German Christmas Stollen Recipe: The Secret of Centuries-Old Flavor from the Cook.

According to ТСН: The classic German stollen is not just a Christmas pastry but also an important symbol of the holiday that conveys traditions. It is prepared in advance, as it needs time to steep to ensure that each piece is filled with the flavor of dried fruits, spices, and butter.

The recipe for stollen is presented on the portal “Backen macht glücklich” by German cook Katrin Runge.

The base of this Christmas stollen consists of rich yeast dough with a high content of butter, which provides moisture. Dried fruits paired with marzipan give a special aroma and characteristic Christmas texture.

Ingredients for the Dough

• 250 g of raisins

• 50 g of candied orange peel or candied fruit

• 50 g of candied lemon peel or candied fruit

• 50 g of ground almonds

• 80 ml of rum

• 500 g of wheat flour

• 120 ml of warm milk

• 50 g of sugar

• 1 cube of fresh yeast (42 g)

• 220 g of butter

• 1 egg

• 1 medium-sized egg yolk

• 100 g of marzipan paste

• 1 tsp of grated lemon zest

• 2 pinches of salt

• ¼ tsp of vanilla powder

• 1 tbsp of spice mix (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, coriander)

Ingredients for the Topping

• 100 g of butter

• 3 tbsp of sugar

• 60 g of powdered sugar

Preparation

1. The night before or a few hours before cooking, mix the raisins with orange and lemon zest, almonds, and soak them in rum. Place in a container with a lid and let steep.

2. Crumble the yeast in warm milk. Add a teaspoon of sugar, a little flour, and stir until the yeast dissolves.

3. In a large bowl, pour in the flour and remaining sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture. Cover with a towel and leave in a warm place for 10-20 minutes.

4. Chop the marzipan into small pieces. Mix it with softened butter, eggs, and spices, and mix lightly.

5. Add this mixture to the dough and mix with a mixer for 5 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

6. Cover the dough and leave it in a warm place for at least 30 minutes to rise.

7. Add the dried fruit mixture to the dough and let it rise again for 1.5 hours.

8. Shape two stollens. Roll the dough into a rectangle with rounded corners. Fold one of the long sides so that the dough covers about two-thirds. Press the seams tightly with your fingers.

9. Place the stollens on a baking sheet lined with parchment and let them rise for another 30 minutes.

10. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees using the “top-bottom” mode.

11. Bake the stollen for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 170 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes. Cover with parchment if it starts to darken.

12. Melt the butter. Remove the stollen from the oven and, while still hot, brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with regular sugar, and after cooling, with powdered sugar.

13. The best way to store stollen is to wrap it tightly in foil and keep it in a cool place. It tastes best after 2-4 weeks, but it can be cut already after 2-3 days.

Let us remind you that earlier a stollen recipe for Christmas was presented by cook Yevhen Klopotenko.