A Christmas Stollen
It wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one recipe featuring dried fruit, candied peel and nuts. One of my favorite Christmas fruit breads is stollen.
Christmas Stollen is a traditional German yeast bread that is studded with dried fruit, candied citrus peel and almonds. It is infused with wonderful warm Christmas spices.
While still hot, the stollen is brushed with a good amount of melted butter, then topped with a healthy dusting of icing sugar to give the bread a pretty snow-kissed appearance.
For me, the best part about stollen is the delicious surprise that awaits when you cut into the bread. A sweet, log of marzipan runs the length of the bread adding a bite of rich decadence in every slice.
Stollen is not difficult to make, but like any yeast bread it does require time for the yeast to work its magic, and the bread to rise.
For my stollen recipe I stray a bit from a traditional stollen, and include a little orange juice, and the zest of an orange and a lemon in with my fruit mixture. I like the extra bit of citrus flavour from the fresh orange juice and the zests combined with the sweeter candied peel.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
The Fruit Mixture
- 55 g blanched almonds finely chopped
- 100 g raisins
- 50 g currants
- 30 g mixed peel
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp rum
The Dough
- 500 g all purpose flour
- 100 g sugar
- 1 package fast action yeast
- 10 g salt
- 150 g unsalted butter softened
- 250 ml whole milk
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 225 g marzipan
- slivered almonds for topping (optional)
To Serve
- 25 g unsalted butter melted
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
Instructions
Prepare the Fruit Mixture – 1-3 days ahead of time
- Place all the ingredients for the fruit mixture into a bowl and mix together. Cover and let stand in a cool place overnight or up to 3 days.When ready to make the stollen place the mixture in a sieve over a bowl to allow any excess moisture to drain off. Set aside, reserving the liquid.
Make the Dough
- Warm 200 ml of the milk to 38° C/100 ° F. Add 1 tsp of the sugar and stir to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the milk / sugar mixture. Let sit for about 20 seconds until moistened. Stir the yeast in, then set the mixture aside to proof until tiny bubble form, about 10 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and almond extract to the remaining milk and set aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, salt, ground nutmeg and allspice and the remaining sugar. Stir to combine. Add the yeast mixture, softened butter, and the milk. Mix until everything comes together into a wet dough.
- Turn out onto a clean, generously floured surface and kneed until smooth and pliable, 6-8 minutes.
- Add the reserved fruit mixture to the dough and knead gently until the fruit is evenly distributed through out the dough..
- Place the dough in a clean dry bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 – 1½ hours.
- Shape the marzipan into a log, roughly 25 cm long, and set aside.Hint: if the marzipan is a little hard, cut into chunks and heat in a microwave, 10 second intervals at a time, until softened enough to work with.
- Gently punch the dough down to release any air. Transfer to a clean, lightly floured surface, and roll out to a square, about 35cm x 35cm.Place the marzipan log in the middle of the dough. Fold the left side of the dough over to cover the marzipan, then fold right side over on top. Pinch and tuck the top and bottom ends of the stollen to cover the marzipan.Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and leave to rise for 45 minutes–1 hour, until and doubled in size.
- Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F Bake the stollen for 1 hour, until golden brown.
Finish the Stollen
- Melt the remaining 25 grams of butter and add the reserved liquid from the fruit mixture.While the stollen is still hot, use a toothpick to poke holes into the top and sides. and brush with with the melted butter. Using a sieve, dust the top and half generously with half of the icing sugar. Allow the stollen to cool completely before dusting with the rest of the icing sugar.