Daring Bakers: Stollen

Do you have those lists?  You know, those lists of things you need to bake, dishes you need to cook, books you need to read, movies you need to see, mountains you have to climb?  Well, I do.  And stollen just so happened to be on my “to bake” list.  But how was I ever going to find the opportunity to stollen when the season for it was so elusive?  One moment, your heart is filled with holiday cheer and you are baking for friends and family left and right and above and behind and north west and south east and then before you can even take down the Christmas lights, you’re on a “diet” to cleanse yourself of all those holiday goodies.

Which is precisely why I love Daring Bakers.  Who cares if I barely have the time to make the dough because I’m baking and packaging 200 cookies and 100 caramels for my classmates?  So what if I have a physics test I should study for?  I’ve got to get that stollen done before the dead line or else face disappointment in myself.  And disappointment in myself is worse than getting a bag of coal for christmas.  At least you can use coal as a means for self defense or heat.  Disappointment won’t give you anything at all.  Except for that empty, gnawing hole in your heart that always lets that darn cold draft chill you to the core.

But christmas is a time of cheer and whole, warm hearts, not ones with holes and drafts, so disappointment was not (and never will be) an option.  So I made the stollen.  And here is is.  In all of it’s dried fruit, zesty, doughy, nutty magnificence.  I cut the recipe in half and made half into stollen cinnamon rolls filled with a mixture of butter, brown sugar, toasted almonds, and a drop of almond extract.  I then glazed them wish a powdered sugar glaze (mixed with a tablespoon or so of milk) flavored with another splash of almond extract.  I made the other half into a traditional stollen wreath dusted with powdered sugar.  Thank you Penny from Sweet Sadie’s Baking! If you would like the recipe, check out her blog and have a very happy (disappointment and coal free) holidays!

Here we go again.

Another new beginning, another chance to start over, another chance to be a better you.  This year has been more amazing than I ever expected it to be, and hopefully (although I won’t expect it to be) next year will be even better. The holidays may have been a hectic time of year, but don’t let them get to your head.

No matter how many holiday cookies and goodies you may have eaten, don’t regret it.  Don’t regret a single cookie crumb.  Because you know what?  We only live so long, why feel guilty for enjoying the little time each of us has on this planet.

Happy New Year,

Katya

All Baked Out.

6 goodies.  2 days.

Clockwise from top left: white and dark chocolate peppermint bark, cranberry pinwheel cookies, espresso chocolate snowcaps, and gingerbread cookies.  In addition to those, I make brownies and coffee cake – which deserves a separate post because according to my mother. it is “heavenly.”

After possibly more than 24 hours of baking, I finally sat down with a deep breath and a huge smile on my face, thinking “what’s next?”  But there was no more cookie dough chilling in the fridge, no more butter coming to room temperature on the counter, no more mountains of dirty dishes in the sink.

And to tell the truth, that’s fine with me.  At least until Thursday.

What do dead brownies look like?

With halloween approaching, I HAD to bake something for my friends.  I turned many skeptics of brownies on sticks into believers , 27 to be exact.  I got the idea from Ghost Brownie Pops for Halloween from The Brownie Project.

It was nice break to take from homework.  On the night I baked the brownies my mother and I sat for about  an hour rolling hot brownie into balls.  I would suggest waiting a little longer if you want to roll them into balls, unless of course you want to get second degree burns on your hands .  For the chocolate I used ghiradelli white baking chocolate and I’ll admit I was terrified. You may ask why I was terrified of chocolate.  I was going to temper it for the first time in my life and I was not about to mess up chocolate that cost 2.50 per 4 oz.  I was using four bars, so you do the math. ($10- in case you didn’t want to do the math).  Overall it was very successful and the next day when I was handing them out they did not melt at all and looked very attractive – not streaky like untempered chocolate.  The link for where I found the direction is Tempering Chocolate – Allrecipes.  It was very clear, I highly recommend it if you are tempering for the first time.

I also used Brownies Recipe at Epicurious.com for the brownie part and baked them for the amount recommended so they would be fudgy, not cakey.

Then, I took my friend on a tour of the house.