Yeast cook extraordinaire Sheila Oliver may well have started her own family Christmas tradition after introducing Christollen to her festive feast back in the 1980s.
“Christollen is a traditional German and popular Austrian fruit bread eaten during the Christmas season and contains nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar,” said the GemLife Pacific Paradise resident.
Sheila loves to experiment so no two Christollens (or stollens) are ever the same. In fact, she has already cooked up one and tried it out on fellow residents at the new Paradise Pavilion happy hour.
“They liked it but I felt it needed more fruit and liquor so I will tweak it and take another one up for testing by residents before Christmas,” she said.
Cooking with yeast is a specialty for Sheila who, with husband George, previously owned a Simply No Knead franchise in Melbourne during the 1980s.
“It was a bread-making and yeast cookery school where we also sold the utensils needed to do it,” said Sheila, who since moving into GemLife Pacific Paradise has also held similar classes for many keen residents.
She said one of the most important things to know when using yeast is that you have to be careful that the ingredients, such as the melted butter and milk, are not too hot as they can kill the yeast.
“Also, it pays to be patient. If the dough hasn’t doubled in the time allowed, leave it a bit longer. It really is just patience in yeast cookery, there is not a lot of work in it.”
She added that yeast recipes such as stollen should be made on the day it is meant to be eaten because being bread, it is always better when fresh.
Sheila and George first met in a pub in England. They married on 27 November, 1971 and arrived 18 The Gem www.gemlife.com.au DECEMBER 2021 19 in Australia on Christmas Day the same year. Fifty years later, they are still here and love it.
They have four kids and eight grandchildren, six of whom live in Victoria. Their youngest daughter, who works in the film industry, lives in England and is not expected to visit her parents until her latest project is completed in April next year.
“This year we’ll be having our main meal, which we have on Christmas Eve, with our Queensland-based daughter, her husband and two children and George will whip up a grazing platter filled with delicious food such as dips, cheeses, roast meat, salad and a seafood platter while my contribution will be the stollen,” said Sheila
Christollen
Method
- Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the fruit and stir.
- Add the liquid ingredients, making sure that the milk mixture is not too hot. Add more flour or milk if the dough is too moist/dry.
- Cover with a tea towel and allow to double in size, (1–2 hours, depending on air temperature).
- Shape the dough into a smooth ball then roll it into a sausage shape. Flatten the dough.
- Roll the marzipan to roughly the same length.
- Put the marzipan on top of the dough, press it down and cover the marzipan with the dough. Allow to double again.
- Pre-heat oven to 200C.
- When doubled, bake for 30 minutes.
- Cool for 10 minutes and dust with icing sugar.
INGREDIENTS
- 50ml dark rum
- 100g mixed peel
- 100g currants
- 100g sultanas
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Soak these five ingredients overnight.
Dry Ingredients
- 300g baker’s flour
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tsp dried yeast
- 50g sugar
- 50g slivered almonds
Liquid Ingredients
- Warm in microwave 150ml milk and
- 50g unsalted butter
- 1 egg (beaten)
- Extra – 150g marzipan