Without German Christmas stollen, the German holiday of the same name would be inconceivable. On Christmas Eve, the shop shelves are overflowing with colourful packages of these cakes! But the rightest housewives, of course, bake Stollen by themselves, often according to family recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. By the way, these incredibly fragrant and tasty buns are made a few weeks before Christmas: they keep well (rum is a natural preservative) and even get better with time. All in all, the willpower of the Germans can only be envied! We invite you to try out our recipe for a traditional Stollen, and whether to keep it for a few weeks or eat it immediately is up to you!
Ingredients
wheat flour – 2 3/4 cups
all-nut mixture (almond, hazelnut, pine nut, walnut, macadamia, cashew) – 2 cups
candied citrus mix – large handful
dark sultanas – large handful
butter – 120 g
fresh egg yolks – 6 units
dry yeast – 15 g
milk – 1/2 cup
butter for greasing
brown sugar demerara – 3 tbsp.
dark rum or liqueur (Quantro) – 1/2 cup
1/2 lemon peel
sugar – 1 tsp.
vanilla – half a pod
flour for sprinkles
salt – 1 tsp.
For the coating:
butter – 100 g
vanilla – 1/2 pod
powdered sugar – 1/2 cup
Step by step recipe
Step 1
Fill sultanas, candied fruit and nut mixture with rum
Prepare the dried fruit for the German Christmas Stollen. Put the sultanas, candied fruit and nut mixture in a non-metallic bowl, pour over the rum and leave for 4-6 hours.
Step 2
Coat the dried fruit in flour.
Then flip in a colander, dry (you won’t need any more liquid from the soaking) and roll in flour so that the pieces don’t stick together.
Step 3
Sift through the flour
For the Christmas stollen dough, in a deep bowl, mix the milk with the plain sugar, add the yeast and 5 tbsp of sifted flour; knead the stollen until smooth. Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
Step 4
Mix the mixture into the butter
Shred the lemon zest for the stollen. Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and mix into the melted butter.
Step 5.
Knead the dough.
Add the remaining flour, brown sugar, vanilla butter and egg yolks to the stout; knead into a smooth dough.
Step 6.
Sdd the dried fruit to the dough
Add the prepared candied fruit, fruit and nut mixture, zest and salt. Knead on a floured work surface. Place the stollen dough in a deep bowl, cover with a towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
Step 7.
Roll out the dough into an oval shape and make a depression in the middle of the oval
Roll out the dough into an oval shape. With the back of your hand, make a longitudinal depression in the middle of the oval and fold the right half of the pastry over the left half, so that it protrudes over the middle. Place the Stollen in a parchment-lined tray, cover with a towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Step 8
Grease the hot stollen
Bake the stollen in a preheated 170-180°C oven until cooked through, about 1 hour. After 40 minutes you can cover it with foil to prevent it from burning. A wooden stick poked into the cake should come out dry.
Step 9
Melt the coating butter. Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and add to the butter, stir.
Step 10
Brush the hot German Christmas Stollen, fresh out of the oven, with 1/4 of the butter, then sprinkle with 1/4 of the icing sugar through a fine strainer. Wait for the crust to form and repeat 3 more times with the remaining butter and powdered sugar.
A tip.
If you prefer, you can use fresh yeast instead of dry yeast to make German Christmas stollen. In that case, you will need about 50 grams.
Cutting
The dried fruit, candied fruit and nuts for the German Christmas Stollen can be left to soak in the rum for a longer time (24-48 hours): this will only increase the taste.