Farm Fresh #FruitCake Recipe | By The Kunkel Family

Stollen Cake

If you want to enjoy the full aroma of your Stollen on Christmas Day, you'll ideally want to bake it on the first Sunday in December! Bake multiple Stollen at a time; nicely decorated, they make a good welcome gift. The following recipe makes 2 Stollen the size of a loaf of bread.

Ingredients

3lb 5oz flour

4 oz yeast

4-1/2 sticks of butter (equals 1 lb 2 oz)

4-1/2 oz sugar

1 tsp salt

Grated lemon peel of 2 lemons

8-1/2 fl oz milk

9 oz raisins

9 oz currants

5 oz chopped almonds

3-1/2 oz candied lemon peel

3-1/2 oz candied orange peel

1-1/3 fl oz rum

To coat:

1 stick of butter

3-1/2 oz sugar

3 small packets vanilla sugar

Powdered sugar to coat

Directions

Preparations the night before:

Leave all the ingredients for the Stollen in the kitchen overnight before baking. The evening before you start preparing the Stollen, soak the raisins, currants, candied lemon peel, and the candied orange peel in rum, cover it, and let it sit overnight as well.

Day of Baking | Prepare the yeast dough:

Pour flour in a bowl. Mix the yeast with 4 tablespoons of milk and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Hollow out a well in the flour and pour the yeast mixture into it without mixing it. Coat very lightly with flour, cover the bowl and put aside in a warm place for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, bring the milk with the salt, the sugar, and the butter to lukewarm temperature. It's important to keep it only lukewarm, otherwise the dough may become rubbery and chewy after baking.

Pour the lukewarm milk into the well in the flour and knead vigorously until the dough starts detaching from the side and the bottom of the bowl and air bubbles start appearing. Cover with a cloth and put aside in a warm place once again. The dough will double in size in 20-30 minutes.

Divide the dough into two pieces and form a bread shaped piece out of each, using flour sparingly to prevent the dough from sticking. Using a rolling pin, press a small hollow along one of the long sides of each loaf. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the two Stollen loaves on it side by side. Cover with a cloth and let rise for another 20 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 465°F and bake the Stollen loaves for approximately 60 minutes. Test if the dough is done by inserting a toothpick into the middle, it should come out clean. Cover the Stollen loaves with foil or parchment paper towards the end, so they don't darken too much. Once removed from the oven, dip all sides of the loaves in a mix of the sugar and vanilla sugar multiple times. Coat with the powdered sugar and decorate with candied fruit.

The higher temperature may seem unusual but is necessary because of the high fat content. For that reason, the dough of this exquisite bakery will not rise as much as a normal yeast dough while in the oven, but will keep fresh, tasty, and fragrant for months when wrapped well.

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