Test Kitchen Thursday - Stollen

As promised here is my Christmas Stollen recipe.
Sorry - it's been a busy week around here (leaving for NYC tomorrow)!  Technically it is still Thursday (although not for much longer).

Andrea's Christmas Stollen

Ingredients:
1 C mixed candied fruit
1 C dried cranberries (or craisins)
3 T dark rum

Sponge:
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water (about 110 degrees)
2/3 C milk
1 t honey
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur)

Dough:
1/3 C honey
1 large egg, beaten
1 t pure vanilla extract
1 t pure almond extract
1/4 t Fiori Di Sicilia (optional - available from King Arthur flour, if you use this reduce vanilla to 1/2 t)
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1/2 T finely grated lemon zest
1/2 T finely grated orange zest
1 t salt
1/2 t ground mace (if you can't find mace you can substitute nutmeg)
1/2 C slivered almonds, toasted
3 - 4 C unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling:
2 T unsalted butter, melted
2 t ground cinnamon
3 T granulated sugar

Topping:
2 T butter, softened
1/2 C powdered sugar
Red and Green candied cherries for garnish (optional)

Prepare the fruit:  Combine the mixed fruit, raisins, and rum.  Cover, shake and set aside.  Shake or stir the mixture every so often to coat the fruit with the rum.  I sometimes do this the night before and let it soak all night.

Make sure you have a container with a good sealing lid - especially if you let the little ones help shake!

I toast the almonds right away too and then let them sit.  Don't skip the toasting step for nuts.

Prepare the sponge.  In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast in the water to soften.  Heat the milk to 110 degrees F and add it to the yeast along with the honey and 1 C flour.  Cover the sponge with plastic wrap and let rise until light and full of bubbles (about 30 minutes).

I like to make sure my liquid temperatures are just right.  To avoid guessing I stick a thermometer in to check.

Clark likes adding ingredients.

Here's what the sponge looks like right away:

And the after (when it's ready):

Meanwhile prep the rest of the ingredients:

And have them all ready to go when the sponge is ready:

 If you have followed my bread recipes you know I like to use my bread machine whenever possible - here are directions for machine:

Scrape sponge into bowl (you could just make the sponge in the bowl of the machine).  Add the fruit mixture (don't add this at the add in timer - it won't be able to handle the liquid amount that late in the mixing - trust me on this) - treat fruit mixture as a liquid.  Add honey, egg, butter, zests, salt, mace, almonds and 3 cups of the flour.  Allow machine to do it's thing - after about 7 minutes add additional flour as needed.

As requested by my sister - the mixer method:  In the mixer bowl, add the fruit mixture to sponge, honey, egg, butter, zests, salt, mace, almonds and 2 cups of the flour to the sponge.  Using the paddle, beat the mixture on medium low speed for 2 minutes.  Gradually add the remaining flour 1/3 cup at a time until the dough begins to pull away from the side of the bowl.  Knead 4 to 5 minutes on medium-low.  First rise: Put the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat the entire ball of dough with oil.  Cover with a tightly woven towel and let rise until doubled - about 1 hour.  Don't worry if it's not completely doubled - this is a heavy bread; however, it should pass the poke test (poke finger in if finger mark stays it's ready).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface.  Makes two loaves.  Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a 7 x 9 inch oval.  Brush the melted butter over th top of the ovals.

Combine the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over one lengthwise half of the ovals.  Fold the dough in half lengthwise and carefully lift the breads onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  

Press lightly on the folded side to help the loaf keep its shape during rising and baking.  Cover with a tightly woven towel and let rise for 45 minutes.  One thing I use to help bread rise when my kitchen isn't very warm is a seedling warming mat (found at most nursery/garden centers).  Set pans/bowls on top and it's just the right amount of heat.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 190 degrees F.  I really believe in the temperature method to check bread for doneness.  Since the stollen top will be covered later I don't mind the probe in the top.

 
Immediately remove from the baking sheet and place on a rack to cool.  Brush loaves with softened butter).

Sprinkle heavily with powdered sugar once loaves are cool.  You can also decorate with left over candied fruit.

At our house we eat one once it is cool.  The second is still covered in powder sugar and wrapped tightly in aluminum foil.  This second loaf is stored in a cool, dark place to wait for Christmas.  Traditionally, stollen is made 2 - 6 weeks in advance.  Trust me - letting it sit even for a few days will help add to the flavor.  We eat the stollen on Christmas Eve and have cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.

