I got this from a website "Recipes from a German Grandma" a few years ago, and fiddled with it. It's a yeast bread, so it takes several hours start to finish.
Ingredients:
7 cups flour (I use half the white whole wheat all purpose and half bread flour)
1 cup sugar
1/2 lb butter (I use unsalted, but it really doesn't matter) softened
2 pkg active dry yeast
6 large eggs
2 tsp salt
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
3/4 to 1 1/2 cups chopped candied fruit (I use red and green cherries and citron)
1/2 cup raisins (golden are prettier in the bread, but regular work fine)
1/2 cup slivered almonds.
1 tube almond paste (optional, but oh so good!)
Directions:
If you've got a big stand mixer, it will save your arms. It can be made the old fashioned way by kneading by hand, but these directions are for the big stand mixer.
In the large bowl, dissolve yeast in milk, add 2 cups flour and 1/4 cup sugar and mix. Let it sit while you're chopping the candied cherries, or for at least 15 minutes. It's going to get bubbly.
Add eggs, butter, lemon rind, 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, and salt, mix til smooth.
Add fruit. Change to the dough blades, or prepare to mix in the flour by hand.
Add remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is smotth and shiny. {Yeast breads are not fussy, but it's easy to add too much flour. You want it to be so you can just handle it. If you're using the dough hooks, you can leave it a little stickier.} If you're kneading by hand, put about a cup of flour on your kneading surface and knead that in. You're going to knead in the machine or by hand for at least 15 minutes.
When you've finished kneading, put it into a large greased bowl. Large, because the dough will rise to about double it's size, so make sure it has room. Put into the bowl, turn it out and turn it over, and put the dough back in. Cover and place into a warm, not hot, place, for 2 hours. (I usually cover with a damp kitchen towel, not the terrycloth kind, but waxed paper works) If you don't have a good out-of-the-way place, turn the oven to 200 before you start kneading, and turn it half way through so it's warm but not hot.
When it's double in size, push the air out of it, turn it out onto a floured board, cut into 4 pieces. Add a little flour if it's too sticky to work.
If you want, you can cut each piece into 3 and braid it, but I never do that. I take each piece, pat it out into an oval so it's about a half inch thick, and roll out about a quarter of the tube of almond paste, and put that in the middle. Fold it in half, like an omelet, and press down on the edge to seal it. You want it so it's not exactly folded in half, but so the top is about an inch back from the edge of the bottom.
Put it on a buttered cookie sheet,shape it into a crescent shape, and repeat with the other 3 pieces. I can usually get two on a cookie sheet, but you really don't want them to touch. Let them rise, covered, until they're about doubled in size. Usually about a half hour or so. You can brush them with beaten egg, it makes them shiny. Or with melted butter, so the crust is soft. Or with nothing, because you're going to drizzle it with icing!
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until they're golden brown on top. If you can't get all 4 into the over at once, put the first two you shaped in first, and put the other two somewhere a bit cooler so they don't rise too much.
Let them cool, the drizzle a simple icing made with powdered sugar, about a half teaspoon of lemon juice, and enough milk to make the icing the right consistency. Sorry, I never measure this part, but you're making a thin icing or thick glaze.
Anne, you don't have to let them cool, you're right, they're yummy right out of the oven.
But, if they're gifts, let them cool completely before icing, and let the icing dry completely. If you have time or are feeling creative, use leftover red and green cherries to make poinsettas on the top. Which I gave up on years ago!
Enjoy, ladies! It's yummy!
Blogs & Forums
