Aunt Gertrud's Christmas Stollen

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 2 kg flour
• 900 g clarified butter
• 625 g sugar
• 5 packs of vanilla sugar
• 800 g raisins, soaked in rum 2 days before
• 500 g candied lemon peel
• 500 g almonds, sweet, chopped
• 2 small bottles of bitter almond flavoring
• 1 lemon(s), juice and grated zest
• ¾ liter of milk
• 300 g yeast
• 20 g salt
• 600 ml rum for the raisins
• 200 g butter, liquid, for spreading
• 200 g icing sugar, for dusting

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 2 hours

Our Aunt Gertrud spoiled the family with this recipe for many years. Today, my son continues this tradition.

Soak the raisins in rum two days in advance. Drain the raisins well. Make a yeast dough with flour, clarified butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, milk, and yeast and knead well. Let it rise until it has doubled in size. Then add the remaining ingredients and knead the dough again. Form 6 stollen and place them on baking sheets or divide the dough into 6 stollen molds. Let it rise again, for about 20 minutes, depending on the temperature. Bake at 160°C (convection oven) for 30 minutes, then for another 30 minutes at 140°C (284°F). Brush the finished stollen with butter, let it soak in, brush with butter again, and let it soak in until the butter is used up. Then sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. The stollen should now have a thick layer of buttered powdered sugar on the outside.