Winter Blooms

Our Christmas cactus is in bloom - hurray!  I wasn't sure it would want to one year later but it decided to put out buds (that should be open by Christmas).  Awesome - in all my years of house plant care I've never had a Christmas cactus actually decide to open for Christmas (usually they like Easter better).  When all is white and put to bed outside lovely indoor flowers are a special treat!  My violets are in bloom too and when the amaryllis bulbs go on deep sale I'll pick up a couple for next to nothing and have some Valentine blooms.

Froehliche Wiehnachten!

Merry Christmas (auf Deutsch - in German)!

Decided to get in touch with my German heritage this weekend.  Yesterday during the Iowa blizzard I decided to make stollen (not to be undertaken lightly as it takes a large part of the day).  Stollen = a fabulous German Christmas bread.  Women in my family (and some men) have been  making stollen for a very long time.  Unfortunately, many American recipes end up dry which gives it a bad name - but not my recipe (which will be the Thursday recipe feature).

Making stollen made me reminiscent.  My junior year of high school I spent as a foreign exchange student in Germany (June 1991 - June 1992).  My host family lived in Heppenheim Ober-Hambach (near the Black Forest region).  It was through the National FFA/Congress Bundestag exchange program.  This meant it was more of work study rather than your typical exchange.  I actually attended an Agricultural Career Based school (Berufschule) once per week and interned with my host father (a Master Farmer) the rest of the week.

Below is my host mom rolling hundreds of little rum balls.  I was busy helping too but took time for a photo.  And yes, I was only 16 but I was taught to make lots of items utilizing alcohol.  Which is why for many of the traditional bread and cake recipes baked during Christmas and Easter involves finding the dusty bottle of rum or Cherry liquor in the basement. 

The next two photos show the room where all of the Christmas cookies were stored.

Cookies weren't really common except for Christmas time.  I should add the vast quantities made were because my farm family had a stand at the local Farmer's Market and the Weihnacht's Markt was one that everyone helped with.

Below my host sister and mother are making fresh Advent wreaths for the market.  Note the radio - I listened to loads of Polka music!  My host mom always had the radio on and almost always set to polka.

The next photo is the cellar between the house and the barn where all of breads, wreaths, eggs, etc were stored.  Don't get my mom started on the food safety issues!

Closer look at the advent wreaths.  I was allowed to choose one and it stayed in my room all advent season. It really made it feel more like home to light my candles.

My host mom and sister even made me my very own advent calendar.  I still have it.  I think I still have many of the little gifts that were tucked inside too (other than the chocolate of course).

Here is my host father - he would mix the large tubs of dough for the various breads we would make for market.  Each week I helped my host family make over 100 different baked goods (mainly breads and cheesecakes) for the weekly market.  That was in addition to helping milk and care for the cattle.

Here is the German Stollen ready for the Weihnacht's market.

I didn't get to go to very many of the markets (I was usually left at home with my host brother, Heinz, to care for the livestock and do the milking) but I did get to go the Weihnacht's market.  Below is the stand set up during the day.

Another specialty for the Christmas market was Gluhwein (I think that's right).  Basically spiced red wine served warm.  This was my host sister's responsibility.  Note all the little jars of jam - I helped make most of those.  My main job usually for each market though was to make the various liquors that were sold.  Yes, homemade liquors.  The two I remember most were Eier liquor (egg liquor - yes, main ingredient raw eggs) and Schokoladen liquor (Chocolate Cream liquor - yes, I can still make this one)

Here was the Christmas Market at night.  So beautiful.

Hope you had fun going back in time with me! 

May your Christmas season wherever it is spent be a merry one!

FNSI Results - December

It may not look like I accomplished much but when focusing on hand work it sometimes just seems to take longer to accomplish a task.

Finished my Little House Needleworks "All Dolled Up!" - Winter Sheep.  Isn't he the cutest?  Now to put a back on and turn him into a cute little ornament.  Let's just say I love him.  When I started on Friday all I had done was Mr. Sheep - finished all the rest off watching TV yesterday afternoon and evening.

Then moved on to my Wee Wonderfuls' Story Book Dolls.  I really love the Wee Wonderfuls book.  These were the first dolls I tried.  Last night I finished off the hand work on the red capes, sewed them together and have them ready to finish off.  I also completed the aprons last night and sewed the arms and legs on the second doll.

