I got this recipe while I was head baker at London's Dorchester Hotel. It's packed with dried fruit and filled with a marzipan surprise.
Try it in your bread machine. Really! Just put in all the liquid ingredients, then the flour (I reduced the amount to 2 1/4 cups) and then the yeast on top...after it has started to mix together, add the candied fruit a little at a time. Most of it will mix in, some may be left at the bottom of the pan. After the first rise, remove it from the machine. Turn your oven on to 200 degrees for 5 minutes - then turn it off. Knead the dough a little to get all the fruit in - the dough should be soft and a little sticky - don't add to much flour it will make the final product stiff and dry! Then roll it out and put in the marzipan just like the recipe says. Put it in the warmed oven to rise - I guarantee it will rise up beautifully - as long as you haven't added too much flour! It is a wonderful recipe!
Read MoreI ended up with a big wet gloppy mess. I threw out the dough without baking.
Read MoreTry it in your bread machine. Really! Just put in all the liquid ingredients, then the flour (I reduced the amount to 2 1/4 cups) and then the yeast on top...after it has started to mix together, add the candied fruit a little at a time. Most of it will mix in, some may be left at the bottom of the pan. After the first rise, remove it from the machine. Turn your oven on to 200 degrees for 5 minutes - then turn it off. Knead the dough a little to get all the fruit in - the dough should be soft and a little sticky - don't add to much flour it will make the final product stiff and dry! Then roll it out and put in the marzipan just like the recipe says. Put it in the warmed oven to rise - I guarantee it will rise up beautifully - as long as you haven't added too much flour! It is a wonderful recipe!
This is the 4th year I've used this recipe to make stollen as gifts for family and friends. It's great! A few tips for people first setting out: 1) Marzipan contains almonds, so take care if you or anyone you make it for has nut allergies. 2) This makes a HUGE stollen. When the recipe calls for folding the halves it over onto one another, instead put each half on its own tray (or well separated on a large baking pan) and make two in one go. 3) Sprinkle icing sugar on the stollen just after you pull them out of the oven - don't wait! The heat from the dough will be sufficient to melt the sugar and create a sugary 'crust' instead of just powder.
I have tried several Stollen recipes and this one is the best. The traditional German bread was moist inside with a delightfully sweet marzipan surprise. Thanks!
My parents are German immigrants, and I make Christstollen every year and sell it on ebay. This is very close to the recipe I have developed from authentic sources. I use orange peel, lemon peel, and citron, and I don't use candied cherries. Christstollen is baked throughout the Christmas season in Germany, and it is tradition in some parts of the country to eat the last one on Easter - and that was before modern refrigeration (no freezers)! The way this was accomplished is in how the loaf is finished. While the loaf is still warm, you brush it with copious amounts of melted butter. I would recommend 1/4 cup butter for this one loaf. It is then THICKLY coated with powdered sugar. This process keeps all the moisture inside the loaf, as well as adding wonderful flavor. The reason for the shape of the Stollen loaf is that is to represent the Christchild in swaddling clothes. I shape the loaf by first spreading the dough into an oval shape, about 6 inches by 14 inches. If I am using marzipan, as in this recipe, I lay the log near one edge, then roll that long edge over the marzipan, gathering the sides in slightly, then rolling to about 1 inch away from the other side, pressing gently. Stollen is a wonderful accompaniment to coffee or tea, and it wouldn't be Christmas in our house without it! Merry Christmas!
My hubby's family is German and it isn't Christmas without a stollen. Usually we order one from Dresden but last year I decided to make one. I'm giving it four stars because it passed the in law test and was delicious but MAN is it a lot of work. If you're willing to put in the time to find the ingredients and make it, this IS the recipe you want to try. We're buying a stollen this year, simply because I'm being lazy. This recipe is authentic and wonderful. Oma and Opa would approve!
WOW, this was awesome. I have had Stollen for all my life and never made it. I used this recipe and because I am a chef was able to assertain the process from experience of making yeast leavened breads. It turned out excellent my girlfriend could not stop eating it. I think this should be part of anyone's holiday treat.
This was great - not only good to eat, but pretty. I used fast action yeast instead of regular dried yeast, and the recipe worked fine. I stirred the fast action yeast into the dry ingredients, then added the warmed milk and egg. Normally, fast action yeast takes less time to double and requires one raising time. With all the fruit in this, the dough took a good hour and a quarter to double. Then I shaped it, left it for about ten minutes and put it in the oven. I thought the dough was easy to handle.
