Jamie Magazine
By Annie Rigg
Stollen
1 hr 20 mins plus proving
Showing Off
serves 10
About the recipe
This rich, German fruit bread is particularly popular in the city of Dresden, where a huge stollen is traditionally paraded through the streets at the annual Stollenfest.
Recipe From
Ingredients
40g candied peel
50g glacé cherries
1 orange
100g raisins, sultanas and currants
25g dried cranberries
2 tablespoons brandy or dark rum
3-4 cardamom pods
7g dried active yeast (see tip)
25g sugar
125ml whole milk, plus a little extra
275g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
½ teaspoon mixed spice
50g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 medium free-range egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
25g almonds
25g shelled pistachios
225g marzipan
olive or vegetable oil, for greasing
icing sugar, for dusting
Top Tip
Not to be confused with fast-action dried yeast, which comes in sachets, dried active yeast comes in a tub. Unlike fast-action, it needs to be activated with warm liquid and sugar before adding to the mixture.
Method
- Finely chop the candied peel, and quarter the glacé cherries. Finely grate the orange zest.
- Place all of the dried fruit into a bowl with the orange zest. Squeeze the orange juice into a pan, add the brandy or rum and heat to just below boiling point, then pour it over the dried fruit. Mix well, then set aside for 1 to 2 hours to allow it to plump up.
- Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods, then grind to a powder in a pestle and mortar (roughly ¼ of a teaspoon).
- Spoon the yeast into the bowl of a free-standing mixer, then add the sugar.
- In a pan, heat the milk until just warm, add to the yeast and whisk to combine. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes, until the yeast has formed a thick, foamy crust on the milk.
- Add the flour, spices and ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Using a dough hook, combine the butter, egg and vanilla, then mix for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and set aside.
- Roughly chop the almonds and pistachios.
- Pour away about half the liquid from the soaked fruit, then add the fruit and remaining liquid to the dough, along with the nuts. Mix again.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for 1 minute. Shape the dough into an oval shape, about A4 size.
- Roll the marzipan into a neat log, about 4cm shorter than the length
- of the dough, and place in the middle of the oval.
- Brush one long edge of the dough with milk and fold it over, completely encasing the marzipan, and press the edges together to seal.
- Carefully lift the dough onto the baking sheet, cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until nearly doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4.
- Remove the clingfilm, then bake the stollen for 30 minutes, or until golden, risen and the underside sounds slightly hollow when tapped.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack before dredging with icing sugar to serve.
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