Bread Baking: Christstollen (German fruit bread)

 If you've never heard of Christstollen or Stollen, it's a cake-like bread filled with raisins and candied orange peel and marzipan. It's a tradition around Christmas time in Germany.

Christstollen:
1 cup (225mL) warm milk
3 tbsp dry yeast
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
4 cups (500g) flour
1 egg and 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup (180g) butter
2 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tbsp vanilla sugar
zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
200g marzipan
1 2/3 cups (250g) raisins
1 1/4 cups (85g) candied lemon peel
1 1/4 cups (85g) candied orange peel
1/2 cup (85g) chopped almonds
1/3 cup (75g) rum (or apple juice for virgin stollen)
butter and powdered sugar for garnish


First, combine raisins, candied lemon peel, candied orange peel and chopped almonds to a bowl and add rum (or apple juice) and allow to soak for at least an hour.



In the meantime, make the dough. Combine milk, yeast and sugar to activate the yeast. 


Add flour, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, salt, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and yeast mixture to a large mixing bowl. Mix with a spoon until you can't anymore and knead until everything is combined. Knead butter in at the end. You may need more or less flour, so feel free to add a bit more flour if the dough is still sticky. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Cover with a clean towel and allow to rise for an hour or until doubled in size. 





Punch down the dough and add the soaked fruit. There shouldn't be any more liquid in the mixture. If there is a bit left, pour out all the excess liquid before adding the fruit to the dough. If the dough is too wet after adding the fruit, add a bit more flour until dough comes back to consistency.


Split the dough into two pieces and roll into a large oval. Place a log of marzipan in the middle and fold both sides of the oval over the marzipan, overlapping each other. Tuck in the ends and use the sides of the hands to press the dough into the characteristic stollen shape. Allow to rise about half an hour or 45 minutes. Before baking, remove the raisins that are showing on the outside, as these will burn in the oven.





Bake the stollen at 350°F or 180°C for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. 


Poke holes in the stollen with a toothpick. Brush melted butter onto the stollen and dust generously with powdered sugar, making sure powdered sugar covers every surface. 







It can be eaten right away, or wrapped with plastic wrap and foil and allowed to ripen for about 2 weeks for more flavor. It can also be frozen. Enjoy!





Watch us make this traditional German fruit bread on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/hfN--q3KRNc
Schaut zu wie wir diesen traditionellen deutschen Stollen auf unserem YouTube Kanal machen hier: https://youtu.be/KkviL5jZG9M

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dress up a Sheet Cake: White on White Wedding Cake

Image
I've been thinking about all the things that have been cancelled because of Covid19 and I think the saddest is the weddings. So much expense, planning, excitement... gone. Now, I know most of you who had to reschedule your wedding will eventually have them. But I don't know how much money you would have lost because of the cancellation of your first planned wedding. So, I thought some of you might need to save money on your future wedding. So, I thought I would share with you a way you could make your own wedding cake out of a regular, plain sheet cake. I started out with a frosted sheet cake. You can frost it yourself or buy it frosted.  Then I thought I would use all of these tips, but I only ended up using the small round tip and the medium star tip. The petal tip and leaf tip weren't needed for this design.  Using a skewer, I traced two interlocking hearts as well as the monograms of the couple. In this case, T and C.  Then I traced over the letters with th
Read more

Dairy-Free Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Image
After going through the effort of making my vanilla cake gluten free, dairy free and soy free, I needed a dairy free frosting. American buttercream is easy to make dairy free. But the family I'm making the cake for prefers Swiss meringue buttercream. I googled how to make dairy free Swiss meringue buttercream, and basically every blog I found said that it wasn't possible. They all said you have to use butter. I am not willing to accept that answer. So, I decided to experiment a bit until I found a ratio that works. So, first off, here's the recipe: Dairy-free Swiss Meringue Buttercream: 7 egg whites 2 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups dairy-free margarine 1/2 cup shortening pinch of salt 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar 1 tsp butter vanilla flavoring (optional, if omitting, double amount of vanilla flavoring)  I'm using a stand mixer today with a whisk attachment.  I first whisk the egg whites, sugar and vanilla sugar, if using vanilla sugar. Then I h
Read more

Tutorial: How to Make a 2D Simba Cake Topper

Image
 I tried to make this character 3D. I really did. But it was so terrible I just couldn't bring myself to use it.  I eventually decided to try making a 2D figure. Then I could use a template. So first, here's the image I used: First, I cut out a yellow circle to use as a background. Then I added some brown to yellow fondant and rolled it out. I cut around the template and cut out the paws. Then I added the paws cut out of white fondant. Then I used a pointed scuplting tool to press the lines of the template into the fondant. Then, removing the template, I deepened the lines to make them more visible. I added a white muzzle and a pink nose. I painted some brown food coloring mixed with alcohol into the shadows of the face and ears. Finally, I added some undiluted black food coloring to the ears, eyebrows and eyes. How adorable is this? And so clearly Simba. This is a great method for those who can't accurately draw the characters themselves. In other words, perfect for me. Wa
Read more