My mother used to make this for us every Christmas morning, a treat that our family eagerly anticapated each year. It's delicous, fruity, but not overly so, sweet and chewy, and if you use green food coloring in the icing, very festive looking. Though I no longer live at home, I still take the time to make this treat for my own family. It's worth the prep time for sure!
The poor thing sat in the bowl and didn't rise. I have made lots of bread and I had new yeast but I think there is a problem with the way in which the yeast is handled. The recipe has good potential so I'll try is using a more traditional method.
excellent recipe. mine came out incredibly well considering it was my first time dealing with yeast. the only hard part was finding "candied citron". i eventually located them in an imported food store. my husbands family is german and they loved this bread. i'll be making it again next christmas.
My first attempt at Stollen and a FANTASTIC one too!I must say I was quite bummed out when I realized that the bread flour I'd bought was whole wheat bread flour.Am so glad I made it with whole wheat! Ensure the yeast makes the milk foamy and brownish.I started working on this at abt 1.30 pm on Christmas eve. I put the yeast mixture with the egg, white sugar, salt, butter, and 2 cups bread flour into the food processor and slowly added the remaining flour into it (as directed in the recipe).I used a little more flour at the time of kneading in with fruit (until it wasn't stick and difficult to work with --- just don't make it dry and hard).I used cranberries instead of cherries. I then covered this with a wet cloth as directed, and kept this by the window (for warmth) for about 9 hours. I then deflated it (at abt 11.30 pm), rolled the marzipan (used golden) into a rope and put that into the center, sealed the seams, put it on a cookie tray, and once again covered with a wet cloth and left it over night to rise so that I could bake it on Christmas morning (about 8am). Noone in my family wanted to wait until the stollen completely cooled, so I waited for just about 20 minutes, dusted it with confectioners' sugar and cinnamon and served. A 100% hit! Next time the changes I'd make are to make marzipan rope thicker (1.5 inch diameter), not use mixed fruit but add peel, currant etc all separately,try this with white bread flour, and soak fruits in rum. Thanks Lee for this recipe!
This recipe is awesome! My husband is German and this is one of his holiday favorites. Don't give up on this dough! I've made this recipe several times as written and each time I've had to add flour (at least an additional cup -- a LITTLE at a time!) The dough should be a soft dough, but I always have to add flour until it's no longer sticky, but NOT heavy. Soak the raisins in about an ounce of rum for several hours or overnight, as it adds flavor. Also, the rise time required is much longer than stated; probably due to the butter and heaviness of the fruit as another Reviewer speculated. Expect both rises to be at least double the time. This is recipe has become a taste of "home" and a Christmas tradition in our family.
Beautiful stollen! A few tips/changes that I made are - first, I added the yeast to the dry ingredients as suggested by a few reviewers, then added the milk, butter & egg to it. I put the dough into a stainless steel bowl, put my bowl ontop of the oven and turned my oven on at 200 degrees for about 3 hours. It didn't double in volume as stated in the recipe, but it did rise about 1/2 its size. Needless to say, after deflating it and adding the marzipan, it was a nice size. I also added the tsp of cinnamon and a 1/2 tsp of nutmeg to the dry ingredients. As well, I accidentally bought marzipan covered in chocolate as I have never bought it before. I thought, hey what a nice treat, so I put it into the dough and it came out beautifully! Since I had the chocolate in there, I didn't dust with icing sugar and cinnamon on top in case it was too sweet. This was our Christmas morning breakfast with fruit salad which will now become our tradition! Thanks so much for this recipe!
Gluten intolerant?? You don't have to miss out on this fabulous recipe even if you need gluten free foods - I have just tried this wonderful recipe for the first time and because my mom is gluten intolerant we thought we would try the recipe with gluten free bread flour - it worked wonderfully!! So enjoy...
This recipe is a great starting point. I feel it needs much more fruit, and you should let the fruit soak up the rum or brandy well for a moist stollen. My Oma used to wrap hers in a rum soaked cloth until Christmas and then she would powder it with sugar the day she wanted to serve it.
