Many people in Australia have ancestral roots in Europe, which is why we wanted to share this Traditional Christmas Stollen recipe.
It might sound daunting, but stollen is one of the best Christmas breads, and its so easy to make at home instead of buying it. You will need a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.
If you’ve never tried it before, stollen is a dense, buttery, sweet bread with lots of Christmas flavours, and lots of character!
Method
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Heat the milk in a saucepan until just warm. Pour into the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk in the yeast along with about 1 tablespoon of bread flour. Set aside and leave for 30 mins.
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In the same saucepan, heat the brandy, raisins, mixed spice and vanilla until warm. Set aside.
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Add 1 1/4 cups of bread flour, sugar and an egg yolk to the yeast mixture in the bowl. Mix using the dough hook attachment until the mix just starts to come together, not more than a minute or so.
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With the mixer still going, add the salt and then the butter, slowly, to the mix. If the dough looks wet, add more flour as much as 1-3 tablespoons extra. Continue to mix until a soft and smooth dough forms, about 8 minutes.
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To this add the raisin mixture, the orange zest and the almonds. Mix until distributed into the dough. Form into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover and leave for 1-2 hours, or until rough has risen by about 50%.
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Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 180 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Place your dough onto a floured surface and shape into an oval about 20x25cm in size. Use a rolling pin to create a dip in the dough lengthwise, around 1/3 from the bottom.
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Take your marzipan and roll into a log to fit into the trench in your dough, and flatten the marzipan to be 1.5-2cm thick. Pop this into the trench.
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Lift the bottom part of the dough up over the marzipan and seal it inside. Don't lift it so far that it touches the other edge of the dough, as the stollen is supposed to have a Ëhump' on the top. You can use a rolling pin to seal the marzipan in the stollen. Move the dough to the baking sheet, cover loosely, and let rest somewhere warm for another 45 minutes.
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Bake until golden brown and just cooked, around 25-30 minutes. Be cautious of over baking as this can make the stollen very dry.
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For the glaze, brush your freshly baked stollen with half of the melted butter as soon as it's out of the oven. Then sprinkle on a coat of icing sugar, brush on more butter, and sprinkle with more icing sugar.
