Christmas Stollen

It's a tradition for my mom to bake Stollen every Christmas. Sometimes, my mom would make stollen as Christmas presents or she got some orders from our friends

Stollen is a traditional Christmas cake from Germany, made from yeast dough containing dried fruits, chopped almonds and powdered with icing sugar. Stollen usually shaped like a folded oval but this time, my mom made it different shape like fruit cake based on a request.

Christmas Stollen recipe from Zwickau
The recipe is to make three or four loaves. If it’s too much, then you can make 1/2 of the recipe.

For the day before:
5½ cups sultanas
5 tablespoons vanilla sugar
16 tbsp rum
4½ cups butter
3⅓ cups sweet almonds, skinned and finely chopped
¾ cup bitter almonds, skinned and finely chopped
1⅓ cups candied lemon peel, coarsely chopped
½ cup candied orange peel, coarsely chopped

For baking day:
5½ lbs. flour, sifted
1 cup yeast
1½ cups sugar
4 cups milk
juice and peel of two lemons
Butter and powdered sugar for the glaze

The day before:
Wash the sultanas two to three times and drain them. Then mix them with the vanilla sugar and the rum. Put the butter in a pot. Take out the almonds and the candied fruits. Leave the sultana mixture, the butter, the almonds and the candied fruit out overnight to warm to room temperature.

On baking day:
1. Pour the flour into a bowl and make a crater in the middle.
Mix together the yeast, three teaspoons of the sugar and ½ of the milk. Pour the mixture into the flour crater and work the whole thing into a dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place.

2. Mix the dough with the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the fresh lemon juice and peel. Work the butter (not melted) into the dough using as much tepid milk as necessary to make a smooth, but not sticky dough. Knead the dough until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Then fold the almonds, candied fruits and sultanas into the dough until they are distributed throughout. Cover the dough again and put it in a warm place to rise for two hours.
Then knead it again and let it rest for another 30 minutes. Now divide the dough into 2 kg (4 lb.) lumps and form them into the shape of bread loaves. Using the back of your hand press a deep furrow all the way down the stollen, dividing the log into two differently-sized loaves. Fold the narrow length over the broader length.

4. Bake on a well-greased baking pan at 175° C (350° F) for 1¼ - 1½ hours or until golden.

5. Brush the stollen immediately after baking with melted butter. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Since these Stollens are based on request and look not like the authentic stollen, therefore, decorations on them become essential ;)

The decorations made from fondant.

Wishing you all:

"MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009
filled with love, hope and happiness"

Christmas Stollen