This is a great recipe. It's the first time I've made Christ-stollen myself, and it came out beautifully. I used currants, golden raisins, dried cherries, and candied orange peel (only about 1/2 cup, not 2/3) as my fruit; the currants, raisins, and cherries were soaked in brandy for about 15 minutes, then drained and incorporated. I also subbed in 1/2 cup fresh whole wheat flour for 1/2 cup of the white flour (which was King Arthur All Purpose, not bread flour). About the only other modification I'm going to make next time is to try and roll my almond paste into a sheet and roll it more into the dough so that it streaks the dough more. The only reason I gave the recipe 4 stars and not 5 is that the timing given in the recipe is misleading. This is not a 3-hour recipe, and if you only give the dough an hour for the first rise, it's not going to double, even if your house is toasty. That's simply how sweet, milk/egg/butter breads are, and I think this is the problem some reviewers have run into. So give it longer on the first rise (I gave it about 2 1/2 hours) and on the second (an hour or so rather than 40 minutes). It is worth the wait. Oh, and use a stand mixer to start the kneading if you can--it makes it so that you can stick closer to the flour amounts given.
what people do not realize is that when a recipe calls for bread flour, you should use it-higher gluten and use the active dry yeast.you will need around(3 T more flour). i did soak all the fruit in dark rum for a few hours, then drained it. added to the flavor. because the fruit mixture will be wet, a little more flour is needed to knead. you do not need to knead for longer than 3 minutes. secret: heat oven to 100 degrees, shut off, and add dough to oven to rise. i added extra fruit and toasted sliced almonds. i skipped the cinnamon and marzipan-too sweet for me. this recipe was so good. the recipe works. don't cut corners with the main ingredients.
Just a note about the rising time - with other stollen recipes I've read (and used), they say it will take up to 3 hours for the dough to double. I think it may be all the butter, plus the weight of the fruit. At any rate, it did take a long time for this to rise, but it came out fine in the end.
My husband lived in Germany for awhile as a child and misses some of the German fare he got there. We are lucky enough to have a store here that sells an alright stollen but this year for Christmas he requested I make one for him. He is never going to let me buy one again. He said this had everything he had been looking for but was missing in the store bought kind. I did recipe as it is except no raisins and currants but substituted dates and added a half cup of walnuts. It was wonderful. Everyone that had it at our Christmas dinner loved it. I will definitely be making this again
I enjoyed making this bread although I did not use maripan in the center as I don't like it too sweet! The first time I used the recipe as stated and found that alot of flour had to be added during kneading (8 min.). Also the time to get the dough to rise double was longer than stated about 1 and 3/4 hours for me and an hour on the second rising.I used dried blueberries,dried apricots, pecans, and almonds, and marachino cherries drained on my second try. Using more kinds of dried fruit than the recipe calls for, adds to the overall flavor considerably.
My Mom was German and I've been using this delicious recipe for the last 2 years. It is not meant to be a light fluffy loaf since a stollen is a dense chewy sweet bread. I've adapted the recipe to use the dough cycle of my bread maker so I put in the liquid ingredients first, then the dry ingredients. I wait until the 'add fruit/huts' beep in the kneading cycle to slowly add the chopped fruit. I add extra flour or milk as required at that time to make a smooth but moist ball of dough. I use dried cherries, candied ginger, citron, raisins and candied peel for my fruit.
This is my 3rd holiday season making this stollen. I've tweeked a couple of things: I soak 1/3 c currants, 2/3 c apricots and 1/3 c golden raisins in brandy overnight and drain. This year I'm making my own marzipan (really easy!). Yes, it takes FOREVER to rise. A suggestion is to put it in the over with a pan of hot (about 110) water under. With all the fats and fruits, it's a slow rise. But, oh, so worth it!! I always double the recipe
The best bit is when you reach the marzipan! I made this with plain flour as I was keen to make the recipe before my next shopping visit to buy the bread flour. It didn't rise as much as it probably would've, but I'll try making it again with the correct flour. I also used fast-action dried yeast and this must've affected the way the bread rose; I think if you have this type of yeast it is best to add it to the dry ingredients, as suggested by another reviewer, and add the milk and egg to the mix that way.
AWESOME, but rise time was off. I completely followed the recipe, other than I let it rise for 2 hours initially, then later for a good hour instead of the 40 minutes. It turned out soooooooo yummy. I doubled the recipe right away and made two. Same amount of work, more stollen. I would definitely make it again. You do need to knead extra flour into it when turning it out the first time, but it's not biggie. First time I made it....first time I've ever made stollen, and it was a success!!!
