German Stollen

My favourite Christmas morning breakfast!

Ingredients

Fruit Mixture

  • 1 cup raisins, plumped
  • 1/2 cup currants, washed
  • 1/4 cup chopped mixed glazed fruit
  • 2 tbsp grated orange peel
  • 1 tbsp grated lemon peel
  • 1/4 cup chopped blanched almonds

Bread Mixture

  • 1 pkg traditional dry yeast (not Quick Rise)
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground cardamon
  • 4 to 4 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 slightly beaten egg

Glaze

  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp hot water
  • 1/2 tsp butter

Directions

  1. Warm oven at 95F  and place small bowl of water inside.
  2. Make fruit mixture first in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. Soften yeast in ¼ c warm water with 1 tsp sugar for 10 minutes.
  4. In a large bowl, combine 1 c hot water, soft butter, sugar, salt, and cardamom. Cool to lukewarm.
  5. Stir in 2 c of the flour, hand beat well. Add the softened yeast mixture and egg, beat well.
  6. Stir in the fruit mixture. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
  7. Turn out on a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8-10 min).
  8. Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough.
  9. Cover with clean towel and let rise in a barely warm oven until double in size (about 1 3/4 hrs).
  10. Punch down, turn out on lightly floured surface.
  11. Divide in 3 equal parts. Cover and let rest 10 min.
  12. Roll each of the 3 parts to 10” x 6” rectangle.
  13. Without stretching, fold the long side over to within 1’ of the opposite side, seal edge with a little bit of water.
  14. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise in barely warm oven till almost double in bulk (about 1 hr).
  15. Remove Stollen and heat the oven to 350F
  16. Return the Stollen to the oven and bake untill golden brown. (about 15 to 20 minutes)
  17. While warm, brush with glaze.
  18. Decorate with additional fruit.



Thanks to Pauline Oliver for the recipe!

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