Hi everyone! I’m making Stollen this year and I don’t have a cool place to store it, only the fridge, and I’ve been told that it’s not ideal. I’m from Argentina, here we are very close to Summer, Temperatures range from 28 °C (82 °F) to 34 °C (93 °F), but I really want to make a stollen and age it until Christmas.
Do you think it would work if I keep it outside the fridge for a few days and then store it in the fridge until Christmas?
I’m also a bit confused about wrapping. Some people say wrapping it in plastic is fine, others say you should never do that — so I’m not sure what the best option is.
I absolutely love stollen, so any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.
Here’s the recipe I’m using:
Old style sourdough stollen
- 450 g bread flour (strong flour not required)
- 100 g sweet sourdough starter
- 90 g sugar
- 125 g toasted ground almonds
- 1 pinch of salt
- 125 g milk
- Zest of 1 orange and ½ lemon
- 150 g butterslightly softened
- 75 g lard
- Powdered sugar (icing sugar)for dusting
- Mixed dried fruits ( raisin, candied orange and lemon peel; I used 316g total)
- Extra butterfor brushing after baking
- Rumas needed
https://i.redd.it/66jcossk768g1.jpeg
Posted by FeelingaLotRN
1 Comment
I wrap them in baking paper or parchment paper, then 3-4 layers of aluminum foil to seal them completely, then 1-2 cotton or linen tea towels, and finally a plastic bag 🙈. I store them like this for several weeks.
I even had one forgotten at Easter 😋
I would replace the plastic bag with a cloth bag, given your room temperature.
Store them in the coolest place in your house. We’re only talking about a few days, not the theoretically usual weeks.
Alternatively (with the plastic bag), you can store them in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator (mild, consistent climate) or at the very top, because it’s not as cold there as in the rest of the refrigerator.
The refrigerator isn’t ideal because the air is quite dry and it’s also a bit too cold, but it’s a possible compromise 🤷🏻♀️
If you do store the stollen in the refrigerator, you’ll need to take it out about 1-3 hours before serving so the flavors can develop again.
I don’t have access to the dark, cool cellar I used to have, and neither do many others.
Get some more powdered sugar for dusting the stollen thickly after unwrapping it, if needed. Then the powdered sugar will be like new, like a fresh blanket of snow.
The powdered sugar from baking will likely bind strongly with the layer of fat and clump together during storage.
After cutting, you have a maximum of 2 days at these temperatures without refrigeration, and 3-4 days with refrigeration, but only if the stollen wasn’t exposed to 34 degrees Celsius for hours.
How and for how long do you store pound cakes?
You can use that as a guide.
To store it after cutting, you can place the cut stollen, along with the serving plate, in a plastic bag, covered with a tea towel, or cover it with aluminum foil or cling film.
Return it to the coolest place or put it back in the vegetable drawer.
Most importantly at these temperatures:
Work hygienically, handle it as little as possible with your hands, use a fresh, clean, sharp knife (a serrated or smooth bread knife), ideally cake tongs or pastry tongs for serving, or only handle it by the edges.
For storage after cutting, you can place the cut stollen, along with the serving plate, in a plastic bag or cover it with aluminum foil or cling film.
“`The yeast dough, with its somewhat longer shelf life, high sugar content, and outer sugar layer, offers some protection against bacteria and mold, but can only delay it.