A Mighty Christmas Stollen Ring!

The Sunday before Christmas is probably not the most ideal time to complete this recipe especially, if like me, you're still running around trying to multi-task!  Stollen originated from the City of Dresden in the 1300's. Read more on the history of Stollen by following this link.

Ingredients:

1. 85g raisins
2. 50g dried cranberries, plus extra to decorate
3. 100g mixed peel
4. 4 tbsp dark rum
5. 50g glace cherries or pistachios if you like nuts
6. 550g strong white bread flour
7. 2 x 7g sachets yeast
8. 50g golden caster sugar
9. Pinch nutmeg
10. Zest 1 lemon
11. 85g butter, cut into pieces
12. 250ml milk
13. 1 egg, beaten, plus extra beaten egg to glaze
14. 50g pistachios, peeled and chopped for decoration
15. 250g marzipan (bought)
16. 100g icing sugar

Method:

Mix the raisins, cranberries and mixed peel in a bowl, pour over the rum and leave to soak while making the dough.

Pour the flour into a large bowl and mix in a 1/2 tsp salt, yeast, sugar, nutmeg and lemon zest. Rub the butter in until the mix is like fine crumbs. Warm the milk to hand-hot, then mix into the egg. Pour the milk mix into the flour mix, then stir with a round-bladed knife to make a soft dough, adding a touch more milk if required.

This recipe can be completed in a food mixer with a dough hook for approximately 5 minutes, alternatively knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave until the dough has risen to double the size. This will take between 45 minutes and an hour.

 

Remove the dough from the bowl, knead lightly and roll out to a rectangle of about 37cm x 17cm. Stir the chopped cherries or pistachios into the soaked fruits, drain off any excess liquid from this mix. Take a 1/3 of the fruit and spread down the centre of the rectangle, fold the edges into the center overlapping slightly. Seal each end by pressing with the rolling pin. Turn the dough, roll again and repeat twice more using the remaining fruit.

Roll out to a final rectangle that is 55cm x 16cm. Roll the marzipan in to a sausage shape, so it's slightly shorter than the length of the dough. Place it down the centre. Roll the dough over the marzipan, then turn the dough over so the join is underneath. Lift onto a pre-greased baking sheet forming into a ring around a buttered 12cm cake tin (or empty large food tin) sealing both ends together with egg wash.

Place the marzipan roll down the centre of the dough

Egg wash the dough before cooking

Cover loosely with cling-film and allow to rise until doubled in size.  Then brush with beaten egg and bake for 30 to 35 minutes on 190C/Fan 170C/gas 5 until golden. Cool on the baking sheet briefly transferring to a cooling rack.

I used a Kaiser Bakeware Springform with 2 bases purchased about 25 years ago! However, a baking sheet and an empty clean food tin will do the job a lot better as I discovered.

Timings: Prep 40 minutes + 1 hour 15 mins to 1 hour 45 mins for rising.

Cooking time: 30 minutes if using the baking tray method

Suitable for Vegetarians and can be frozen without icing.

Pistachio Marshmallows with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

Pistachio Marshmallows

9 Sheets of leaf gelatine
450g granulated sugar
1 tbsp liquid glucose
200 ml water
2 large egg whites
1 tspn vanilla extract
icing sugar
cornflour
40g pistachios



Method

1. Lightly oil a shallow baking tray, about 30 x 20cm and dust it with sieved icing sugar and cornflour.
2. Soak the gelatine in 140ml cold water.
3. Roughly chop 40g Pistachio nuts.
4. Put the sugar, glucose and water into a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and continue cooking for about 12-15 minutes until mixture reaches 127C on a sugar thermometer. Christine's Top Tip - bring to the boil gradually until the sugar has completely dissolved and then increase the heat. Do not overstir.
5. When the syrup is up to temperature, carefully slide in the softened gelatine sheets and their soaking water. The syrup will bubble up so take care not to burn yourself. Pour the syrup into a metal jug or saucepan.
6. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, using an electric whisk in a mixing bowl otherwise you will be there for ages. Continue whisking while pouring in the hot syrup from the jug. The mixture will become shiny and start to thicken. Add the vanilla extract and continue whisking for about 5-10 minutes, until the mixture is stiff and thick enough to hold its shape on the whisk.
7. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and then sprinkle with half the pistachios. Pour in the remaining mixture and smooth out with a palette knife dipped in hot water, adding the remaining pistachios to the top.
8. Allow to cool for 1 hour to set at room temperature.
9. Dust the worksurface with icing sugar and cornflour. Loosen the marshmallow around the sides of the tray wit a palette knife, and then turn out on to the dusted surface. Cut into squares and roll in the sugar and cornflour. Leave to dry on the wire rack.
10. Serve with strawberries and dark chocolate dipping sauce.

Dipping Chocolate Sauce


100g Dark Chocolate
150 ml double cream

Place the chocolate and cream in a bowl over a pan of hot but not boiling water. Allow to melt gently together and stir until smooth.
Preparation Time: 40 minutes, plus an hour for cooling
Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes
Serves: 40 generous pieces

Overall this recipe produces a totally fluffy white marshmallow which just melts on the tongue. Serve with chocolate dipping sauce and fresh strawberries.