They're such cute friends!

Lots more to get done!

Our First Christmas Program

Tonight was the first (of many) Christmas Program for one of our children.  Clark's Preschool had their Christmas Program at the church.  The 3 year old class and 4 year old class did a program together.  Is it odd that our son was tall enough to be in the back row not just with the 3 year old group but with the all the kids together.  Height must come from the great-grandpa's.

We have video of the little ones singing Happy Birthday to Jesus - just too cute (had problems uploading it though so will try again tomorrow!

Our photos weren't the greatest - but the little ones were still cute.

Once home mommy had to take some photos of the boys in their Christmas outfits.  They are next to their tree (that we put the final touches on today).

Grant just thinks this is a magical tree - and it's in his room!  He'll stand in his crib and look at it for a long time.  He can say bus and points out the bus on the tree.  Some days I wish they could stay 18 months forever.

Clark needed a photo next to his little tree in his room.  Little stinker - now he checks out the tree in Grant's room and if there is an ornament he thinks would be pretty on his tree it somehow ends up on his tree.  Luckily this little tree only holds so many ornaments.

As we were finishing up the boys' trees today we came to the ball ornaments.  I have about 6 boxes of them (8 ornaments each).  We decided the big tree should have 5 boxes and I gave Clark the final box for his tree.  I asked Clark if he could take the box to his room and I would help him after I finished in Grant's room.  So, listening to Christmas music and talking to Grant I finished hanging the last of the ornaments, read Grant a story and put him to bed for a nap.  Going to Clark's room I realized he had been pretty quiet.  Yep - he had hung all of the ball ornaments on his tree himself.  He was so proud.    No ornament hooks - he just stuck the balls on using their loops where an ornament hook would go.  No small task for him to get them all on there by himself so carefully so they wouldn't fall.  No pretty random placement - although if you look at the picture above he almost has them looped like garland.  What can I say - it's his tree he can decorate it how he likes (actually - I think it's pretty cute too).

Simple Nativity

This week Char at Crap I've Made (my husband loves this blog simply for the title) is hosting a Nativity Parade.  I thought it sounded fun.  I have lots of nativities around the house.  My absolute favorite growing up was mom and dad's blue (and very fragile) nativity.  Not sure what it was made of but it holds lots of meaning for me.  I'll have to see if I can find a picture of it sometime.

My favorite nativity is this one:

It sits under the kids' tree.  This was made by my sister Emily - I don't remember how old she was (she is 8 years younger than I am) but it meant so much and it's simplicity is it's beauty.

Check out the rest of the Nativities linked up at:

Decorating the Kids' Tree

Tonight we decorated the kids' tree.  Let me back up.  Ever since we have had a little one in the house we have (OK that would be pretty much just be me) put a little tree in the room.  When Grant was born he received a tree in his room too.  These were traditionally small real trees.  Let's say mommy has gotten tired of cleaning needles and watering trees in their rooms.  So earlier this year at an estate sale I picked up a small tree for Clark's room. He LOVES it - it's fiberoptic!  Today while killing some time before picking up Clark from preschool, Grant and I headed to the Salvation Army.  All the Christmas decor was 75% off - including trees.  We picked up a really nice tree (for an artificial tree) for under $12.00.

Put the tree up in Grant's room and since it is so much bigger than Clark's most of the kids' ornaments will hang on this tree.

I love that all of the ornaments are grouped in a ring about 2 - 3 feet off the ground.  Love it!

Grant very much enjoyed helping handing out the ornaments.

We have lots of Hallmark ornaments but our tradition is to buy a Fisher Price Hallmark ornament for the boys each year.

This year Clark received the school house - appropriate since he started preschool this year.

Grant received the airplane.  A. - the child loves all things transportation and B. he took his first plane trip this year.  Amazing how well those ornaments worked out this year.

Finally, Clark and daddy attaching the star to the top.  At the rate I'm getting things done I'm contemplating bringing a very old German tradition into our home.  Waiting to decorate the main tree in the living room until Christmas Eve to leave as a surprise for Christmas morning.  Not sure I can wait that long to have my tree lit though.

Happy decorating!

A Quilty Kind of Story

Early this morning I decided to work on my Layer Cake Quilt Along Blocks.  I'm a little behind (on lots of things).  This is the basket block (3rd block).  I'm trying to decide whether I prefer this:

or this:

I'm leaning toward the solid neutral - what do you think?  Also, after looking at many of the blocks submitted on the Flikr group I think I'll "round" off the handle (use the background fabric as the other HST) at the top.

