The Stollen is a Christmas specialty is made from a rich, sweet yeast dough that is mixed with milk egg, sugar and butter (sometimes lemon), then raisins, currants, candied peel and almonds are worked into the dough.
This is a recipe from King Arthur Flour
You can read more about the history of the Stollen in my article Delight in Dresden: Traditions of the Season.
Sponge
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup water
- 2 tsp instant yeast
Dough
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup butter, diced
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1-1/4 tsp salt
- 4 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup chopped dates
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 1/3 cup candied cherries, coarsely chopped
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- ½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
Topping
- 1-1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
- Confectioners’ sugar
To make the sponge, combine the flour, water and yeast in a large bowl, stirring until smooth. Cover and let the mixture rest overnight a room temperature.
To make the dough, add the flour, butter, egg, milk, sugar, salt, yeast, almond extract and vanilla to the sponge. Stir to combine, then knead thoroughly, using your hands, a mixer, a food processor or a bread machine, until the dough is very smooth and supple.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. It probably won’t double in bulk, but will become puffy.
While the dough is rising, stir together the dates, raisins, cherries, flour and almonds. Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly greased work surface. Knead the fruit into the dough until it is well distributed; a good way to do this is to pat or roll the dough into a rough 12” X 15” rectangle, press the fruit and nuts evenly over its surface, then roll it up like a jelly roll, starting with the log edge. Divide the roll into 2 pieces, shape each piece into a rough 9” log, cover the logs and let them rest for 10 minutes.
Pat each log into a 10” X 8” oval. The fruit may try to ‘fallout’ of the dough; that’s OK, just stick it back in. Fold each oval lengthwise, bringing one side over the over, but leaving a 1” gap, as if you were making a Parker House roll (in other words, fold the dough not quite in half). Press the edge of the top half to seal it to the bottom half, tent the dough with a lightly greased wrap, and allow it to rise for 2 hours, or until it’s noticeably puffy.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake the stollen for 30-35 minutes, tenting it with aluminum foil after 20 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly. The finished loaves should be golden brown, and their internal temperature should register 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
When the stollen are cool, dust them heavily with confectioners’ sugar.
Wrap well and store for up to 2 weeks at room temperature, or freeze for up to 3 months.
