Woo!
I made the most of my weekend at home- seems like it has been ages (well, we have spent the last 2 weekends going away for races).
Saturday started with some gingerbread porridge (2 boxes for £3 in Waitrose, but they only had 1 box left!)- nice but I think it could do with more ginger! I think I am a spice addict.
Then it continued with an 8 mile run- I could not decide between a 6 and 8 mile run (I was aching a lot from body pump on Thursday-I had to miss last week due to parents evening, and normally I would go down weights if I miss weeks but I didn’t and was worried that I would not actually finish the squats track), so went on how I felt at mile 3 (when I have to choose the route home)- I was feeling great so I carried on. I even contemplated rounding it up to 10, but then thought Andy might worry about where I had got to. 1 hr 32 which I think is my quickest time for that route too. (We went out last night for a friends’ birthday and I had some chocolate orange raspberry torte for dessert- must be my rocket fuel).
This was meant to be my post run snack, but I actually forgot to drink the milk. The Larabar was amazing though- tasted very similar to the almond fudgy bars.
Then it was stollen time! Hooray! This recipe is vegan and is based on the one in Rachel Allen’s Bake (which also has the best Christmas cake recipe, gingerbread house and white chocolate peanut butter blondies need I go on- check it out). It made me 3 loaves- one normal and 2 smaller.
First up and the fruit needed soaking- 400g fruit (I used 50g mixed peel and 350g mixed fruit, but I have added cranberries, cherries etc before), 100g ground almonds, 50ml brandy, tsp vanilla and tsp almond extract.
Then heat 220ml almond milk and add 2 tsp dried yeast- leave to bubble for 10 mins. As the almond milk was sugar free I also added a tsp sugar here to help the yeast.
Meanwhile put 500g strong bread flour in a bowl with a load of spices- I did cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, cloves and nutmeg. See, spice addict.
Add the frothy milk and stir it- then knead in 150g pure spread and 100g caster sugar.
This gets sticky! You may need to add a little more flour to make it into a soft dough.
Then leave covered for 2 hours to double in size.
Hooray!
Then put it on a board and roll out, pour on the fruit mixture and knead it all in.
Then split it into however many loaves you want (I did 3). Roll each one out, put some marzipan in (which seems to be vegan? For some reason I thought it contained egg whites but the ones I have are just sugar and almonds) and sprinkle a few flaked almonds inside.
Then roll up into a loaf shape and attempt to seal the crack down the middle. Leave for an hour to rise. Then heat the oven to 200C.
Bake for 40-45 mins, and then dust with icing sugar. This is in the recipe but also handily covers the bits where the dough opens back out again.
I could not wait to try some (with some lovely vanilla rooibos tea). My one came out blurry, but look at this slice;
The marzipan in the middle is the best bit! 🙂
They keep for a while (if you can resist them) and also freeze well- so I have put one in the freezer and we are taking the big one to Andy’s parents tomorrow.
I hope you all had a lovely Saturday too- what did you do to relax today?
Also on a totally random note, I have seen that clif bar do seasonal flavours– how good do these sound? : spiced pumpkin pie, iced gingerbread and peppermint stick (US peeps- are they as nice as they sound?). Actually they sound like latte flavours too, but they are clif bars! Amazing. Maybe they need a stollen flavour to add to the collection….
I am a spice addict too and also thought the Gingerbread porridge was a little lacking in flavour. The illustration on the front of the box was too cute for me not to buy it though, haha. Marzipan is one of my most favourite foods and your stollen looks amazing! Love that you left the marzipan middle bit quite chunky instead of rolling it into a measly layer like in the shop-bough versions… Yum!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-Vegan Marzipan. It’s a shame that marzipan reminds me so much of Battenburg cake, which I can’t stand! I’m sure that ‘proper’ marzipan is much nicer though, and your Stollen looks delish. My Dad just sidled by the screen (stollen is his favourite food, bar none) and looked a bit crestfallen as he was hoping I was looking up a recipe with a view to making some! Given my baking non-skills, I don’t think that would be such a good idea anyway – I’ll have to look in M&S tomorrow to see if they have some for him 😉
Those Clif flavours look amazing, particularly the iced Gingerbread. Americans get the best of everything – they even have vegan coconut milk greek yoghurt now!
I think Stollen is quite an English thing though – perhaps Clif should make that flavour a UK exclusive if they ever decide to create it 😉
xxx
Oh Maria, first the magazine recommendation for the vegan cake and now this? I can’t wait to try making these – this might have to be my first venture using yeast! Thank you!
Stollen! Oh how I love stollen. My Grandma grew up in Germany so we always have lots of stollen, lebkuchen and such at her house…it’s very exciting! 🙂 I’ve always thought it would be so complicated and time consuming to make but you make it looks so easy! (No doubt it look a bit like a bombsite if i attempted to make any!) It looks amazing!
Those Clif bars do indeed sound really good, especially the peppermint one…so Christmassy!
Jessica- my Dad’s mum was Austrian so we always had a lot of German things- the lebkuchens are my fave and I used to get them in Sainsburys but nowhere seems to do them any more ;( Stollen does take a while but it is mostly waiting time (where you can do other things)- give it a go one rainy weekend.
Laura good luck with the yeast baking 🙂 It is not scary I promise!
Jessica- I have no idea where I got the egg white in marzipan idea from??!
Bronagh- I was sold by the picture on the box too!
That stollen looks sooo good! 🙂
Mmm, I love stollen! I buy lots of Christmassy treats from Lidl – they have lots of different things they label as lebkuchen (I have no experience outside of Lidl so wouldn’t know if that is what you actually mean!!) as well as stollen, but last year I found the big stollen too big to finish before it went dry, but if I buy the mini ones I eat the whole pack at once!
So making them myself so I can choose the size would be a good solution…this recipe doesn’t look too difficult either so I might give it a go, thanks! 🙂
I might have to go to Lidl (not sure where our nearest one is) and hunt for the lebkuchen! I put one of the stollens in the freezer too, so at least we don’t have to eat them all at once.
Oo your stollen looks yummy! I love that flavour lara bar, I think its the best one, sadly I have none left from my San Fran trip though :'(
I was so amazed by the yumminess of the larabar- will be looking for them next time I am over that way 🙂