Christmas Stollen

Fruit cakes have a bad rep in the US, for a good reason. Several years ago, I saw a WSJ recipe of Christmas Stollen, the German fruitcake which is really and I have repeated requests for a Christmas treat. I revisited the recipe in 2022, after seeing several Japanese Youtube videos with the addition of almond flour, more fruits, and less sugar. They turned out to be too sweet from having too much dried fruits. This year, I am reverting back to the WSJ recipe but kept the almond flour and reduced the dried fruits. Now in the 2-week waiting period to see how things turned out.

Ingredients:

• 360g (3 cups) all-purpose flour

• 80g almond flour

• 2 tbsp warm water

• 150g milk

• 0.5 oz instant yeast

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 40g sugar

• 25g dried fruit soaking rum

• 142g (5oz or 10 tbsp) butter

• 1 whole egg (50g)

• Generous pinches of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamon

• 300g rum-soaked dried fruits, drained. I put lots of cranberries, golden raisins, raisins, cherries, chopped apricots, soak in a large jar and cover with spiced rum and red wine (4:1 ratio) and let them sit for several days.

• 140g mixed nuts (almonds and walnut), roughly chopped or broken by hand

• 4-6 tbsp of butter and 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions:

• Starter:

  • Warm milk briefly to 100F in medium size bowl

  • Whisk yeast into 2 tbsp warm water and add to warm milk

  • Whisk further to break up lumps

  • Mix in 160g of flour into wet dough

  • Cover with warm wrought-dry towel, put bowl in warm place and let rise for 1 hour. My trick is to heat oven for 1-2 minutes and turn oven off to create a warm chamber for proofing dough.

• Fruit Dough:

  • Melt butter with sugar and salt

  • Mix in whole egg and 25g of soaking rum

  • Mix in wet starter dough

  • Mix in almond flour and remaining 280g of flour by hand

  • Knead dough in KitchenAid mixer for 5 minutes

  • Proof in oiled bowl and warm place for 1.5-2 hours

  • Knead dough on floured surface and stretch into rectangle large enough to hold fruits and nuts

  • Divide dough into 2 portions, use hand to flatten each piece, fold once from each end, let the folding flaps overlap

  • Knead each dough to evenly distribute filling, tucking in loose pieces

  • Use floured rolling pin to push down the overlapping flaps

  • After you make 2 loaves, put them on parchment paper on baking sheet

  • Bake at 350F for 30 minutes covered with aluminum sheet, and 15 minutes without the sheet till loafs are golden brown

  • Brush cooled loaves with melted butter (4-6 tbsp) and cover all sides in powdered sugar

  • Wrap cooled loafs in double layers of saran wrap, and let sit at room temperature for 2 weeks

  • Unwrap loaves and dust with generous amounts of powdered sugar and slice into thin pieces