Expert: Ralph Onesti - 11/2/2011

Question
Dear expert,
I bake quite a lot of yeast breads and am not exactly a beginner. Since moving to Germany several years ago,  I have been baking a batch of Christmas Stollen every year and the time for this year's is now!  I have no problems with rising, or cracking, or other problems that others mentioned, and the stollen taste quite good, but in my opinion they are a bit too dry and crumbly. I know that they are supposed to be somewhat heavy, but would prefer the finished product to be a bit more elastic and moister.  I was hoping you could help me decide what to change. Would increasing the milk, or decreasing the flour help?  I am using the following recipe ( although I have tried several and all give more or less the same results with different proportions of ingredients! ;o)

Milk          275   ml
Bread flour          1000   g
Butter          400   g
Fresh yeast          75   g
Sugar          150   g
Spices          12,5   g
Salt          12,5   g
Raisins          600   g
candied lemon peal          100   g
Candied orange peal          100   g
chopped almonds          100   g
rum for soaking fruit and nuts   125   ml

Answer
Hi:

I have two stollen recipes you might like.

If you go to adagiobakery@gmail.com I'll be happy to share them with you.

The are in Microsoft Excel form.

Remember though, in general, these highly enriched doughs to not bake as long as normal yeasted products.

Where you might feel that bread is done when firm, at about 205F, Stollen and other highly enriched products get firm around 190-195F!

Also, if you see my formulas, I reversed the norm. I used the more highly spiced for my "Christmas" Stollen, and the less spiced for my "everyday" formula.

I know...I know...it's backwards...but then so am I!

Also, I felt the same as you. I think although Stollen is firm and dense it should be softer like Brioche. So I made my formula accordingly.

It's not an easy mix, but I think it's very good!

Ralph