A popular cake-like fruit bread, Stollen is a traditional German dish typically enjoyed during Christmas. Usually finished with icing sugar, most of us enjoy stollen warm and generously slathered with butter, honey or jam. Delicious!
While making your own stollen takes quite a bit of time and ingredients, the finished result is most certainly worth the effort and you won't regret it. We recommend the following recipe from Jamie Oliver.
Serves: 10 | Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
40g candied peel
50g glacé cherries
1 orange
100g raisins, sultanas and currants
25g dried cranberries
2 tablespoons brandy or dried rum
3-4 cardamom pods
7g dried active yeast
25g sugar
125ml whole milk , plus a little extra
275g strong white bread flour , plus extra for dusting
½ teaspoon mixed spice
50g unsalted butter, (at room temperature)
1 medium free-range egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
25g almonds
25g shelled pistachios
225g marzipan
Olive oil, or vegetable oil, for greasing
Icing sugar, for dusting
Method
- Finely chop the candied peel, and quarter the glacé cherries. Finely grate the orange zest.
- Place all of the dried fruit into a bowl with the orange zest. Squeeze the orange juice into a pan, add the brandy or rum and heat to just below boiling point, then pour it over the dried fruit. Mix well, then set aside for 1 to 2 hours to allow it to plump up.
- Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods, then grind to a powder in a pestle and mortar (roughly ¼ of a teaspoon).
- Spoon the yeast into the bowl of a free-standing mixer, then add the sugar.
- In a pan, heat the milk until just warm, add to the yeast and whisk to combine. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes, until the yeast has formed a thick, foamy crust on the milk.
- Add the flour, spices and ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Using a dough hook, combine the butter, egg and vanilla, then mix for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and set it aside.
- Roughly chop the almonds and pistachios.
- Pour away about half the liquid from the soaked fruit, then add the fruit and remaining liquid to the dough, along with the nuts. Mix again.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for 1 minute. Shape the dough into an oval shape, about A4 size.
- Roll the marzipan into a neat log, about 4cm shorter than the length of the dough, and place in the middle of the oval.
- Brush one long edge of the dough with milk and fold it over, completely encasing the marzipan, and press the edges together to seal.
- Carefully lift the dough onto the baking sheet, cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until nearly doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4.
- Remove the clingfilm, then bake the stollen for 30 minutes, or until golden, risen and the underside sounds slightly hollow when tapped.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack before dredging with icing sugar to serve.
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