Struggling with Stollen
I got inspired by a Binging with Babish video to make Stollen for the holidays this year. I got a 6qt lift style kitchenaid last year for Christmas and I've yet to make any bread with it yet so I decided I'd give it a try. Full recipe found here
https://www.daringgourmet.com/stollen-german-christmas-bread/
I followed the recipe pretty maliciously to ensure I did the method correctly and I weighed ingredients instead of using volume measurements.
I mixed the ingredients well before using the kneeding hook but no matter how long or what speed I used it would not release from the side of the bowl once I started to use the hook.
I ended up having to take the dough out, kneed it by hand while also adding an extra 2.5 cups to it to make it workable. Overall I was pretty unhappy with how the process went so I let it proof for about 2 hours and then I baked it without any of the nuts and fruits to see how the bread would turn out.
Needless to say it did not turn out well and I'm not happy with it at all.
Any tips on what I can do differently tomorrow for my next trial? One comment I came across in another thread was that the size of this batch may be to small for a 6qt bowl and the hook isnt working properly.. But the dough just seemed so wet, adding so much dough to it to get it to be workable just didnt seem right.
Posted Dec 21, 2020, 11:16 PM UTC
Slack dough is fine, it becomes elastic and not as sticky by kneading it thoroughly. Stollen is a highly enriched dough, which means that it's harder to create gluten strands than a lean dough like French bread. Get your hands all up in that dough and knead it, you'll notice a change in the dough when it starts to pull together and become elastic. I highly recommend checking out Paul Hollywood (judge on the Great British Baking Show and excellent baker) because he works with a lot of slack doughs.
I will check him out, thanks for the confidence. Just had a taste and it tastes really good, got something right at least. Thank you