Christmas Stollen Recipe

Stollen Cake is a Traditional German recipe baked at Christmas some Christmas Stollen recipe have marzipan in them but this recipe that I follow does not as my husband will not eat it otherwise.

575g Strong Plain Flour

25g Fresh Yeast or 15g Dried Yeast

300ml Lukewarm Milk

50g Caster Sugar

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Grated Rind of 1/2 Lemon

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

200g Butter

175g Raisins

50g Blanched Almonds, Chopped

75g Chopped Mixed Peel

1 Tablespoon Rum

65g Melted Butter for Coating

100g Icing Sugar for Sprinkling

Method

Sift 450g of the flour into a bowl, make a well and in the well stir the crumbled fresh yeast with the lukewarm milk.

Alternatively dissolve the dried yeast in the milk for 10 minutes or until frothy, then pour into the flour well.

Sprinkle the mixture with flour, cover the bowl and leave for 20 minutes.

Add the sugar, eggs,vanilla, lemon rind and salt to the yeast mixture and knead to give a dry, firm dough.

Leave the dough to rise for 30 minutes.

Work the butter with the remaining flour, work into the yeast dough and then leave the dough for a further 30 minutes.

Mix together the raisins, almonds and peel and steep in the rum.

Then work the fruit mixture quickly into the dough and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes.

Knead gently on a lightly floured board.

Shape the dough into two balls initially and roll these into long loaves of about 30cm / 12in.

Roll the centers of the loaves with the rolling pin so that they are thicker down both sides.

Round off the ends and then fold over lengthways into the familiar Stollen Shape.

Cover a baking sheet with greased paper, place the stollen on the baking sheet, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise for 20-30 minutes or until it has visibly increased in volume.

Bake in a moderateley hot oven (200C,400F,Gas Mark 6) for about an hour and test with a skewer to make sure that it is cooked through.

While still warm brush all over with the melted butter and sprinkle with the icing sugar.

This coating of butter and sugar will keep the stollen moist.

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