A taste of Christmas

Valerie and James are hosting a Christmas party tonight, and they've asked everyone to bring something to contribute food-wise. I thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to try making Stollen - a leavened Christmas cake from Germany, and something I love. This is certainly not a traditional Stollen, but hopefully it'll be recognisable as Stollen! I also think that cherry and almond, while a winning combination at all times, also seems quite Christmassy. I'm also always on the lookout for cakes and tarts that are more interesting than the ones I normally bake, and when I came across this recipe, I thought I had to give it a go. So I'm baking two things to bring along with me!

Marzipan Stollen
Ingredients

• 100ml Kirsch
• 1tbsp Brown sugar
• 75g Sultanas
• 50g Mixed peel
• 50g Butter
• 250g Plain flour
• 1 Sachet fast action dried yeast (approx. 7g)
• 115ml Milk
• 20g Caster sugar
• 1 Egg, beaten
  
• 35g Glacé cherries, chopped
  
• 1/2tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1/2tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 50g Flaked almonds
• 1tbsp Cherry brandy
• 100g Marzipan
• Melted butter for glaze
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Dissolve the brown sugar in the kirsch.
   
2. Soak the sultanas and mixed peel in the kirsch overnight.
3. Sift the flour into a bowl. Melt the butter and stir in with the yeast, milk, caster sugar and beaten egg.
4. Knead until the dough is soft, elastic and not too sticky.
5. Place in a floured bowl, cover with a damp tea towel (or oiled cling film) and leave to rise for 1 hour.
6. Drain the sultanas and mixed peel from the kirsch and mix with the cherries, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, almonds and cherry brandy.
7. Knead the fruit mixture into the dough.
8. Turn out onto a floured work surface and flatten into a rectangle approx 20cm x 15 cm.
9. Break up the marzipan into pieces and scatter over the dough.
10. Roll loosely lengthways and transfer to a floured baking sheet.
11. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove for ~1hr30mins.
12. Bake at 180C for 35-40 minutes until pale golden.
13. While still hot, brush with melted butter and allow to cool fully so the butter is absorbed.
14. Sift icing sugar over the cooled Stollen.

Sour Cherry and Marzipan Tart
Ingredients
For the pastry

• 175g Plain flour
• 3tbsp Caster sugar
• 125g Butter
• 1 Egg

For the filling

• 150g Marzipan
• 350g Drained sour cherries
• 3 Eggs
• 200g Crème fraîche
• 2tbsp Caster sugar
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 50g Flaked almonds

Method

1. Rub the flour, sugar for the pastry and butter together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg and combine to form a pastry. Roll it out and line a flan ring.
3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to rest the pastry.
4. Bake the tart case blind at 200C for 15 minutes.
5. Crumble the marzipan over the base of the tart case. Place the cherries on top.
6. Whisk the crème fraîche, sugar for the filling, eggs and vanilla extract together and pour over the cherries.
   
7. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
8. Bake at 200C for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the almonds are a light golden brown.
9. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Here's the Stollen dough just after kneading (end of step 4).
And here it is again after rising (end of step 5). It's impossible to tell, (I should have put something in the photos for scale), but it's risen quite significantly. You'll just have to take my word on that one.After kneading in the fruit/nut mixture and flattening (end of step 8). I did have to add quite a bit of flour to keep the Stollen to a doughy consistency as the fruit/nut mix was so moist. It may not be an authentic Stollen, but I tell you, that fruit and nut mixture really smells of Christmas!Add the marzipan (end of step 9).Ready for proving (end of step 10).And here it is again about to go into the oven. See, it really did rise! Straight out of the oven (end of step 12). It's a bit darker than I really had intended, but then I've still not got used to having a fan oven yet. But it's looking rather good!With the butter glaze now absorbed (end of step 13).And finished!
Now for the tart. Isn't this the prettiest looking (unbaked) tart case you ever saw? If you're wondering about the santoku knife in the picture, it's not completely random. It's what I used to trim off the excess pastry. I had to add a heck of a lot more flour to make this pastry dough incidentally - I think I must have added too much milk to start with.But disaster! After blind baking, the pastry shrank so much, there are no sides to the tart case! The base also rose significantly - maybe I shouldn't have been lazy and not weighed it down with baking beans.
The solution - baking parchment!And the assembled tart ready for the oven.The finished product! I'm quite pleased with it actually - I was expecting this to be a horrible messy failure after the disappearance of the walls of the case. This actually looks pretty good to me. But, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the taste and for news of that, you'll just have to wait, won't you?