The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Week 4-Germany, Volga Germans

 Week 4: Germany, Volga Germans

(Sources: Britannica.com, sites.ualberta.ca)

My great grandfather on my dad's side, Heinrich Weitzel, aka, Henry Whitesell, was a Volga German. Volga Germans are people of German descent who colonized(with permission) the Volga River region of Russia in the 1700's, and stayed until their rights were eroded and Russia made it too difficult for them to survive(there was some genocide and people being sent to Siberia. It was pretty terrible...) My great grandfather's family moved around the turn of the 20th century to Alberta, Canada, where there was a Volga German community already established.

My great grandfather was a butcher, by trade, and I have his butcher knife on my ancestor shelf. He made his own beer and sauerkraut, and I like to think that a lot of my love of food comes from him. I apparently met him as a young child, but I have no memory of it, and he passed away before I could know him. I like to think that he'd enjoy this project, particularly this week! We just had Halloween and are in the time of Dia de los Muertos. I didn't make pan de muerto this year, but I think that the baked goods that I made, honor my ancestors, possibly even more because it's from their culture.

I made two breads this weekend. One German, and one Volga German recipe, and both turned out ok!

Yesterday I made a Riwwelkuchen, the recipe for which was found from a Volga German website dedicated to the village my family came from.

Proofing the yeast and making the heated milk mixture.

The first look at the dough. Looks kind of iffy at this point, but keep working with it.

It'll eventually look like this before you set it aside to rise. This didn't rise for the longest time and I was getting worried about it but I finally turned on the oven and let the heat from it heat the bowl from on top of the stove and that worked really well.

After you let it rise the first time, you punch it down and shape it into a rectangle before letting it rise for another half hour.

This is the apricot glaze for on top of the dough.

 

The risen dough.

The apricot glaze spreads really easily on top of the dough.

The crumble topping for over the glaze. Very easy to make.

Crumble topping and cinnamon sprinkled on top. Ready to bake!

Just out of the oven.

This is such a soft bread. It cuts like hot butter.

Side view. This was not a very sweet dish, so if you're not a huge dessert person, you'll probably really like this. The crumble topping isn't too hard and crunchy, so it doesn't hurt your teeth when you eat it. I tried freezing most of this and we'll see how it thaws. I might take it next week to my family gathering, if it thaws ok. I was really pleased with this one!

Today I made a stollen, a German fruitcake. I have never made one before, I have never actually eaten one before, so this was my first try at it. It doesn't look like a traditional stollen should, but it tastes really good, which is what really matters most! I used this recipe.

On Friday, I got the dark rum from my dad and Saturday morning I started soaking the fruit and almonds in it. They soaked for a little over 24 hours and absorbed a lot, but there was still some rum leftover.

This yeast really puffed up! I've never seen it do that before! This is all the ingredients, the lemon zest smells so wonderful!

The first mix. It says it will be crumbly, so I wasn't too worried at this point.

Creaming more flour into the butter with the spices is weird. I've never done this before.

Post-creaming.

Creamed mixture set on top of the mixed dough, ready to blend. I did this all by-hand, though I used a spoon for the creaming step.

The dough was supposed to be a nice smooth dough at this point and as you can see it's quite crumbly, almost like a shortbread dough. I was starting to get nervous by this point.

Then I made the executive decision to add more milk to the dough to get it to stay together better and it did work but it was still this odd gummy texture and so dense. It really didn't rise that much when I set it aside. I was even more nervous at this time but I kept going.

A floured tea towel to mix the dough to incorporate the rum-soaked fruit and nuts. I put all of it in, including the leftover rum. This spilled all over the place and soaked through the towel and definitely didn't help the gummy texture of the dough. I was extremely nervous by this time.

You have to shape it in a strange way with high sides and an indented middle, and then you do this folding thing. I did the best I could with it.

 This is the best I could get for a traditional stollen shape.

Then you make a foil holder for it that allegedly helps it keep its shape during baking.

You let it rise again for a bit at this point.

Dot it with butter before baking.

Spoiler alert: The foil absolutely nothing to keep the shape. Mine unfolded halfway through baking and nothing I could try to fix it, worked. With the gummy dough, and this disaster, I was pretty much done with stollen.

But...in spite of the disastrous look, I tasted it and it was fantastic! I melted more butter on the top, like you're supposed to, and when I kept adding powdered sugar to it, as my sister pointed out, you can hardly tell it's actually messed up. This is a shot from the side, with the cut piece leaning up against it. I think it looks nearly like it's supposed to!

Now, this is where it gets interesting. I think it tastes great now, but the recipe says to wrap it and let it sit for a couple weeks to develop properly as a fruitcake. I looked up some other recipes for reference and it was about half and half for doing this step, or not. So, I'm going to cut it in half and eat half now, and leave half to sit and then I'll be able to taste how it is then. I keep thinking it's going to be really dry, but we'll find out, I suppose!

These were both really new recipes to me, but they both turned out really great. It was exciting to try these out on this weekend where we're supposed to be thinking about our ancestors. It made me feel close to them. 

If you're a fan of baked goods and/or German food, I recommend both of these. The stollen is definitely a recipe for more advanced bakers, so if you're brand new to baking, consider letting a bakery do the baking for you if you want a stollen, and give the Riwwelkuchen a try. It's much more forgiving as a recipe. But if you're feeling adventurous, go for the stollen, and just be fearless with it! If alcohol is an issue for you, you'll need to see if this recipe would work by soaking the fruit in juice instead. I can't guarantee it'll have the same result, however.

We're a full third of the way through this project! I'm having a fun time with it and I hope you are too! Happy baking and Froliche Weihnachten!