Thorntons - Milk Chocolate with Pistachio

Time is against me this evening! However, there is still time to taste another chocolate block from Thorntons. On this occasion we're moving up from bronze, missing out silver altogether and heading straight to gold! Who likes coming second anyway. This chocolate was awarded by The Guild of Fine Food in 2009. Thorntons also had another gold award that year for their 'Milk Chocolate Strawberry' bar. 


To quote directly from their website, "The Guild was formed in 1995 with a mission to create close links between suppliers and retailers in the independent food sector. With over 1300 members across the UK, it communicates to retailers, producers and suppliers through the ‘industry voice’, Fine Food Digest magazine. Through its unique membership database of accredited suppliers, it identifies thousands of speciality food lines available exclusively to the independent sector, enabling retail members to establish a point of difference between themselves and the supermarkets.

In 1996, the Guild launched the London Speciality & Fine Food Fair and it continues to organise exhibitions in Yorkshire and Scotland under the banner of Speciality Food Fairs. Since 1993 the Guild has organised the Great Taste Awards, the national benchmark for speciality food and drink, which attracts over 4500 entries each year. The GTA has gained widespread recognition among the country’s retailers and consumers and is now seen as the benchmark for fine food in the UK". To read more about The Guild click here.

Once again Thorntons have presented this bar in an eye catching colour, pistachio green and is described as a melt-in-the-mouth creamy chocolate from Madagascar. The chocolate has been given an extra crunch with slightly salted pieces of roasted pistachio. 

The Chocolate: This is a milk chocolate from Madagascar with a 32% cocoa content. The chocolate melts quickly and works well with the salted pistachio nuts. For me it's a bit too sweet and sickly and the pistachio nuts are few and far between. Personally I think pistachio nuts should accompany a gin and tonic or a cool glass of lager, not chocolate. However, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would disagree with me on that one.

For me the chocolate should have been of a higher cocoa content with slightly more pistachio nuts to provide greater crunchiness. So far the Dark Chocolate with Macadamia nuts scores above this and it only received a bronze? Sorry Thorntons this chocolate doesn't quite make it out of the blocks for me and I can only award it a slightly nutty 5/10. Good value for money though, 3 bars for £5.00.

Devnaa - White Chocolate with Pistachios, Cardamom and a hint of Saffron

Devnaa is not a company that I've heard of before but I recently came across them on Twitter. At the moment, you can win a free bar of their chocolate until the end of 2010 by just following them on Twitter! A family business based in Wembley they provide a range of chocolate bars and chocolates inspired by Indian spices. Only this year Devnaa were awarded a Gold Taste Award for their chai masala milk chocolate. I'm not exactly sure where their chocolate comes from but their website information claims that they use some of the worlds finest Belgian chocolate couvertures. They cater for the Indian market especially festivals such as Diwali with their eye catching boxes of chocolates. 


The business was founded by Jay and Roopa Rawal literally from their kitchen table. To quote from their website, "Roopa’s knowledge of authentic Indian cooking has been learned from our Mum’s superb recipes and also from our Grandmother’s guidelines. Our grandmother was famous amongst her local community in Nairobi for making the best Indian sweets! We knew that if we were going to make our treats available to the rest of the world they would have to surpass all expectations people associated with Indian sweets". Both Jay and Roopa have put a lot of work into getting this business off the ground. Jay went to India to research Indian chocolates and Roopa went to the Slattery School of Excellence to learn about artisan chocolate.


Devnaa support heal which is a UK registered charity committed to providing shelter, support, education and healthcare for children in India. With each bar sold 5p is donated to heal.


The Packaging: I'd love to know where the name Devnaa actually came from as it is intriguing and I can't seem to find any reference on their website? Each of their 70g bars are wrapped in traditional foil with a colorful outer wrapper. The design on the front is distinctly 'Indian' reminding me of the beautiful henna designs you see on Indian women.

The Chocolate: The bar I'm tasting today is white chocolate with pistachios, cardamom and a hint of saffron. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to white chocolate and it is important to use one that has a high cocoa butter content. According to their packaging this bar contains cocoa solids 28% min, milk solids 22% min. Sugar is at the top of the list so I expect this bar to be very sweet which considering the market this is aimed at is probably the right approach.


The strong aroma of cardamom is the main scent that hits you when you release this bar from it's package. Both the pistachio and cardamom have been ground up and mixed into the chocolate to give a light speckle effect. The bar has been well tempered and as it quickly melts you can feel the small pieces of pistachio and cardamom on your tongue. The bar is very sweet and has slightly soapy feel. I'm pleased to say that I picked up the hint of saffron that comes through at the end. Apologies for the picture quality but the bar didn't make it through Royal Mail unscathed!

Devnaa White Chocolate Bar

This bar wasn't for me possibly due to the over use of Cardamom and the fact that it was very sweet. The bars are available from their website starting at £4.99 for two. Overall I give this bar 5/10 for presentation, price and corporate social responsibility.


If you'd like to find out more about Devnaa click here.