Make This: Easy Stollen Recipe

Stollen is an old recipe--rumor has it that it's been alive and kicking since the 1300s. Seriously! While original loaves are said to have weighed a hefty 30 pounds, things have lightened up a bit since then.

 

This is a rich, yeast-raised and milk-and egg enriched dough which is dotted with dried fruit. Some recipes have you using gross candied fruit (I think it's gross anyway) but I used my homemade dried cranberries and some turkish apricots. It is worth tasting this tradition.

Check out the recipe here!

A Simple Way to Dress up a Plain Yellow Cake

So, I recently wrote about how to make an egg-free vanilla cake for Craftsy. This is a useful thing to have on hand, because you never know when you'll start baking only to find that you have no eggs--or, it's good to be prepared in the event someone can't consume eggs. 

But the egg-free cake isn't necessarily what I want to tell you about today. I want to tell you about what I did after I completed baking it.

Actually, the process started while the cake was still baking. I thought: "I know what to do with this cake. I am going to make it a dulce de leche poke cake."

I happened to have a 14-ounce can of dulce de leche I'd found in the International Aisle at the grocery store in my cabinet. I cracked it open and poured it into a pan, reserving a small spoonful for myself, for SNACKING.

Then I added about 1/2 cup of whole milk and a pinch of salt.

I heated the mixture on low, and added a little more milk (sorry, I didn't measure) to give the mixture a thick but pourable consistency (you can kind of play it by ear). I didn't let it boil, just warmed it enough so that the mixture was smooth and combined. 

Around then, the cake was done.

Here's what I did then. First, I poked the cake all over. 

pokecakedulce.jpg

Then I poured the silky dulce de leche mixture on top.

dulcacakepour2.jpg

It was thick on top at first but then it gradually soaked and settled into the cake, leaving a glaze-like finish on top but a full, saturated texture inside of the cake.

It was beautiful to watch.

I finished it with some toasted pecans and some sea salt.

And it was heaven. 

So, I suppose the point of this blog post is to tell you that if you ever need inspiration for how to gussy up a yellow cake (egg-free or no), please do this. Just heat up some dulce de leche with enough milk to thin it, then pour it over the cake which you've poked with the tines of a fork or a skewer. Then enjoy.

I would cue the "the more you know" music here, but I will have to settle for an image I found from the web:


Enjoy this inspiring idea!