The original German Christmas bread but leavened with sourdough starter instead of commercial yeast. A delicious bread filled with rum-infused dried fruits and a marzipan log. Thaty will make even the worst Scrooge a Christmas lover.
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time45 minutesmins
Levain and proofing20 hourshrs
Total Time21 hourshrs15 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: German
Keyword: Chrisstollen, Christmas stollen, German christmas, Sourdough stollen, Stollen
Prepare levain and soaked fruit (the night before)
To a small bowl add: 250g/1¾ cups all-purpose flour, 10g/2 tbsp granulated sugar, 250g/1 cup stirred down starter and 120g/½ cup milk.
Mix it until it comes together, move the dough to the counter and knead it until everything is throughly combined.
Then put the levain in a jar and let it grow to about twice the size.
It took about 12 hours for my levain at around 21°Celsius/70°F.
Soak fruit
To a small bowl add: 100g/3½ oz sultanas, 100g/3½ oz raisins, 100g/3½ oz finely chopped apricots, and 60g/2 oz dried sweet cranberries.
Pour over 100g/½ cup spiced rum. If you don’t want the bread to be alcoholic, use water instead.
Mix them up, cover them and leave them until you need them.
Mix the bread (the following morning)
To a bowl add: the entire levain, 40g/⅕ cup granulated sugar, 10g/1½ tsp table salt, 250g/1¾ cup all-purpose flour, and 50g/⅕ cup milk.
Mix it until it comes together.
Then dump it out of the counter and knead it until all the flour has been hydrated. The dough will seem very dry here.
Put it in a bowl, cover it and let it rest for one hour.
Then take 150g/⅓ butter out of the fridge and cube it.
Knead in the butter
When the hour is up, knead the butter into the dough.
Let the dough rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.
While the dough is resting, sieve the dried fruit, and pad it dry with kitchen paper.
Also zest 3 oranges and 2 lemons and put it into a bowl.
And chop 40g/1½ ounces of blanched and deskinned almonds finely.
Add inclusions
When the dough has rested, press the dough out into a rectangle.
Add a third of the zest, a third of the almonds, and a third of the fruits.
Roll up the dough and knead it until the fruits are kneaded into the dough.
Continue two more times until you have a nice dough with both fruit, almonds, and zest inside.
Put the dough into a proofing container and let it rise until almost doubled.
It took about 6 hours for me at 21°C/70°F.
Divide and shape
When the dough is ready, divide the 250g/9 ounces marzipan into two and roll them out into cylinders of about 25 centimeters/10 inches long.
Then grab the dough and divide it into two equally sized pieces and tease one of them into a roundish rectangle of about 30 cm*20 cm/12"*8".
Using a rolling pin, make an indentation the long way in the middle of the dough.
Add the marzipan roll and seal up the dough with the palm of your hand.
Add the dough to a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Shape the other piece of dough the same way and add it to the cookie sheet.
Final proof
Cover them with plastic wrap and let them proof somewhere warm for an hour.
Heat oven
After the hour is up, remove the doughs and heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius/340 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you have fan assist, use it, if not you probably have to turn the cookie sheet around halfway during the baking.
Bake
When the oven is warm, add it to the oven and bake for 45 minutes. If, during the baking, the bread is starting to get too brown, cover it with aluminum foil.
About 5 minutes before it’s baked, melt 50g/3½ tablespoons of butter.
When the stollen is baked, grab it from the oven and put it on a wire rack, and brush them both with melted butter.
Leave them to soak for about 5 minutes, and then dust them with confectioner’s sugar.