The recipes in the Real German Cuisine Challenge are from the German recipe book Die echte deutsche Küche and will be translated by me over the next couple of years.

Saechsischer Weihnachtsstollen (Saxon Christmas Stollen)

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World famous specialty

Ingredients for 3-4 Stollen (each about 1-5 kg):

  • 750 g (1.65 lbs) raisins
  • 1/2 cup rum
  • 1.8 kg (4 lbs) flour + flour for rolling out
  • 140 g (4.94 oz) yeast
  • 1/2 liter milk
  • 350 g (12.35 oz) sugar
  • 500 g (1.1 lbs) sweet almonds
  • 10 bitter almonds
  • 600 g (1.32 oz) candied lemon peel (Zitronat)
  • 18 g (0.63 oz) salt
  • 875 g (1.93 lbs) fat (2/3 butter, 1/3 clarified butter and pork lard mix)

For icing:

  • 150 g (5.29 oz) butter
  • 5 T sugar mixed with 2 packets vanilla sugar
  • 200 g (7.05 oz) powdered sugar

Preparation time: about 2 1/2 hours (+ rest time)

With 4 Stollen, per Stollen: 6200 calories (one Stollen gives about 30 pieces)

Stollen taste best when they’ve matured for several weeks – then they come into their full aroma.  Therefore bake your Christmas Stollen a few weeks before the holidays.  To store, wrap well in cellophane and set aside in a cool place.

  • Potato cake with Stollen dough: Add 250 g (8.8 oz) grated, boiled potatoes to 500 g (1.1 lbs) finished Stollen dough.  Knead everything well.  Lay dough out on a greased baking sheet (about 5-6 cm high) and with your thumbs make depressions in the dough.  Mix 150-200 g (5.3-7 oz) melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon and sprinkle over the dough.  Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 50 minutes.  Enjoy while still fresh and warm from the oven with a warm cafe au lait (or a “Muckefuck”).
  • Old Saxon chronicles say that in the 15th century Stollen were made.  It’s form reminds us of a swaddled baby.  The most famous Stollen is “Dresdner Stollen.”  The bakers still keep the recipe a secret — and in the time before Christmas, it is shipped all over the world.

Directions:

  1. On the day before baking, wash and shake dry the raisins.  Place them in a container and pour in the rum.  Cover and let sit until baking time.  Set all ingredients out in a warm place.
  2. On the day of baking, sift a quarter of the flour into a bowl and make a depression in the middle.  Break up the yeast into the depression and mix it with some lukewarm milk and 1 tsp sugar to form a pre-dough.  Cover with a towel and set aside in a warm, draft-free place for 20 minutes.
  3. Chop all the almonds and the candied lemon peel.  Mix the pre-dough with the rest of the flour, the milk, sugar, the chopped almonds and peel, salt, softened fat and drained raisins.  Knead thoroughly then let sit for 1 hour. (At around 20°C / 68°F, but not too near to the oven).
  4. Split the dough into portions (about 1.5 kg).  Knead each portion well once more and set aside for another 1 hour.
  5. Now place each portion on a floured surface and roll out, fold in a typical Stollen form, one side folded about half way over the top.  That’s done most easily when the dough is folded over the handle of a wooden spoon.  Before baking, carefully remove the handle.  Preheat the oven to just under 200°C (390°F).
  6. Place baking parchment on a baking sheet, or grease the sheet well, and place the floured Stollen close to the edge (this is how it  keeps its form).  Brush with warm water.  (Do you have a Stollen baking form?  Butter the form and lay the dough in it and lightly notch the top of the dough).
  7. Let the dough rest again, it should feel “wooly.” Bake the Stollen one after another in an oven for about 1 hour. (Test for doneness with a wooden skewer!)
  8. Let the Stollen cool, then brush with melted butter.  Sprinkle with sugar and vanilla sugar.  Brush again with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar. (This butter-sugar topping helps keep the Stollen from drying out.)

Want more Real German Cuisine? Check out the full recipe list organized by German state. Do you have an alternative recipe for this dish or helpful hints? Please let us know in the comments!

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Tom November 30, 2009 at 9:12 pm

Hi Christina,

you can alter the recipe if you leave out the raisins and make a Marzipan center for the stollen.

YUM!

2 Christina Geyer November 30, 2009 at 10:50 pm

I’ve had it with marzipan and raisins in it and that was good too.

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