Christmas Stollen from the Ore Mountains

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 ½ kg flour
• 4 packs of yeast
• ¼ liter whole milk
• 300 g sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 100 g butter
• 100 g margarine
• 150 g clarified butter
• 150 g lard
• 80 g almonds
• 65 g bitter almonds
• 250 g candied lemon peel, optionally candied orange peel
• 1 organic lemon(s), grated peel and juice
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 500 g raisins
• 300 ml rum
• 50 g butter, melted, for spreading
• 50 g icing sugar for sprinkling, to taste

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 2 hours

Recipe from my great-grandfather, who was a baker in the Ore Mountains, for 2 Stollen

For 2 Stollen. Put the flour in a large bowl, make a well in the center, and crumble in the yeast. Pour warmed milk over it and mix a pre-dough with some of the sugar. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place. The kitchen should be nice and warm, as yeast dough reacts sensitively to cold. Weigh the fats and keep them warm in a bowl (they should be quite soft, otherwise they will be difficult to knead). Blanch the almonds in boiling water and peel them. Then grind or finely chop them together with the candied lemon peel in a food processor. Knead the pre-dough with the remaining sugar, salt, fat, vanilla sugar, then vigorously knead the almonds, candied lemon peel, lemon zest and juice, and raisins. “The dough should be smooth and soft like a baby’s bottom” – my grandfather’s exact words. Cover and let it rise in a warm place. As it contains a lot of fat, it needs 1-2 hours. Then knead again, divide into 2 pieces, and shape into stollen. I cut the stollen lengthwise down the middle, press the edges apart, and bake. I have 2 narrow baking trays; you can also put both pieces on a large baking tray with a roll of aluminum foil in the middle. Either let it rise again first and then put it in an oven preheated to 200°C, reduce the temperature to 150°C, and bake for about 1 hour. Or after 15 minutes of resting in a warm place, put it in an oven that has not been preheated, turn the temperature up to 150°C, and then bake for a bit longer. The stollen will then rise as the oven heats up. That’s how I do it; it might only work with top and bottom heat, not fan-assisted. You can also do the skewer test to see if it’s baked through. After baking, let it cool for 1-2 days, wrap it in a linen cloth (cotton will also work) and place it in a plastic bag. Let it chill in a cool place (like a cellar) for at least 3 weeks. Then brush it with melted butter and sprinkle it generously (2 cm) with powdered sugar. It will keep for at least 2 months if it wasn’t too moist when wrapped.