When did you first taste Stollen? I’m not at all sure when I first tasted Stollen. My first memory is of a fruity bread with marzipan in the middle. Always marzipan in the middle. Until I started researching this post, I thought that was the standard recipe but I discovered many different versions.
Why make your own Stollen? It’s a great seasonal treat with its light buttery texture great for those who are not so keen on Christmas cake. It also makes a wonderful present for a foodie.
A little stollen history
The word stollen means a post or boundary marker for a town. Stollen cakes have made for hundreds of years in Germany probably as early as the 1400s. The recipe has changed over the years to reflect availability of ingredients. It was originally made during the Lenten season when butter and milk couldn’t be used. Two men Kurfürst Ernst and his brother Albrech petitioned the Pope and the ban was finally overturned in 1647. So the rich, buttery bread that we know came into being.
Stollen was frequently baked in huge, long loaves. One over 18 kilos in weight and 5 feet long was presented to the King of Saxony in 1536. Later, in 1730, again in Saxony, a stollen “weighing 1.8 tons, 27 feet long and 18 feet wide and a foot high was to be the be the highlight of the Zeithainer Lustlagerfestival”. As you can imagine, a special oven had to be constructed to bake it in.
More recently Dresden bakers have created giant stollen. One, weighing in at 3000 kilos. The loaf was made up of 400 smaller pieces, each weighing eight kilos. Around 1.2 tons of flour, 750 kilograms of butter, 200 kilograms of sugar and 1.5 million raisins went into the stollen which took 60 bakers a week to construct.
Creating my version of Stollen
Shop bought stollen really vary some are far too dry, possibly as they were made a long time in advance. What recipe should I choose? I was looking for a light tasty dough with just the right amount of fruit and marzipan. It should be soft and tender
All the recipes I consulted include dried fruit, butter (lots of butter) and are based on a sweet brioche style dough.
Which stollen recipe?
First of all I turned to my favourite book for sweet doughs, A Jewish Baker’s Pastry Secrets. From a Hungarian background, George Greenstein ran his bakery for many years in New York (he passed away in 2012).
His recipe for “triple butter stollen” includes 10 egg yolks (gulp!) to a kilo of flour, 450 grams of butter (45%) and 1650 gr fruit (167%). This might just be going a little too far. However, his descriptions of how to make the dough, shape it and how to dose it with butter before and after are what I choose to follow. I also finish the stollen with cinnamon sugar at his suggestion.
Zingerman Bakehouse‘s stollen recipe had one egg and 330 grams of fruit to 365 grams (96%) of flour and 150 gr butter (41%). The use of rum butter to brush the stollen sounded a great addition. Just leave the rum out if you prefer.
Richard Bertinet’s stollen recipe is fuss free. He uses 4 eggs, 480 grams of fruit (48%) and 200 grams of butter to a kilo (20%). He also adds creme d’amande a mixture of butter, sugar, ground almonds and egg. I added more spice, toasted pecans and added a roll of marzipan rather than the pieces he suggests.
My version turns out to be light and delicious and a great addition to your Christmas delights. If you are a big marzipan lover you can add twice as much. Look for one with a high percentage of almonds in the marzipan you buy (some have only 20%). I used Odense Mandelmassa Almond Paste available through Ocado which has 50% almonds. Or of course you can make your own!
Danielle’s Stollen Recipe
There are plenty of stages in this recipe which you can fit into your day whilst you’re working on other things. Enjoy making it!
Danielle’s Stollen Recipe
Equipment
- Stand mixer, baking trays, pastry brush, tea towels or large plastic bags
Ingredients
- 250 grams bread flour plus extra for dusting
- 10 grams fresh yeast or 10 gr dried instant yeast
- 15 grams caster sugar
- 100 millilitres whole milk at room temperature or warm slightly
- 100 grams unsalted butter
- 5 grams ground ginger
- 5 grams salt
- 1 large egg
- Fruit to soak
- 50 grams raisins
- 50 grams dried or glace cherries roughly chopped
- 50 grams mixed peel roughly chopped
- 25 grams candied stem ginger roughly chopped
- 35 millilitres rum or use cointreau or similar
- Filling
- 150 grams marzipan
- 30 grams pecans toasted
- For brushing the stollen
- 30 grams unsalted butter
- Cinnamon sugar
- 50 grams caster sugar
- 10 grams ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Put all the dried fruits in a bowl and add the rum. Soak for as long as possible preferably overnight.
- Use a stand mixer if possible to mix this dough. Add the flour to the mixing bowl, lightly rub in the fresh yeast or add the dried yeast. Add the sugar, salt and the ground ginger. Mix the egg and milk together and add to the dry mixture. Mix on a low speed for about 5 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and mix a further 3 minutes.
- Turn down to a low speed and add cubed butter. Allow to mix in roughly for a further 3 minutes, then increase the speed to medium. When the mixture comes away from the bowl cleanly or the temperature is between 24° and 26°C it is ready. This is quite a soft dough.
- Shape into a ball and return to the mixing bowl to prove (about 1.5 hours) covered with a just damp tea towel or alternatively place in fridge and leave overnight.
- Toast the pecans in the oven or in a hot pan. Be careful they do not burn. Chop roughly.
- Flour your work surface. Turn the dough out and use a rolling pin to roll out to a rectangle. Exact size is not important.
- Scatter the soaked fruit evenly over the dough. Sprinkle over the nuts. With your rolling pin, lightly roll the fruit into the dough to make it easier to fold it.
- Fold the dough in half and roll out to a rectangle. This stops the fruit poking out of the dough when baking. Set aside whilst you form your marzipan
- Form your marzipan into one long sausage and cut into 2 even pieces weighing 125 grams
- Cut the dough into two. Roll each one out to a rectangle about 1 cm thick. Press your rolling pin into the dough on the right hand side. Place your marzipan into the indentation. You might need to adjust the size of your marzipan sausage to fit. You do not want it to stick out of the ends. Press it down lightly.
- Fold the dough over the marzipan roll and rather than lining up with the other edge, leaving a 2 cm gap. Press the dough down lightly. To give the stollen its traditional shape, press your palms down on the side with the 2 cm gap, creating a lip. Press down on all open edges lightly.
- Place the stollen on a baking allowing plenty of space for them to expand. Egg wash to avoid them drying out. Cover with a large plastic sheet or silicon sheet and prove for 1 to 1.5 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4 15 minutes before you put the stollen in. Brush the stollen again with egg wash before you put them in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- Prepare your cinnamon sugar by mixing the cinnamon and caster sugar together.
- Melt the butter – you can use a microwave on the defrost setting to do this.
- As soon as the stollen are baked, prick all over the dough with a fork and with a pastry brush, brush all over with butter. Do this a second time.
- Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar whilst still warm not when cooled.
- Before serving dust with icing sugar. Well wrapped, this will last a week in a cool place or freeze and use when required.
Notes
More recipes to try
Want to learn more about breadmaking? Read my Bake Better Bread series
Hello Sushreeta
I have not tried the recipe without eggs, but I would suggest substituting 100 ml oil instead of the eggs. If the dough seems very stiff add another 50 ml water.
Let me know how you get on!
Hello, I am allergic to eggs so can you please tell me if there is any way I can omit the eggs in the recipe? Thanks.