This recipe is nice and easy enough but there are several noteable problems that I (and others) seemed to have had with it. First the flour content in this recipe is inadequate and I found that it took at LEAST another cup in the kneading process for it not to be just a pile of goop. Second this dough does not like to leven well. I was very careful to use a measured tablespoon of newly procured 'Flieshman's Rapid Rising Yeast' mixed into scalled and cooled to 115F milk with a teaspoon of honey and waited till it foamed a bit. An hour later the first proof was virtually non-existant and the dough was well oiled and sitting covered with a damp towel over it in a bowl above the preheated oven on a BALMY Florida Xmas eve afternoon. As I needed this for a party that night I just went forward and rolled it out, filled it with the marzipan and then let it try for the second proofing. It barely budged after another hour....I could smell the active yeast so I knew it had to be OK but it had hardly raised by 50%! Into the oven it went where it actually proofed a bit more to a barely satisfactory level. As baking is a measured science it is hard to say if you should add more yeast to this, but if I were to use this recipe again I think I would! Thirdly Stollen classically has spices in the dough and this recipe does not, as I hate bland food I added some ground cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice and ginger to this and it was yummy!
Okay...I followed the recipe exactly (even after reading all of the reviews) just to see if it would work and it doesn't. The dough didn't rise and I'm positive that the yeast was active because I tested it. Then I stuck it in the oven to see if that would do the trick. Frankly, it looked great in the end, the top was golden brown. I topped it and then we cut into it later. It was raw in the center, a tasty thick raw dough. Take the advice of others and just continue for it to rise or else you will be throwing out several pounds of sweet gooey fruity dough. That being said, it does have great potential and I will continue the mission...but next time I will figure out how to make it rise!
Good, but not nearly enough flour. An inexperienced cook will panic over the consistencey of the dough if made by the exact directions.
This stollen reminds me of the ones my German grandfather used to send us as Christmas gifts. I've tried to reproduce them myself, and have come close, and this is the closest I think I can come! My husband also says it's the best stollen I've ever made. I made a couple of adjustments--1 tsp of salt is enough, and I added 1/3 cup slivered almonds and used a basic candied fruit mix rather than just the cherries and citron. Also, to make as gifts, it should be possible to divide the dough in half and get two smaller loaves, which are closer to the size I remember receiving from Granddad. This loaf is huge! But thank you so much for the perfect stollen recipe!
Loved this recipe. I didn't have any marzipan but had soso almond filling. I doubled my recipe and used a whole can between the two breads. My husband who is not a big almond filling fanatic, couldn't stop eating it. I have found a new favorite recipe. Thanks for the recipe! Next time I will try it with marzipan when I find it. Merry Christmas everyone!
For those saying they had a problem with yeast may have added it to too warm a liquid and killed it OR if you use Rapid Rise, it must be added to the dry ingredients like the package says. I love almond and the marzipan or almond filling works great and makes it even more wonderful. Different dried fruits can be used depending on your taste.
Awesome! (no that is not too strong a word to use for this!) This is the best stollen recipe I've ever tried. I made the dough in the bread machine on dough cycle. When it was all done, I added the fruit. Note: Since I didn't use marzipan, I soaked the raisins in Amaretto while dough was in the bread machine to give a touch of almond flavor. This worked really well. After I kneaded in the fruit, I formed it into a loaf, covered it, let it rise about an hour and then baked it per directions. If you have amazing self control, this tastes even better the next day after the flavors have 'matured'. Wonderful recipe that I will gladly use again and again. Thank you for sharing!
I was very worried it wouldn't rise properly because it hadn't increased its volume significantly after each rise. However, it fortunately rose enough while actually baking and turned out delicious! Next time, I may increase the amount of marzipan used.
2 1/2 cups of flour isn't enough. I had to add at least another cup to make the dough work. I also added a couple of teaspoons of almond extract, and ended up with a really good stollen.
This recipe barely rose at all, but my husband (who is dutch and grew up eating stollen) decided to throw it into the oven away. It rose a bit more, but it still came out like a brick. The taste is not bad, but it is also not the same as the stollen he grew up with. I doubt we will try this recipe again.
