SEMINOLE, Fla. — Stephan Hoppe, the German Bread Guy, offers his recipe for stollen, a sweet Christmas bread with rum-soaked dried fruits.

The recipe makes two servings.

Dough

  1. Stollen is usually made with dried fruits that are hard to get. You can substitute a 50/50 mix of cranberries and raisins, to taste, and soak them in a combination of water, rum and lemon juice for a few days.
  2. Mix together:
    • 147 grams eggs
    • 194 grams milk
    • 141 grams butter
    • 105 grams granulated sugar or brown sugar (for molasses!!)
    • 53 grams yeast
    • 8 grams lemon juice
    • 21 grams vanilla flavor
  3. Add 527 grams flour, high gluten.
  4. After gluten develops, add 7 grams of salt.
  5. Stir in fruits.
  6. Set aside.

Marzipan

  1. With whisk, then either with a food processor or by hand, whip together:
    • 200 grams powder sugar
    • 200 grams almond flour
    • 5 grams lemon juice
    • 5 grams rose water

To prepare stollen:

  1. Separate the dough into two 600-gram pieces.
  2. Roll out flat to rectangular pieces with rolling pin.
  3. Cover with about 130 grams of fruits (half of) rolled out dough.
  4. Use a rolling pin to press fruits into half of dough.
  5. Fold the non-covered half on the fruit-covered half.
  6. Roll out again.
  7. Add 30 more grams of fruits on top and bottom of dough.
  8. Create four 100-gram rolls of marzipan.
  9. Put one roll of marzipan on top and bottom of each rolled out dough.
  10. Wrap marzipan with the dough until they meet in the middle.
  11. Close dough (press together in center).
  12. Transfer the unbaked stollen to a sheet pan with parchment paper.
  13. Let the dough rise for 30-90 mins. — until increased in size by 30%-50%

To bake:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F for a convection oven, or 375 degrees F for non-convection.
  2. When the oven is hot, melt unsalted butter, and spread generously over each stollen.
  3. Bake for 15-25 mins., depending on the oven.
  4. Melt more unsalted butter before you remove the stollen from the oven.
  5. Then remove the stollen, and spread melted butter generously over the top again.
  6. Use a mesh strainer to sprinkle powdered sugar over the stollen.
    • The butter will melt the sugar at first, and then it will stay in place and create a beautiful white powder.
  7. Wait 30-60 mins. before cutting to allow the stollen to cool.

Every baked product needs to cool down to complete the baking process. Wait 30-60 mins. before cutting.

Stollen tastes best after being stored for one day to generate the full flavor.

You can store by cutting into slices or cutting the stolen in half and placing it in the freezer. Defrosting takes about 30-90 mins.