Stollen

Its Christmas. I was inspired by Richard Bertinet's beautiful delicate, light stollen in his bakery, and went to the cookbook (Crust).
Mine turned out to be bruisers!! They were a joy to make tho'. The dough smelled amazing from the first mix - eggs, sugar, milk, yeast. Deeply comforting.
Then it became a beautiful dough once kneaded, strong but rich. Making up the filling was exciting too: creme d'amande was light and deliciously flavoured with ground almonds (amazing when cooked); fruit mix with rum also just gorgeous.

I wasn't brilliant at the folding it all together - I wasn't sure what I was doing really :) would be better next time. I was making three as we had presents to get ready for the next day, and they were so huge I ended up with plenty for us. WOO!!

They came out quite varied because of the way I'd folded them. I selected the best parts for my friends, wrapped them in silicon paper tied with string.
All in all a very economical exercise, and really lovely to make - super rewarding. There's going to be more of these. I have to say the creme d'amande makes a huge difference - you have a light sweet bread, with rum fruit, creme d'amande with some marzipan in, so it all stays light and delicious - nothing heavy in sight :)