Made it now twice in a week to keep and give away. Made the first stage in bread machine. I added a TBSP of ground cardamon (as I noticed it in some other stollen recipes, some cinnamon, lemon zest and 1/4 cup of choc chips. Very yummy. The first time I made it I halved the recipe again, and made one gigantic stollen to give to teachers at school- however on reflection I think two medium size ones (which I am making now) are better, they look better, and I imagine bread to marzipan ratio would be better! Will keep this and use again each year. Thanks
I made this recipe twice, differently both time, and both times yielded a very yummy product. This is a repeat! Take 1. -I used AP flour bc I didn't have bread flour. -I replaced the cherries w diced dried apricots, and soaked them, with the currants and raisins, in brandy for 20 mins. -I heated the milk in the microwave for 1 min, before dissolving the yeast (in hindsight, the milk ended up being too warm, and I wonder if that "killed" the yeast a bit). -I agree with others - if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, there is no need for any more flour; however, given that the raisins etc. were a little wet, I did use some more flour in the kneading process to counter the extra moisture. -the first rise took 3 hrs, the second 1 hr - and even with the extra time, the dough did not get to more than 150% its original size -I omitted marzipan (hubby has almond allergies) Everything else I followed to a tee, and the product was a delicious, buttery stollen, albeit more "cakey" than the traditional I'm used to, given the AP flour. Take 2. - I soaked the dried fruits in rum overnight, to get more of the alcohol flavour - I used bread flour - First rise took 2 hrs, and the dough doubled nicely. I set the dough to rise in an oven I heated to 200 F, and then turned off - The second rise took 1 hr, the dough doubled, again I set it in a warm oven Both times, I divided the dough into 2 loaves. The result was a more traditional stollen texture with the same great flavour.
Delicious, and got absolutely rave reviews from the family! This did not rise very well for me, but it turned out excellent in the end. I ended up doing the first rise for about 2 1/2 hours and the second for about 1 1/2, and I don't think it fully doubled either time. I think in the future I might try a batch with rapid rise yeast. Otherwise, I went a little heavy on the fruit (but not by too much), soaked the currants and raisins in coconut rum (it was what I had) for a few hours, and split the marzipan into three ropes instead of one. That turned out to be a great decision. I laid them side by side and then made sure to keep them separated as I folded over the dough so that there was a little morsel of marzipan in roughly each third of each slice in the bread. This was really fantastic, and although a fair bit of work, I will definitely plan to make it each Christmas!
Since I had stollen in Switzerland last Christmas, I decided I had to learn how to make it and this was the right recipe. Unfortunately I cannot find candied cherries or citron in my country so I substituted grated lemon and tangerine peel, and dried cranberries and it tasted great. Skipped the marzipan since I hate it. Prepared the dough in the bread machine, and brushed the hot loaf with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar to get the crunchy crust. Mmmm! Thank yoU!
This came out a lot bigger than I thought it would.. but thats fine! I read the reviews and I would agree it took it's time rising but I put it ontop of a warm oven and eventually it got going and then was fine, I added a little honey to the milk/yeast and I think that helped. It was a bit of a sloppy mix but I just added a little more flour and lightly kneaded it. Yet to taste it but it looks and smells divine!
After reading a ton of reviews on this bread we made it and it was great! Added more flour and really lengthened the rise times. I'll be making this one again!
Ended up with a solid lump of....well something! I followed the instructions to the letter as well as it was the first time I have made it. Very disappointed :-(
This has become our new Christmas tradition. Great for dessert for guests or for gifts.
OOPS! I just reread the recipe and realized I only let it rise once. And it still turned out perfectly!
Delightful. Terrific for a breakfast bread but great anytime. Is now a holiday tradition here at the store our customers loved it.
I made this and passed it around at the office and home. Everyone loved it. I did make a couple of small changes. -I could not find Currants so I used Dried Blueberries, they were a bit large, I may cut them up a bit next time. -I'm the kind of guy that makes sandwiches the same all through, no lumps of stuff or empty spots. I flattened the dough to a large rectangle, flattened the Marzipan to just a bit smaller, laid it on the dogh and folded the dough over to cover the Marzipan. That way, it was spread throughout the whole cake instead of a rope through the center. -I used a smaller amount of Saigon Cinnamon instead of the regular type. I love that stuff.
My first six star review! I admit I changed a few things but I credit that to preference. I made my own candied citrus peels and omitted the currants. I made one for my family and it will be my new tradition! I love this recipe and such a perfect way to remind us all of the simplicity of an older time. A toasted slice of this with coffee and an orange is a wonderful holiday suprise!
