, ^^"

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 - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!

When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.

December 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge #47: Stollen Wreath

Cranberry Crème Fraîche Biscuits: Soft, flaky and very delicious biscuits !

 I feel a bit lazy now, last week I had a lot of thing to do, check up at hospital, dentist and a lot of shopping (actually I love this part if I had more time to shop than rushing through all the shops), but we are all the same right? New year is the busiest time of the year.

Anyway even in the busiest time, we still need to eat ^^, and what will be better than a soft and flaky biscuit with a cup of hot tea or coffee.
I think about making this biscuit when I saw that I still got homemade Crème Fraîche in the fridge. So I turn to the book ............................. I choose the recipe that originally use the sour cream and change the sour cream into Crème Fraîche.
And the result, well, I love it!!!!!! The sourness from the Crème Fraîche is not as hash as the sour cream and the Crème Fraîche has more richess, so the biscuit turn out to be rich and soft, with a very light tangy taste. I think that another factor that make my biscuits more delicious is the cranberry, ^^, usually they will leave a little bitterness in the mouth after eating it (I don't know that it's a common feeling or not but me and my brother always feel that way). This time the dried cranberry is sweet, lightly sour and plump, most of all I can't taste the bitterness. When they come together in this biscuit I think it's a heaven sent ^^.
I know that many people still have a problem when making biscuits or scone, but I have to say that it's really easy. All you have to do is not afraid to making it ^^. They will turn out well even you feel that you can't do it, and it's easier when you use the cake flour like in this recipe, the biscuits will has less chance to become tough.
The key is keeping all the ingredients cool (you can do this by refrigerate the flour mixture before mixing the biscuits), the butter will be less likely to melt before going into the oven. After pour the liquid into the flour mixture, mixing it just to make the flour moisten then knead the dough shortly, remember that you just making the ingredients stick together, not making a bread.
Actually you can use any kind of dried fruit that you have on hand but remember to cut the fruit into small pieces, you will find it easier to mix with butter and flour.

Cranberry Crème Fraîche Biscuits

Makes 8

220g ............................... Cake flour
3tsp ................................ Baking powder
30g ................................. Sugar
¼tsp .............................. Salt
30g ................................. Dried cranberry 
100g ............................... Unsalted butter (cold and cut into small pieces)
1 ...................................... Egg
40g ................................. Crème Fraîche
1tsp ................................ Milk
........................................ Milk, and sugar for brushing and sprinkle on top of the biscuits


Preheat the oven to 180°C. 
Line the baking sheet with baking paper or silicone baking mat.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into the bowl.

 Put the dried cranberry into the bowl and stir to combine.
Mix together egg, Crème Fraîche and milk in small bowl.

 Put the cold butter into the flour mixture, using the scraper or your finger mix the flour and butter together, until they look like breadcrumbs. 
Pour the egg and Crème Fraîche mixture into the bowl and stir lightly until the flour moisten. 
Take out of the bowl and knead lightly until smooth. 

Pat the dough into rectangular and cut into 8.

Place the biscuits dough into the baking sheet, brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

Take off the oven and rest on the sheet for 10 minutes until firm up.

Serve warm with a cup of your favorite drink ^^.

Cranberry Crème Fraîche Biscuits: 

Soft, flaky and very delicious biscuits !