The next block was block two.  I finished sewing the rows this morning.

As I was working on the blocks I thought back to a conversation I had with a wonderful neighbor last weekend.  Bev (and her husband Chris) have been family friends for as long as I can remember.  Last weekend some of Bev's family came to the Christmas Tree shop and they brought Bev along.  Bev's kids took her grandkids out to the plot to look for their family tree.  Bev immediately spotted a little Fraser inside our shop that she wanted for her own.  Deciding she had her perfect tree she decided to stay in the warmth of the shop and sip some of mom's wonderful hot apple cider.

My brother and I were busy inside working on wreaths and other holiday decorations.  Bev came over to keep us company.  After working up my nerve I decided to ask Bev if she still quilted.  As a little girl I remember going to Bev's house and seeing her large quilt frame - often decked with a beautiful quilt.  Bev told me she still quilts but she can't do the hand quilting on her frame anymore.  She sends her pieced works off to be machine quilted now.  I told her that I fondly remembered her quilt frame and how recently I had decided to try my hand at quilting.  This is when Bev told me a story I decided I must write down because it was such a wonderful insight into our families.

Bev began; one day your mother stopped over.  I had just finished my first quilt and showed it to her.  Your mom quickly exclaimed that I must show it at the county fair.  I told her no, it was my first.  Later your mom stopped by again and asked for the quilt to take to the fair.  She said she would do all the work of entering it under my name and getting it ready for the show.  So, I gave it to her.  Would you believe my first quilt won a beautiful blue ribbon at the county fair.  Plus, the women running the show told me they didn't give out purple ribbons at this show but if they did mine would have earned a purple.

Bev was so proud and so fondly remembered that time.  I couldn't help but love her story and it gave it me such a beautiful insight into the type of woman my mother is.  Now, I have always known what a good person my mother is but this story really touched me.  My mom is going through a rough patch right now and I wish I could help her out more - at this point prayers for her as she cares for her mom (in hospice) are probably the best.

To Mom: - you taught me so much and I so want to emulate your goodness and thoughtfulness.  If I can encourage just one person to show their work at a county or state fair (or other competition) that would be great because the pride I saw glowing off Bev as she recounted her story is what I wish for others who are so creative (and yet may not be confident to show off their talent).  I may take a lot of entries but I have a fairly small number of blue ribbons and know what each was for and cherish every one.  Although some do mean more than others - especially when a new skill was accomplished!

Should we be proud of our accomplishments?  I think a little pride in our work is a good thing and I hope when I'm 80+ years I'll have a lovely story to tell about a moment - not about winning a blue ribbon - but about encouraging someone else to do so.  Being there to encourage others is what I really would like this blog to be about (the state fair portion of it anyway).  Looks like my mom was doing that very thing years before I started!  Love ya, mom! xoxo

When Old Becomes New

First, I must apologize for such sporadic posting since Thanksgiving week.  When you help out on a tree farm and wreath business during the season life this time of year is a little crazy.  But yesterday reminded me how often even the simplest things can be amazing in the eyes of a child.

Yesterday was pretty cold up in northern Iowa and Clark just couldn't stay outside.  He wanted so badly to come out with mommy and help but I had to say no.  As his whining became more high pitched while I was pulling on my overalls (yes, the burned ones) I spied from the corner of my eye our old Lite Brite.  I told Clark I had a special surprise for him if he came upstairs and settled down.  The tears stopped and the questions began.

Figuring there was no way after 20 some years the light bulb would still work I plugged it in anyway.  It still worked!  We even had "vintage" papers to put in.  Score 1 for mom!

Clark and his older cousin Gabe played literally all afternoon on the old Lite Brite.  Quietly concentrating the whole time and working together without argument.  The only minor discussion I overheard (which would only be heard between a 3 and a 5 year old boy) was: Clark - "that's the cows' wee wee"; Gabe - "no it's not a wee wee, Clark!"; Clark - "yes it is!"; Gabe - "no it's not." 

Once one sheet was done they undid the pegs to find a new design.   When you think about it the toy is so simple but it provided hours of entertainment.  In fact, they are back at it again this morning.

The only minor incident was last night my brother and I ended up resorting a bunch of pegs that were mixed together.  In the kids' defense even we had a hard time telling the greens from yellows and the pinks from reds!