I did not use marzipan, I had some in freezer, will use next time (Easter). I made 2 separate recipes and added the dry yeast to mixer, then added 120-130 degree whole milk.
Fabulous recipe. As another user suggested, I start it off in the bread machine, and then allow for the second rise in a warm area. Make sure your yeast is fresh. I usually also swap the candied cherries for dried, tart cherries. Enjoy.
If you own a bread machine, you should follow the advice of JDMinNoVa. It's so easy and turned out beautifully!!!!! I've never used my bread machine before today but it was just THAT easy.
This recipe is the ticket to old fashioned, down home, German stollen! Wunderbar!!
Very delicious. Made this for Christmas morning. My husband was quite impressed. Thanks!
This (finally) came out awesome--best ever. However, it did not appear to rise first go 'round. After waiting 1.5 hours for it to look 2x in bulk, I proofed another T. of yeast in warm water and kneaded it into the dough. Put the dough in a maybe 80 degree oven... It never looked really doubled in bulk but I'm not used to working w/ sweet dough, so I wasn't sure. I prepared it on the cookie sheet, waited 45 min, and then baked as instructed. It came out fine: texture, taste, everything. So happy ending after a lot of stress. I used homemade citron and candied cherries so I wondered if their being cold out of fridge discouraged the first yeast.
I am an experienced, and usually good baker, but this recipe didn't work well at all. Took very long to rise, both rises, and the resulting bread was heavier than I liked. The flavor was ok, but I had made it for gifts and was very hesitant to send them.
This is a solid loaf - as the stollen I have had is - and I really enjoyed it. I left out the cinnamon and used non-melting powdered sugar to roll it straight out of the oven.
My husband loved it! I made it in my bread maker (mine is a little older, so the last rise cycle doesn't work that well) so I just set it for the dough, then took it out and baked it. I used orange peel instead of lemon and cranberries. I will try a slice with my morning coffee.
This was amazing! I soaked the raisins in rum as others suggested and added cinnamon to the dough as well. I put everything in the bread machine on the dough setting and let it go. When it was done, I followed the rest of the directions, let it rise about 40 minutes and baked it. It turned out perfectly! It was delicious, I will definitely make this again next Christmas. Thanks for a great recipe!
I made it in the bread machine, followed recipe to a T. I had a soupy mess in the pan. I had to add another cup of flour to it before it came together. It still tasted good and was soft, which is what I was looking for. Others I have made have been very dry. I'll try it again with the extra flour and maybe more sugar, wasn't really that sweet.
Try as I might, I cannot get the dough to rise. I have re-read this recipe. I don't know what I did wrong. :(
This was my first attempt at making a stollen and it came out PERFECT!!! I come from a German family so to make something authentic around the holidays was great. This is definitely becoming a staple in my family's Christmas tradition.
I have tried making this twice and both times it failed to rise. The second time I proofed the yeast to ensure that it was good. I couldn't toss it out, so I cut it into thick slices and baked it again to get a biscotti type of bread.
Beautiful recipe; used instant yeast, replaced cherries with apricots, and 7 oz of homemade marzipan (I can't get enough). Baking time for me was 55 minutes; it won't rise substantially in advance but it will spring enough when you start to bake it. The dough will appear wet, esp. if you're using non-AP flour and esp. if you're using a mixer and can't instantly tell by feel that the dough actually does hold together well. I thought initially the salt was excessive but it tastes the correct amount.
Love this recipe. My friends and family love them as well. I replaced butter with coconut oil by 80%(20%Butter) and turned out great and flavorful.
This is an EXCELLENT recipe! The consistency of the dough is perfect!! The only thing I think that is missing are spices- I added nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon peel, and ginger in generous amounts. The other recommendation I have is to reduce the marzipan as it is sweet. I think less will be more in this case. Finally, I used hot water to dissolve the yeast as I was getting no where with the milk and therefore, eliminated the milk altogether.
I made several changes, but I have been making Stollen almost every Christmas for 50 years. Sometimes, I just use the candied fruit available at Christmas for fruitcakes, and add raisins or currants. sometimes I just used raisins and currants. I buy the almond filling for pastries instead of Marzipan. I found it too sweet as well as too expensive. But the seasonings and amounts of ingredients were so similar to the original recipe I found in my mother's Joy of Cooking cookbook from 1947 thatthis has been my go to recipe for Stollen for about 5 years
Have made and loved it, tried gluten free and disappointed. Will stick with the original. (try adding almond paste since I had it on hand. Yum. )
While I'm not personally big on eating this my friends and family love it when I do. It is now requested annually. Best part of this recipe: EVEN IF YOU MESS UP IT IS STILL FANTASTIC!!!
