Daring Bakers - Christmas Stollen

Been gone for a while for Christmas vacations, hence the lack of posting. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with wonderful food of course :)

This month challenge in the Daring Bakers was really on the spot, since i wanted to try to make a Stollen, the typical German Christmas bread with fruit and nuts. The recipe makes for a quite big stollen, or actually more than one. In my case the dough came out a bit dry, I would probably bake it for less time or add a little bit less flour if I do this recipe again. Otherwise the taste was fabulous, though I must agree it is not quite the typical recipe ;)

In my case I substituted the raisins by cranberries, since most of the people who were going to eat it don´t like raisins that much.

This bread reminds me a lot of the portuguese "Bolo Rei" also typical for this season.

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

If you want, you can check out the recipe in the Daring Kitchen.

Fast tabbouleh

Nothing faster than couscous. And bringing a little bit of warmth from the orient to the cold days that we´ve been feeling here.

I believe that tabbouleh is most typically made with bulgur, but I only had couscous so that´s what I used. In it´s essence I kept the spices and herbs, specially the mint.
Wonderful to eat just as it is or as a side dish. And with a glass of black tea to the side, even better...

Tabbouleh

Ingredients (for 2 persons)

Around 100 gr of couscous (or bulgur)
1 finely diced onion
2 garlic cloves, diced
Half of 1 leek in fine slices
1 diced tomato
Half grated carrot
salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
Finely chopped herbs: mint, coriander and parsley
2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
water

In a pan place the olive oil, garlic, onion and leek. Simmer until the onions and leek are soft. Add the chopped tomatoes and carrot, mixing and letting simmer for a few minutes. Mix in the couscous and the herbs, and season with the spices. Add water just until the couscous are covered, and let simmer for 10 min (or until most of the water evaporates). Before serving top with more fresh herbs and a drizzle of lemon juice.

Sour cream scones with cranberries

The perfect start for a cold winter weekend!
I think the sour cream gives this scones a very soft texture, which actually holds well until the next day.

Simple and fast.

Sour cream scones with cranberries 

Ingredients (around 6-8 scones):

250 gr of flour
70 gr of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking soda
a pinch of salt
cinnamon (optional, to taste)
6 tablespoons of cold butter
150 gr of sour cream
1 egg
50 gr of chopped cranberries

Pre-heat the oven at 180°C.
In a bowl mix the dry ingredients and the cranberries. Add the butter in small pieces and mix until you get a coarse sandy mixture. In another bowl, mix the sour cream and the egg, whisking briefly until the egg is incorporated in the cream. Add the cream mixture to the flour and butter and mix only slightly.
Form small balls and placed them in the baking tray. Bake for 15 min or until slightly golden.