Stolen is traditional German Christmas bread, made with flour, fruit, almonds, and raisins. Discover the typical recipe to make it at home this holiday season.
If we travel through different countries, especially during the Christmas holidays, it is quite likely that we will notice the incredible diversity and variety that we find throughout the world. Moreover, it is curious to see how, for example, in European countries the custom is to make cakes or biscuits with spices and nuts, while in the United States the usual thing is desserts or fruit cakes.
Spain actually has a wide variety of traditional Christmas desserts. A good example is the popular Jejuna nougat (soft almond nougat) or the Alicante nougat (hard almond nougat accompanied by a wafer), or the wonderful Polvorones. The classic marquesas also stand out, which consist of almond biscuits sprinkled with icing sugar on top.
Returning again to European countries, it is very possible that at some point you have found yourself facing a kind of sponge cake or sweet bread with a wide variety of nuts inside, and accompanied on top of a large amount of powdered sugar.
We are dealing with stollen, a sweet bread of German origin that has been regularly and for many years prepared for the Christmas holidays. The original sweet bread is made with walnuts or almonds, and its original name is Christstollen, which translated would mean “Christ’s Bread”.
In the past it was made and enjoyed in order to celebrate the arrival of the baby Jesus, hence its original name. And, for this reason, it presents that curious shape, similar to that of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes (as, in fact, the baby Jesus in the manger tends to be represented).
What is the origin of the stollen?
As the story goes, it seems that the first stollen was made in the 14th century, when it was common for bishops to be given a Christmas present. At that time, it was common for bread to be unsweet and made with plain, simple ingredients such as flour, oil, and water.
In those centuries there was a number of food products that were considered prohibited during Advent, such as milk or butter.
However, around the fifteenth century, Pope Innocent VIII decided to write a letter that was known as ” Butter brief ” (butter letter), in which he allowed the use of butter in order to increase the consumption of bread. In exchange for each time a stollen was made, a certain amount of money would be given to the Church, in order to build the Freiberg cathedral.
Little by little and over the years, the original recipe was perfected and ingredients were added, such as almonds, pieces of fruit, nuts, raisins, seeds.
Traditional Christmas Stollen Recipe
Although today there is a wonderfully sweet and interesting variety of different stollen (for example, we can mention the stollen stuffed with marzipan, walnuts, almonds or butter), this time we are going to learn how to make a traditional Christmas stollen, with almonds, raisins and pieces of fruit.
It is ideal to eat for breakfast, as an afternoon snack or during tea time, or simply as a dessert for your Christmas meals or dinners.
It will take around 1 hour to prepare it, and to cook it 1 more hour.
Ingredients:
- 375 g of strong flour
- 15g fresh yeast
- 1 whole egg + 2 yolks
- 125 g butter (softened) + Butter for brushing
- 150g whole milk
- 80g sugar
- 60g ground almonds
- 200 g candied fruit
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon of cloves
- 2 tablespoons of rum
- Icing sugar to decorate (impalpable sugar)
How to make the Christmas stollen:
- Put in a large bowl 350 grams of the strong flour, the ground almonds, the fresh yeast, the sugar and a pinch of salt. Grind the spices and add them to this bowl. Booking.
- Put the milk in a saucepan over the heat together with the remaining flour (25 grams), and with the help of a whisk, mix well to prevent lumps from forming, until it thickens. Then let it cool down a bit.
- Add this flour cream to the bowl of flour, the whole egg and the two yolks, and mix well. Let it sit for about 15 minutes.
- While the dough rests we can continue with the candied fruit. To do this, put the candied fruits and raisins in a bowl and add the rum. Stir well and let it macerate for a while.
- Put the butter in a microwave-safe bowl and soften it a bit. Then beat it with the help of a fork until the butter is about to ointment. After 15 minutes of rest of the dough add the butter and knead well. Then cover it and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
- After this time it is important to give it one last kneading.
- Now is the time to add the candied fruit and the rum-macerated raisins. To do this stretches the dough making a kind of layer on which we will place the dried fruit. Cut the dough in half and place one half on top of the other. Then knead again a bit to get the pieces of candied fruit and raisins mixed throughout the dough.
- Put the dough in a bowl or bowl and let it ferment for about 2 and half hours.
- When the dough has more or less doubled its volume, put it on the counter and knead it briefly (in this way we will get the dough to break down). Then stretch it with the help of a rolling pin, giving it an oblong shape (longer than wide). And with the help of the roller make a depression on one side of the center. Fold the dough just over the depression you made, turning the small portion of dough over the large one.
- Cover the stollen with plastic and let it ferment a little more.
- Meanwhile we are going to preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- When the dough has risen, put the stollen in the oven and cook it for 35 minutes.
- After this time, remove from the oven and let cool. Then, after a few minutes, brush the bread with melted butter and let it cool completely.
- Finally, sprinkle with plenty of icing sugar.
- Ready! You can now enjoy it.
