Joanne’s Gluten Free Christmas Stollen #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #Christmas

 Libby Klein  It's that time of year again. The time when I want to eat all the things I can't have. It seems every celebratory holiday food has gluten in it. I've made it my mission to create all the things that scream Holiday Gluten-Free. Last year I posted my recipe for Hanukkah Jelly Donuts. I'm still thinking about them. They were that good! This Christmas favorite hails from my German roots. You can also find the recipe in the back of my Christmas mystery - Silent Nights Are Murder. If you've already read it, you understand why it's called Joanne's Stollen. Gluten-free bread is very tricky. But these loaves come out beautifully. Be sure to use a probe thermometer to ensure they are fully baked before removing them to cool.

Joanne’s Gluten Free Christmas Stollen

Makes 2 Loaves

INGREDIENTS

 

1 cup whole milk heated to lukewarm

4 teaspoons instant action yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

 

1 ½ cups raisins

¾ cup candied orange peel, finely chopped

¾ cup candied lemon peel, finely chopped

½ cup rum

 

 4 cups gluten free flour

*1 teaspoon xanthan gum IF it is not already in your flour

½ cup sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon ground cardamom

¾ teaspoon ground mace (or nutmeg if you can’t find mace)

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 orange

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup blanched almonds, chopped

 

2 7oz tubes marzipan or almond paste

 

For the Glaze

1 stick butter, melted

½ cup Powdered sugar for coating

 

Directions

Make sure you took out the butter to soften.

 

Heat your milk in the microwave for 30 seconds or on top of the stove until it is lukewarm. Lukewarm is cooler than you’d think. You body is 98 degrees. Lukewarm is slightly cool to the touch but not cold. If you make the milk too hot, let it sit there until it cools down or it will kill the yeast. Once the milk is just right, add the 4T of yeast and the 2T of sugar. Stir, then let sit while you do everything else. It should get nice and frothy. If it doesn’t, throw it away and start over. If it still doesn’t, you need new yeast.

 

In a microwave safe mixing bowl, add your raisins and chopped peels. Pour over ½ cup rum. Microwave for two minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside.

 In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl) Add the gluten free flour, xanthan gum if you used it, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices, zests, butter, egg, egg yolks, and vanilla. Add the milk and yeast mixture. Turn the mixer on low and beat the dough until all the ingredients are fully incorporated and form a nice ball of dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl and holds together on the beater. Turn off the mixer.

 

Drain the fruits in case there is rum that did not get absorbed. Add the re-hydrated fruits to the mixing bowl, along with the blanched almonds. Turn the mixer back on and mix until the fruit and nuts are fully incorporated into the dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop or a larger piece of parchment paper. You may need a little flour for your hands to keep from sticking. Form the dough into a nice ball where the fruits are well distributed. Cut the ball in half, and move half to the side. Form remaining half into a log about 9 inches long. With your rolling pin – or using your hands – flatten the dough into an oblong disc roughly 12 inches long.

Roll your marzipan into a rope a little shorter than the dough. Place the marzipan in the middle of the dough and roll the short sides up to cover the ends of the marzipan. Roll the dough back into a log. Place the log on a clean piece of parchment, on a baking sheet, and set someplace cozy to rise. Repeat the process with the other ball of dough and other tube of marzipan.

 

Cover with a light tea towel or cheesecloth and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 ½ - 2 hours, until risen and puffy. This is your only rise. 

Pre-heat the oven to 325°F and bake for 70 minutes – or until a probe thermometer reads 195-200 degrees in the center of the stollen. Remove from the oven, brush with melted butter, and dust with icing sugar. Let it cool, then dust with icing sugar again. Serve cool.

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all. 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her 
classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/