Stollen: fruit soaked overnight in rum and three weeks of maturing
The German Christmas loaf that is not eaten fresh. A baked stollen is wrapped and set aside for two to three weeks: in that time the alcohol from the fruit and the fat from the butter distribute through the whole loaf, and the rum, very pronounced at first, mellows and melds with the spices. Two things must be done ahead: soak the fruit overnight, since dry fruit steals water from the dough, and be generous with the butter on top — it, together with a layer of icing sugar, is what preserves the loaf for weeks.
Your own work in that: 1 h.
- Fruit 720 min
- Dough 25 min
- Proving 125 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Proving after shaping 45 min
- Baking 60 min
- Butter and sugar 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSoak the fruit overnight
Combine the raisins, peel and almonds with the rum and orange zest in a jar and leave 12 hours, shaking once. The fruit should absorb all the alcohol and swell — dry fruit would draw water out of the dough and leave it dry and dense.
Ingredients: 250 g raisins · 100 g candied orange peel · 100 g almonds · 80 ml dark rum · 1 pcs orange zest
TipWithout alcohol: apple juice or strong black tea. Rum brings not only flavour but keeping quality — the alcohol is one reason a stollen survives a month.
Twelve hours, until all the rum is absorbedKnead a heavy dough
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk with a spoon of sugar. Put the flour, remaining sugar, salt and spices in the mixer bowl, add the yeasted milk and the egg. Knead 10 minutes, then add the soft butter a piece at a time and knead another 10 minutes.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 150 ml milk · 10 g dried yeast · 200 g butter · 80 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 1 tsp cinnamon · ½ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp ground cloves · 1 tsp salt
TipButter always goes in once the gluten is built. With 200 g of butter to 500 g of flour, added at the start it would coat the flour, the gluten would not develop and the dough would rise far less.
Butter piece by piece, after ten minutesFold in the fruit and prove
Drain the fruit (pour off any excess liquid) and mix it in briefly, at the lowest speed, just to distribute it. Cover and leave somewhere warm 2 hours — a heavy dough with this much fat and fruit rises slowly and by half at most.
Shape it around the marzipan
Flatten the dough into a 30 × 20 cm oval. Roll the marzipan into a rope and lay it along the dough, slightly below the middle. Fold the dough so the top edge stops short of the bottom one — that gives the characteristic ridge. Press along the fold.
Ingredients: 200 g marzipan · 100 g butter · 150 g icing sugar
TipBy tradition the shape recalls the swaddled Christ child. It is practical too: the fold of dough closes the marzipan in and keeps it from leaking out in the oven.
A rope of marzipan, edges deliberately offsetBake for an hour
Move to a tray, cover and leave 45 minutes. Bake 55–60 minutes at 160 °C, covering with foil after 35 minutes if the top darkens. With a thermometer: done at 92 °C inside. Low heat and long time, because the dough is very dense.
Sixty minutes at 160 °C, foil after thirty-fiveButter and sugar, twice
Brush the hot stollen with all the melted butter, in several coats, until it stops absorbing. Dust thickly with icing sugar. Once cool, dust it a second time. Wrap in paper and foil and set aside for at least two weeks.
TipA hundred grams of butter on one loaf looks absurd, but it is not a flavour finish — it is a <b>preserving layer</b>. With the icing sugar it shuts out air, and that is why a stollen keeps for a month.
Butter in coats, sugar twice
Before you start
Why it is set aside
Fresh stollen is dryish and the rum is very pronounced. Over two or three weeks the fat and alcohol distribute evenly, the crumb moistens and the spices mellow and meld. It is one of very few cakes that genuinely improves with time.
How to store it
Wrapped in baking paper, then foil, in a cool place (not the fridge). Kept that way it lasts 4–6 weeks, and in Germany it is traditionally baked in November for Christmas.
Without marzipan
Stollen without marzipan is just as traditional and easier to shape — the classic Dresdner Christstollen, for one, contains none. The version with a band of marzipan through the middle (Marzipanstollen) is a popular variant. Without marzipan, simply fold the dough the same way with no rope inside.
Cutting
Cut from the middle outwards, then push the two halves back together and rewrap. It is the traditional way to cut a stollen, and it makes sense: the cut surface stays covered and does not dry out.