Test Kitchen Thursday - Pecan Pie

In an odd turn of events I somehow ended up making all the pies for Thanksgiving this year.  What can I say - I need the pie practice.  Ended up making 4 pies: Pumpkin, Peach, Blueberry and Pecan.  I have never made pecan pie before - shocking, I know.  I have made all kinds of pies, including some chiffon pies, lemon meringue, coconut cream, chocolate - you get the idea; but never pecan.

As I asked my mother where her recipe was she decided to look one up on the computer.  After she had sifted through some I opened up my computer and started a search.  Ended up going with The Pioneer Woman's Pecan Pie.  We all figured one could not go wrong with her recipe.  After reading through it thought it sounded like a good one.

Ka- CHING!  That was the best Pecan Pie I have ever had (OK - I actually don't like pecan pie - which says a lot that I ate this and wanted more)!  If you love (or if you don't but want to try a good version) Pecan Pie you should really try this recipe!  My family likes pecan pie but this year there were practically fights over it (not really - but it was the first pie gone).  Some fillings are so sweet you can't eat it all - this one is sweet but in all the right ways and the flavor of the pecans really shines!

One thing I did differently was I toasted the pecans first - I know you're going to bake them but toasting the nuts makes a world of difference.  Try it - I bet you'll like it!

December Friday Night Sew-In(s)

This month there will be TWO Friday Night Sew Ins (FNSI).  Whew - I need all the sewing time I can get right now.  It might be a little tough to fit them both in this month.  The first one for December is on the 10th which is Clark's Christmas Program for Preschool.  I still plan to join in even if I'm a little late getting started that night (I might have to start in the morning - is that cheating - hmmm).  The second one is the 17th which is the night before flying out to see my sister (and go wedding dress shopping)!  Not sure I'll have time to fit that one in the schedule.

If you want to join the fun too (and get a night - or two - of sewing in with lots of others) sign up for the December FNSI (you can find the button on the right hand side of my blog).

Can't wait to see what everyone accomplishes!

November Finished Entries

Here are my finished entries for November!

1. Pear Apple Butter

2. Pecan Pie

3. Applesauce

4. Autumn Arrangement

5. Thanksgiving Banner

6. Fall Wreath

New Advent Tradition

OK - nearly a week since the last blog post - sorry!  We have been very busy around here (isn't everyone).

Today led to the first part of decorating.  Last year when putting all the Christmas items away I did a very smart thing and organized the decorations a bit differently (and labeled all the boxes).  I put all of the advent, nativity and Christmas card items in one box and made sure it was at the front.  That worked well when we went to pull the advent items out today!  Like the cute Fisher Price Little People Nativity.

We have lots of advent calendars and wreaths so I didn't really think about making anything new for this year.  But when I saw this idea on one of the blogs I follow I decided it would be an awesome tradition for this family!  Christmas Books Advent Calendar - perfect - we LOVE books around here.

I knew I had at least 25 Christmas related books for the kids and was going to pull them out today anyway.  Turns out I had over 50 Christmas books so decided to do a separate batch for each boy.  If you're amazed at that amount of books you should know books are very important to this family.  Some of the books are Christmas books my husband and I had as kids and many are books bought on sale (long before we had children but knew we would some day).

All the books were randomly mixed throughout the month so we would have traditional Christmas stories, Christian messages and winter stories all mixed in.  Thinking back to last year there were a lot of books we just never got around to reading so this should help!  Hmmm - how did those candies get in the picture?

I used Living Locurto's Advent numbers (free printables on her sight) to mark all the packages.  I didn't have a 2" punch so I just left them square.  I'm trying to get over my perfectionist attitude and realize my little guys don't care how it looks - the time spent with them and the tradition we start together is what matters.

I also have the backs numbered in case the numbers fall off.  I used different color schemes of wrapping paper to know which group was for which boy.  Clark enjoyed helping me glue all of the numbers on the top.  Searching for the right day will be a good way for him to practice numbers throughout the month!

They were all put in my large wire basket and set next to the door.  I decided these should be where I can keep an eye on them so they aren't opened too soon!  Clark and I sorted them by size and put them in the basket.  Look at all the skills he's getting from this project!

Tonight Clark pulled out the number one's so we could read them as a family.

The boys enjoyed this part!

Of course, we all enjoyed the reading part too!

We hope this will become a fun family tradition.