I’ll have to see if I can sneak it out while she is gone because as I mentioned “I’m not worthy.” I showed her though… I won’t share my family’s Lutefisk recipe. (Did I mention I’m really happy I married into a German family).
I’ve been sent out to buy the ingredients and have watched from a distance so I’ve got a general idea, but I’ll see if I can find the original recipe.
Oh, and if you accidentally pick up Black Walnuts instead of regular ones you can ruin Christmas and be threatened with divorce.
Baker - did you ever try the pumpernickel recipe? I’m going to take another crack at it over Thanksgiving and want any pointers you or others might have…
Sorry to say I haven’t tried it yet. Things got kind of busy in September, as my father passed away, and then my aunt just over a month later. My sisters and I have been helping my mother get a lot of stuff arranged concerning the house and estate.
But that’s passed now and your resurrection of the thread is just the jolt I need to get started.
I have to leave for work in about fifteen minutes, when I come home I’ll post the stollen recipe, to make up for not getting back about the pumpernickel. I truly do appreciate the recipes and link you posted. and it occurs to me that the local health food store may have the rye berries.
There was a musical version of the story Jack and The Beanstalk. Captain Kangaroo used to play it on his show, and it included the lines “I’ll grind your bones to make my bread/Pumpernickel bread loved he”. Hearing this as a young child, I believed for years that pumpernickel had bone meal in it.
So of course I avoided it, until much later I looked it up, and surprisingly that’s not one of the standard ingredients.
Warm the milk in a pan until lukewarm, sprinkle yeast and 3 tablespoons of sugar on top, stir, and let stand for 10 minutes or until foamy.
Add one half of the butter, and eggs, to the yeast mixture and stir until blended. Add the remaining sugar and the salt then half the flour, citrus peels, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg, stir until blended.
Stirt in raisins, nuts, and candied fruits, the remaining butter and flour. Knead to make a stiff dough and place in a greased bowl, covered. Place bowl in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
Divide dough in half, knead each half for two minutes. Shape each half into a traditional stollen shape, about 11x 7 inches. Brush with a little melted butter and place on baking sheet lines with parchment paper. Let rise until double, about 45 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes, or until golden brown.
The really cool thing is that Dan figured out a hack for what is normally ~18 hour slow bake. It’s more a 4 hour slow back inside a dutch oven 3/4 filled with water at 350 degrees F. You get the detmold carmelization of the rye flour and it turns dark without molassas or powdered coffee or cocoa like a lot of recipes call for.
Way back in elementary school, a Danish friends mother would make his packed lunch with ham on one slice of pumpernickel, cream cheese on two ( back to back so as not to make a mess and for dessert it was a very thin flat slice of milk chocolate on a fourth slice of pumpernickel. I was always good friends with him at lunch time, which worked out well as he liked my regular white bread sandwiches.
Smoked salmon or peppered mackerel ( thin smear of butter) is also very good. Obviously Marmite, which makes everything better, on toasted pumpernickel is food of the gods.
However, in my family we had a traditional combo of mom’s kosher-style chopped liver on top of pumpernickel. Ah, makes me totally nostaligic…
(Would like to make mom’s chopped liver, but am having trouble locating a source of schmaltz around here. Am just about resigned to rendering some on my own.)