Stray Foodie Christmas Recipes are written by Michelin-starred chef, Frances Atkins. In 1997, Frances opened the Yorke Arms near Pateley Bridge, where she was the owner for 20 years. During her ownership, she held her Michelin-star status for 16 of those years.
Over the festive period, I’ll be bringing you some of my favourite seasonal recipes each week. I’d love to see how you make the recipes your own – let me know by using #StrayFoodie or tagging @thestrayferret in your social media posts.
This recipe is designed to use all your odds and ends up from the fridge during this period. Making a tasty base to load on preserves, meats, salad, grains or anything you wish! We are calling this a Cheese Stollen, a savoury effort modelled on Bettys‘ simply delicious sweet marzipan stollen which is a treat for me every year. We have made a Stollen from a brioche dough and a basic bun dough. It sounds complicated, but it certainly isn’t as you will see as you read through the recipe.
Stollen is traditionally a fruit bread made from spices and candied fruits and by heritage it is Germany’s answer to Italy’s panettoni. At this time of year there seems to be a muddled variety as far as quality and authenticity is concerned.
Our cheese stollen is a brioche wrapped in a bun dough with a small amount of mixed peel, raisins and cheese.
For the Brioche Dough
- 4x Beaten Eggs
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 15g Dried Yeast
- 450g Strong White Flour
- 6ml Tepid Water
- 75g Gruyere Cheese (or a stronger cheese if preferred)
- Pinch of Salt
- 225g soft unsalted Butter
The ingredients can be halved, but I like to keep a little in the fridge for general use. It is so handy to bring out of the fridge, knead it, shape it and pop it in the oven for that fabulous warm brioche at breakfast.
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water and let it work for a couple of minutes.
Add the beaten eggs and pour into a mixing bowl.
Add the flour and salt and mix to a stiff dough either by hand or using the dough hook of an electric mixer.
When the mixture is smooth, beat in the butter in small pieces. The finished dough should have a silky appearance.
Place it in an oiled bowl, loosely cover and rest overnight in the fridge.
For the basic bun
This bun dough is great for donuts and other buns too.
- 450g Strong White Flour
- 40g Caster Sugar
- Pinch of Salt
- 35g unsalted Butter
- 1 Egg
- 25g Dried Yeast
- 118ml Tepid Water (don’t be afraid to add a drop more as it is dependant on the quality of the flour.)
- 50g Mixed Peel
- 50g Yellow Sultanas
- 1 x Beaten Egg
Dissolve the yeast in the water at blood temperature.
Sieve the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl.
Rub in the butter and then add the eggs.
Add the yeast and enough water to obtain a soft dough.
Cover and rest the dough for 10 mins.
Knead well until the dough becomes firm and springy.
Place in a bowl dusted with flour and allow to rise until double in size – this should take approximately 30 mins.
Take the rested brioche out of the fridge and knead with flour, then rest again for 30 mins.
Knead the cheese into the brioche and roll into a sausage.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle and egg wash.
Sprinkle over the mixed peel and raisins.
Roll it around your brioche sausage.
With the remaining beaten egg, wash the bun dough.
Place on a baking tray and let it double in size.
Place in a heated oven at 210c and cook for approximately 30 minutes.
When cool, slice and the light cheese brioche with the slight hint of sweetness from the peel and raisins and the crisp bread is simply scrummy!
If you would rather not have the raisins and peel keeping it completely savoury you could use mixed, chopped fresh herbs or a pesto.
If all this is just too much, have a good walk and reward yourself with a lunch or take away at our Paradise Food Wagon, where we will be happy to serve you from Tuesday 29th December.
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