About a dozen years ago I started to make Stollen at home for Christmas. I had bought my last imported one and decided that I could try this recipe. I had a couple of years of making bread under my belt, so this did not seem impossible. This particular version is from an Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking edited by Charlotte Turgeon.
Back in the 1980's I was working for Merrill Lynch and a young office boy was selling these books floor by floor in our building. Imagine someone doing that now; well, they used to do stuff like that back then. I never cooked much as a child or young woman and most things like that were a complete mystery to me.
Stollen was something I had eaten in Austria so I always associated it with a magical time in my life.
This is the same recipe from long ago, however ,I do make some adjustments as noted.
Stollen
2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup scalded milk
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
4 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 egg slightly beaten
1 cup seedless raisins
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup shopped mixed candied fruits ( I use dried fruits in any combination finely chopped, never the candied fruits.)
2 tablespoons grated orange rind ( I sometimes use dried orange peel)
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind (I sometimes use dried lemon peel)
1/4 cup chopped blanched almonds ( I often leave the nuts out as someone in our family has nut allergies and might like to try some.)
2 tablespoons melted butter *(Okay, I use a whole stick, slathering it over the hot from the oven loaf, the stick gets deformed, but it really works well for coverage. The kids thought it was funny when I started doing that.)
Confectioner's sugar **(This is fun, I take a couple of cups of this and dump it on the loaf. Then I attempt to glue that stuff to it with the butter already drenching it, done while still very warm, it actually works!!!)
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
Combine milk, 1/2 cup butter, sugar, salt and cardomon in large mixing bowl; cool to luke warm. Sitr in 2 cups flour; mix well. Add yeast and egg; mix until blended. Stir in fruits, grated rinds and almonds. Stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough.
Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic; add more flour as needed. Place in greased bowl; turn to grease surface. Cover; let rise in warm place 1 hour 45 minutes or until double in bulk.
Bake in preheated 375 degrees F oven 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F about 40 minutes, until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter; place on rack to cool.
Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar*, then with additional candied fruits.** Yield about 15 servings.
Fresh out of the oven! Naked Stollen!
Here is the Stollen with the powdered sugar on it. Some years there is not a stitch of brown showing when I am done!
Here is a piece cut, note the thickness of the powered sugar on the top.
Enjoy your holiday season with the goodness of fresh baked memories. The sights and smells, the fun of doing all this with your kids is what they will remember.
Most people customarily bake their Stollen well in advance of the holiday and store it, to eat it then. That is the way many Germans do it. We eat ours immediately. It is a festive ceremony, preparing it with the sugar while it is still hot from the oven, then slicing it while it is still warm. There is usually only a bit left the next day. That small remnant is very good with coffee and if you are so inclined, you can put a bit of butter on it.
Copyright 2011 by SheilaTGTG55
Here is an interesting pictorial of the ingredients and stages of Stollen:
Dresdener Stollen Process image courtesy of Ulrich van Stipriaan on Wiki
Stollen has very old origins.
"The early Stollen was a different pastry, the ingredients were very different - flour, oats and water.[6]
As a Christmas pastry, Stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427,[7] and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water.
The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard.[4]
In the 15th century, in medieval Saxony (in central Germany, north of Bavaria and south of Brandenburg), the Prince Elector Ernst (1441 - 1486) and his brother Duke Albrecht (1443–1500) decided to remedy this by writing to the Pope in Rome. The Saxon bakers needed to use butter, as oil in Saxony was expensive, hard to come by, and had to be made from turnips, although we now know this was a healthy option[8].
Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455), in 1450 denied the first appeal. Five popes died until finally, Pope Innocent VIII, (1432–1492)[7] in 1490 sent a letter to the Prince, known as the "Butter-Letter" which granted the use of butter (without having to pay a fine) - but only for the Prince-Elector and his family and household.
Others were also permitted to use butter, but with the condition of having to pay annually 1/20th of a gold Gulden to support the building of the Freiburg Minster. The ban on butter was removed when Saxony became Protestant.
Over the centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless "bread" to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients, such as marzipan, although the traditional Stollen is not as sweet, light and airy as the copies made around the world." Wikipedia
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