Last year, I enjoyed a wonderful German holiday bread called “stollen”.  It was somewhat like a fruitcake, but lighter and less heavily spiced.  It also had a core of marzipan and an outer shell of butter and powdered sugar.  This year, I’m going to try to make my own stollen recipe.

I’m working from a modified version of several stollen recipes, but this one provided a lot of fodder.  I chose to use Graham flour for part of the mix, then using bread flour for the rest, hoping the additional gluten would overpower the weight of the bran.  I also added four eggs instead of two in my stollen recipe, adding a bit of extra flour to compensate.  Eggs tend to provide a bit of lightness and dryness while still contributing richness.

I also chose to cream the butter and sugar, which is usually a cake-baking method, but according to Alton Brown it also helps dough to rise.  I’m not sure if it works in yeast dough, but I preferred it to the traditional melted-butter method.

For health reasons, I used about half Graham flour (invented by Sylvester Graham of Graham Cracker fame), which is a type of whole-grain wheat flour.  All-purpose flour would make the texture a bit lighter, but I wanted to add a tiny bit of fiber to this fat bomb of a holiday loaf.

 

Yuletide Stollen Recipe

Software:

• 2 cups mixed Raisins (purple and golden)
• 1 cup candied Cherries
• 1 cup mixed candied Lemon, Orange, and Citron peel
• 1 cup dried Apricots (sliced)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 1 cup spiced Rum
• 2 cups (4 sticks) of Butter (I used salted butter instead of 1 teaspoon of Salt in the dough)
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons active dry Yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground Cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
• 4 large Eggs
• 4 1/2 cups Flour (I’m using 2 cups of Graham and 2 1/2 cups of bread flour, but all-purpose is probably easier)
• 2 7oz. sticks of Marzipan
• 1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

Hardware:

• Stand mixer
  • Whisk attachment
  • Dough Hook attachment
• Baking Sheet
• Oven
• Mixing Bowls
• Spatula
• Basting Brush

Directions:

1. Soak the fruit in the rum and vanilla overnight.
2. Heat the milk and dissolve 1/4 cup of the sugar in it.  Let it cool to body temperature (about 100°F) and stir in the yeast.  Let the yeast bloom in the milk while you work.
3. Cream the remaining sugar with two sticks (one cup) of butter using the whisk attachment until it is fluffy and white.
4. Add the spices to the butter mixture.
5. Integrate the eggs, one at a time, into the butter mixture.  Let each egg disappear before adding the next.
6. Switch attachments to the dough hook.
7. Add two cups of flour, one cup at a time.  Be sure to scrape down the sides with your spatula to ensure that the flour is fully integrated.
8. Add the milk and yeast mixture.
9. Add the remaining flour in installments.
10. Allow the dough to rise for two hours in a warm place, covered with a clean towel.
11. Using the dough hook, slowly integrate the fruit mixture into the dough.  Once it is fully integrated, remove the dough hook.
12. Grease your baking sheets.
13. Divide your dough into quarters.

14. 

    Put two quarters on baking sheets and shape them into canoe-like ovals.

15. Roll each log of marzipan out until it just about reaches from one end of the dough “canoe” to the other.  Flatten the marzipan until it’s about 1/3 the width of the loaf.
16. Put a flattened log of marzipan in the center of each dough “canoe”.
17. Top each loaf with another quarter of the dough, carefully sealing everything around the marzipan.
18. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
19. Let the loaves bench proof (rise again) in this shape for one hour, covered with clean towels or plastic wrap.
20. Bake the loaves for about 1 hour, until golden brown.

    

21. Melt one stick of butter and baste the outside of the warm loaves.
22. Sprinkle the loaves with powdered sugar.
23. Once the loaves are cool, repeat the process of basting and sprinkling using the remaining butter and powdered sugar.  This will create a protective icing-like seal around the loaf to keep them fresh (and tasty!)

Notes:

I think my yeast was a bit old.  Between that and the excess rum (I used about 2 cups instead of the one in the recipe), my dough got a little looser and less risen than it should have.  Your loaf should be slightly less flattened- more oval and less round.