Stollen

Христос се роди, Ваистину се роди! – Merry Christmas!

Stollen is an enriched dough based sweet bread stuffed with dried and candied fruits. It is typically made for Christmas and is a tradition coming from Western Europe. For Eastern Orthodox Christmas this year besides our customary Christmas pogaca or “чесница”, I decided to make Stollen as well. This is not the first Stollen recipe I have made, but it is the first on my blog. It is a great tasting cake, worth every gram of effort I put into baking it. I just love its rich taste, fruity aroma and pleasant texture of almond paste mixed with toasted nuts.

The recipe might be demanding, no different than any other enriched dough recipe. Once you start adding sugar, eggs and butter to the dough that usually spells trouble, unless you know what you are doing. All these ingredients inhibit gluten development and gluten is what we need or we will end up with a brick, instead of soft and fragrant bread.

I have Ankarsrum stand mixer, and was looking forward to making this recipe, thinking that it should make my work a breeze. After about 45 minutes of mixing at medium speed I decided to    “take control in my own hands” and  finished it off by hand kneading. It took me a little over 10 minutes to achieve proper gluten window which is a key landmark. Normally I like to do all my mixing and kneading by hand. I love to touch dough, feel its smooth and playable texture and sense all the physical changes in the process. It is only last year that I bought the stand mixer. Undeniably there is a purpose for this tool, especially if making large batches or processing some specialty doughs. However, one thing I have to say: I never failed a recipe when working by hand, while the mixer nearly let me down few times. I will give it the benefit of doubt: maybe I have more learning to do on how to get most out of it, maybe it is just a learning curve. Stay tuned I will keep you posted!

All in all if you can manage to develop gluten in your dough, you are golden! That is the only difficulty in the recipe. After that everything else is downhill ride, easy and foolproof.

Stollen is a wonderful treat, but to enjoy full flavor of this traditional confectionary gem make sure to give it few days to a week of maturation time. Keep it wrapped at room temperature. Slice of this fragrant, sweet treat will make your eyes sparkle, I promise!

The recipe I selected this time is by French pastry chef Bruno Albouze. The recipe requires some pre-planning since you need to macerate toasted nuts and candied fruits for 4 weeks prior to stolen making. This time can be shorten to a week, but according to chef Bruno the result is just not the same.

Print Recipe

Stollen

Traditional Christmas fruity sweet bread!

Course

Bake, Dessert

Cuisine

French, German

Keyword

Stollen

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

40 minutes

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

loaves

Ingredients

Fruit Marinade

• 130 g natural almonds
• 80 g walnuts halves
• 60 g hazelnuts
• 60 g pistachios
• 60 g pine nuts
• 80 g candied orange peel finely cut
• 120 g raisins
• 120 g dried prunes chopped
• 60 g brown sugar
• 250 g Kirshwasser or spicy dark rum

Almond Paste

• 250 g almond meal
• 250 g sugar
• 100 g filtered water
• 20 g corn syrup or glucose
• 35 g trimoline or honey
• few drops almond extract to taste

Dough

• 900 g fruit marinade chilled
• 500 g all purpose non bleached flour I used La Milanaise organic all purpose flour (11.6% protein)
• 70 g granulated sugar
• 40 g egg yolks chilled
• 150 g eggs chilled
• 125 g organic milk chilled
• 10 g fine sea salt
• 1 g ground black pepper
• 1.5 g ground allspice
• 15 g instant yeast
• 230 g unsalted butter tempered to room temperature

Course Bake, Dessert Cuisine French, German Keyword Stollen Prep Time 1 hour Cook Time 40 minutes Passive Time 4 hours Servings loaves Ingredients Fruit Marinade 130 g natural almonds 80 g walnuts halves 60 g hazelnuts 60 g pistachios 60 g pine nuts 80 g candied orange peel finely cut 120 g raisins 120 g dried prunes chopped 60 g brown sugar 250 g Kirshwasser or spicy dark rum Almond Paste 250 g almond meal 250 g sugar 100 g filtered water 20 g corn syrup or glucose 35 g trimoline or honey few drops almond extract to taste Dough 900 g fruit marinade chilled 500 g all purpose non bleached flour I used La Milanaise organic all purpose flour (11.6% protein) 70 g granulated sugar 40 g egg yolks chilled 150 g eggs chilled 125 g organic milk chilled 10 g fine sea salt 1 g ground black pepper 1.5 g ground allspice 15 g instant yeast 230 g unsalted butter tempered to room temperature

Instructions

Fruit Marinade

1. In 9" no-stick pan lightly toast separately: almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, pine nuts. Let cool completely.
2. Coarsely chop toasted walnuts.

   
3. In a large mixing bowl mix together toasted nuts, raisins, cut candied orange peel, chopped dried prunes and brown sugar.

   
4. Transfer the mixture to a large sealable container, add kirshwasser and mix well. Seal the container and refrigerate for 4 weeks. Shake up container once per week.

   

Almond Paste

1. Add almond meal to a standing mixer bowl, standing mixer is fitted with a paddle attachment.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat (5 out of 10) cook together water, sugar and corn syrup. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved, cook until mixture reaches 120ºC (248ºF).
3. Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly pour sugar solution over the almond meal. Add trimoline and almond extract, mix for 5 minutes at medium speed.
4. Turn the almond paste onto a counter, divide in two equal parts. Roll each part in a cylinder, about 1" diameter and approximately 10" long. Wrap each cylinder tightly in plastic film to prevent drying.

Dough

1. Drain the fruit marinade.

   
2. To a bowl of a standing mixer add: milk, eggs, egg yolks. Mixer should run at low speed and be fitted with a dough hook.
3. Add allspice, black pepper, flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix until dough comes off the sides of the bowl, 15-20 minutes. Slowly add butter in increments and keep mixing until gluten window is formed, 45 min - 1 hour. Note: Check the dough temperature, it should not exceed 29ºC (84ºF) or the dough will fall apart
4. Add the drained marinated nuts to the mixer and mix at medium speed until fully incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic film and let ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes.
5. Turn the dough on the counter, deflate it and fold it into a fat log. Cover and let rest for 5 minutes.
6. On a lightly dusted counter, divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Round each part into a tight ball, cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

   
7. Using a rolling pin flatten each ball and roll it out to a rectangular shape, about 12" long, and 1" thick.
8. Use a rolling pin to make a dent in the middle of dough rectangle, by length.
9. Unwrap and place the almond paste cylinder into the dent. Fold the dough over to enclose the almond paste cylinder, seal the dough edge. Repeat the same procedure with the other dough.

   
10. Place each loaf onto large baking pan lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic film and proof at room temperature for 90 minutes.

    
11. Prewarm the oven for 30 minutes before the baking time, rack in the middle.
12. Bake for 40 minutes at 177ºC (350ºF).
13. Let loafs cool for one hour.
14. Brush loafs with melted butter and generously sprinkle with powdered sugar.
15. After completely cooled off wrap each loaf and store at room temperature. Stollen tastes the best when left few days to mature.

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