Apricot and Quark Stollen

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 250 g apricot(s), dried
• 250 g butter
• 250 g low-fat curd cheese
• 175 g sugar
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 orange(s), untreated, peel
• 1 egg(s), size M
• 500 g flour
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 125 g almonds, chopped
• 100 g candied orange peel, very finely chopped
• 200 g marzipan, if desired, or some butter
• some powdered sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 40 minutes

for all those who don’t like Christmas Stollen

Chop the dried apricots. Melt the butter, but do not let it boil. Mix together the quark, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, grated orange zest, egg, and melted butter. Combine the flour, baking powder, and chopped almonds and stir them into the quark mixture in portions. Stir in the apricots and finely chopped candied orange peel, or knead them in with a dough hook. Shape the dough into one large Stollen or four small ones. Place these on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven (electric oven: 200°C/fan oven 175°C/gas mark 3) for about one hour. For four small Stollen, bake for about 40 minutes. After cooling, first brush the Stollen with butter, let it harden, then dust with powdered sugar. Alternatively, wrap the Stollen in a marzipan shell. The marzipan can also be worked into the finished dough as a roll before the stollen is formed.