A difficult recipe that didn't rise well. I know that there was nothing wrong with my yeast or the temperature in my kitchen. I am wondering if it would be better to let the dough rise initially without the fruit, and then knead it in before letting it rise for a second time. It was still delicious even though heavy, so I am going to try that next time.
This bread turned out deliciously. Mine took much longer to rise than the recipe stated but it was probably because my yeast was a bit old. I tried a reviewer's suggestion of making the dough in the bread machine, though I had to use more flour than the reviewer suggested. This might be because I sifted the flour first. However, the end result was perfect. I will be making this a tradition for Christmas.
I made it exactly according to directions! it was wonderful! Thank you Lee for this great recipe!
I've made this stollen for my wife's family and our friends here in Chile for three years now. As Chile has a strong Germanic presence, stollen is well-known here, but this one gets rave reviews. My wife claims that it is even better than that of my mother, and she was FROM Germany. Oh, I DO do one thing differently; After it's baked, I brush the top with soft butter and put down a thick layer of confectioner's sugar.
So yummy! I did have to add extra flour, but it was a hit! I couldn't find citron, but ended up making it from scratch. Boil the orange peels ten minutes and discard the water, boil again ten mins discard water again. The third time add equal amount of sugar and water as the peels and boil to candy temperature. Sweet not bitter citron, and that made it the best.
I made it once...then I had to make it again a total of five times, as my family always wanted more. Great recipe. I soaked the fruit in rhum before using them, and added a couple more tablespoons flour (often have to do this in Canada I find, our flour is a little different). The dough is very, very moist compared to bread, or even brioche, but after letting it rest an hour, it handled perfectly well, and the result was delicious. For some reason, this dough never rose for me the way bread usually does, but it does gain volume while cooking. Will make again next Christmas, or even before if the family have their way.
Loved this. I used my bread machine. If you do this you need to be sure to use instant yeast designed for bread machines. Use the dough cycle then shape the dough and bake. I have made stollen in my bread machine before and I would suggest that fruit be added a little later in the mixing cycle. I put it in after about 2 minutes and a lot of the fruit pieces got crushed but still a great result. I also added the cinnamon to the dough and I think the recipe suggests it be sprinkled on at the end. Anyway it didn't cause any problems for me. Sometimes spices can cause the dough to rise less. I removed it from the oven when the internal temperature of the bread was 200 degrees and then brushed with a lot of butter. I then topped it off with frosting. Sooooooo good. This is the first time I have made stollen with an almond paste center. It was great but I think it would be nice to have it dispersed throughout the bread more. Maybe next time I will make 3 skinny ropes. Hope this helps and that you enjoy as much as we did.
BETTER than German stollen! At least that she what my German friend told me. And I believe her! It's incredibly good.procedurally, It's similar to other yeast bread recipes, so don't be intimidated by other reviews. I did hand-knead (not use my stand mixer) to be sure it was kneaded to the right consistency. IT made one really big loaf-- great for a party. I folded the dough the way the "corinaesq" review suggested. I also applied a lot of melted butter to it once it came out of the oven then layers of powdered sugar. That gave it a moist, yet almost crisp And sweet crust. Now im sending my friend back to germany with this recipe so she can have a proper Stöllen next Christmas!
Follow the recipe and it comes out great. This will be a new Christmas tradition.
This was my first time making bread, and it was very easy to make. I had to use my intuition with a few things, however. It took about 3 hours to initially rise, whereas the recipe says it takes about 1 hour. it took longer to rise the second time as well. I consulted a friend who's a baker because it threw me off, and she said that the fruits really weigh the dough down, making it take longer. Makes sense. I also baked it for 10 min at 150 then reduced heat to 300 like the recipe calls for, but I kept a very close watch on it and pulled it out of the oven after only 20 minutes (recipe says 30-40 min). My advice would be to do the same and keep a close eye on the bread, pulling it out when it becomes a nice golden brown. It was a HUGE hit at my family gathering yesterday and it was baked to perfection.
