FESTIVE STOLLEN
MAKES 1 large loaf or 2 medium loaves
PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes plus rising
TIME: 30 minutes
TOOLS Dough Hook
INGREDIENTS:
75g (3oz) sultanas
75g (3oz) currants
50g (2oz) orange & lemon chopped candied peel
60ml (4 tbsp) dark rum
400g (14oz) unbleached white bread flour
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
50g (2oz) caster sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) ground cinnamon
7g sachet (1½ tsp) fast action dried yeast
1 egg, lightly beaten
140ml (5fl oz) lukewarm milk
50g (2oz) butter, melted
50g (2oz) whole blanched almonds, chopped
50g (2oz) glacé cherries
225g (8oz) almond paste
melted butter, for brushing
icing sugar, for dusting


1 Place the sultanas, currants and chopped peel in a bowl. Stir in the rum and set aside to soak. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2 Sift the flour and salt into the Kenwood Bowl. Add the sugar, cinnamon and yeast and stir to mix. Add the egg, milk and butter and using the Dough Hook mix to a soft dough. Knead for 4 minutes, on speed 1, until smooth and elastic.

3 Remove the Kenwood Bowl complete with dough, cover with lightly oiled clear film and leave in a warm place to rise for 1½ hours, or until doubled in size.

4 Using the Dough Hook, knock back and briefly knead the dough on speed 1 for 45-60 seconds. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 2.5cm (1 inch) thick rectangle. Sprinkle over the soaked fruits, almonds and glacé cherries. Fold and knead to incorporate the fruit and nuts.

5 Roll into a 23 x 30cm (9 x 12 inch) oval. Roll the centre slightly thinner than the edges. Roll the almond paste into a 20cm (8 inch) sausage shape and place along the centre of the dough. Fold the dough over to enclose it, making sure the top edge is set back slightly from the base edge. Press down to seal.

6 Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet, cover with oiled clear film and leave to rise in warm place for 45-60 minutes, or until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas5.

7 Bake for 30 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when the base is sharply tapped. Brush the top with melted butter, dust with icing sugar and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Either wrap loaf in foil, or put in a air-tight box and leave for a week or so, then dust again with icing sugar before eating.


ALMOND PASTE
MAKES 450G (1LB)
PREPARATION TIME: 10 MINUTES
TOOLS K BEATER
INGREDIENTS:
225g (8oz) ground almonds
115g (4oz) icing sugar
115g (4oz) caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
5ml (1 tsp) lemon juice
1-2 drops of vanilla or almond extract


1 Place all the ingredients in the Kenwood Bowl. Using the K Beater on minimum speed, mix together until the ingredients bind together to form a paste.

2 Transfer to a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and knead into a ball. Cover until ready to use.


Cook’s Note: If you wish to avoid using raw egg to bind the ingredients together, replace with water.

We don’t like glace cherries so replaced them with candied peel – our own homemade stuff using the recipe from the Waitrose site. Also do note that the quantity of almond paste in the recipe is double the amount needed for the stollen recipe.

What do you think? It looks great, its just come out the oven. I tasted a bit of the almond paste, warm, yummy! Can’t wait to try it all….



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A quick, short post for @djkirkby who expressed a keen interest in trying this recipe. Very good choice too. I made this last year and very popular it was with friends and neighbours. I think I might alter the recipe slightly by adding maybe 50ml more vinegar and a couple of chopped cloves of garlic, I might also leave out the sultanas… But this here is last years recipe adapted from a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall original…



Hot Hedgerow Chutney


2 Dorset Naga chillies, chopped (or more to taste)
3 tbsp olive oil
250g (c. 3 small ) peeled, cored and chopped apples
3 medium red onions finely chopped
4 ½ cm finely chopped fresh ginger
1 ½ kg blackberries
200g sultanas
400g sugar
300ml red wine vinegar


1. Soften red onion, ginger and chilli in olive oil for 4-5 minutes.
2. Add blackberries and apples and cook for a further 4-5 minutes.
3. Add sugar, wine vinegar and sultanas, stir while dissolving sugar. Bring to boil and simmer until “chutneyed”.
(To test if a chutney’s ready, run a spoon gently through the chutney. The spoon should leave a trail and no excess liquid should run into it – if liquid quickly fills the trail then it’s not ready. More difficult to judge with chunky blackberries, but I think I simmered this recipe for about 40 minutes.)
4. Whilst still hot, funnel into hot, sterilised jars and seal with lid.



Let it mature a couple of months and then enjoy.

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This is one of my favourite cake recipes. I’ve had to alter it slightly today though as I realised I hadn’t enough walnuts. So I doubled the original recipe quantities (bar the nuts) and made what was originally a ‘traybake’ into a cake. I’ve just eaten a piece with an americano and it was very yummy.



Espresso walnut squares cake


Ingredients:
280g plain flour
a pinch of salt
280g light muscovado sugar
180g unsalted butter – chilled and diced
2 tsp baking powder
2 medium egg, beaten
6 tbsp very strong espresso coffee, cold
2 tbsp milk
30g walnut pieces
One 20cm square cake tin, greased and base-lined


Method:
Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the cold chunks of butter and rub with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 4 tbsp of the mixture. Add the baking powder to the rest of the mixture and mix well.
Combine the egg, coffee and milk in the mixture in the mixing bowl. When thoroughly combined spoon the mixture into the tin and level it.
Mix the nuts with the reserved crumb mixture and scatter over the top.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160C fan oven or 180C (350F)/Gas4 for about 60 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch, for last 20 minutes cover the top of the cake with tin foil to stop any burning.
Let cool for 1-2 minutes, then run a pallette knife around the edges of the tin to loosen it and carefully turn onto a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container and eat within 4 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.






The original recipe has half quantities, but double the amount of walnuts (45g of which go into the mixture after the egg, coffee and milk). Bake for 20-25 minutes and when cool cut into squares.
Either way it’s delicious!

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