Stollen is a traditional German Christmas pastry with deep medieval roots and, in modern parlance, a large fan club. It is a rich, fluffy, fragrant loaf, which is baked 3-4 weeks before Christmas, and then left to stand for it to acquire its unique aroma. The appearance of the stollen is not as elegant as, for example, that of traditional English muffins, but its shape has a sacred meaning - it personifies the ripe newborn Christ.
Stollen is a heavy yeast dough and a lot of butter. The right stollen also contains a lot of sugar, dried fruits and nuts soaked in rum or other alcohol, which makes the treat truly rich, festive and unforgettable. It is generally accepted that all the best, the most delicious, the most valuable should be mixed into it. And what a freshly baked Christmas stollen smells like!
In addition to the fact that such baked goods already contain a large number of tasty additives, after baking the stollen is left to ripen, and during this time it changes: the taste becomes deeper, the aroma is brighter and more intense. And already before the holiday ... even unrolling the Christmas stollen, carefully wrapped in paper for storage, becomes a holiday ...
There are many Stollen recipes. Follow the link - simple and fast. I baked the classics of the genre - oil stollen. According to the old recipe, it will require: 10 parts (weight) of flour 4-5 parts of butter, at least 7 parts of dried fruits, 1 part of which can be replaced with almonds or marzipan.
Cooking time: about 3 hours plus time for filling and ripening of the finished stollen
Finished product yield: 2 large stollens
For filling:
for shtollen:
It is better to prepare the filling in advance: you can do it a couple of hours before preparing the Christmas stollen, but it will be better if you do it in 12-16 hours - so it will infuse perfectly. Any dried fruits and nuts that you like are suitable for filling. : use your favorite combinations or experiment. The main thing in this business is that you like the mix on its own - the stollen will benefit from this and you will definitely like it!
To prepare the filling, mix washed and lightly dried raisins with cherries (cranberries).
Chop the nuts into large pieces and add to the raisins and cherries.
Cut the candied fruit into small pieces, as they taste very bright.
Remove the seeds from the dates and chop them coarsely.
Combine the candied fruits and filled dates.
Now grate the orange and lemon zest on a fine grater.
Squeeze the juice out of the orange - you get about 100 ml. Add alcohol to the orange juice.
Pour the liquid into the prepared fruit with nuts, stir and send to infuse.
To prepare the dough, mix yeast with a teaspoon of sugar.
Pour half of the warm milk into the yeast and stir until the yeast dissolves.
Send the dough to a warm place so that it becomes lush and begins to foam heavily.
While the dough is coming up, add flour, the remaining sugar, salt and spices to the bowl of the bread maker or food processor.
Add the other half of the milk and dough.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes.
Then add softened butter to the dough and knead until it combines with the dough.
Leave the dough alone to rise for an hour and a half.
Transfer the finished soft and tender dough to a large bowl.
Now it's time to add the almond flour.
Then add all the filling along with the liquid to the dough and stir in thoroughly.
The dough will turn out to be very soft, sticky, incredibly tender. Place it on a generously floured work table.
Divide the dough into 2 parts, flatten each into a layer about 2 cm thick and make an oblong indentation with the edge of your palm, stepping back a third from the edge of the layer.
Bend the dough over this dent.
Place the dough pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Leave them in a warm place for 35-45 minutes to rise.
Stollens should be baked in an oven preheated to 190 degrees for 60-70 minutes until golden brown.
Grease the finished hot stollens with melted butter.
Then sprinkle them generously with powdered sugar.
Let them cool, then wrap them well in parchment and then in foil so that no air gets inside.
Stollens ripen at room temperature, and therefore the best storage place is a kitchen cabinet or a wardrobe.
German stollen (Stollen or Christstollen) is a traditional Christmas pastry stuffed with raisins and candied fruits or with marzipan, nuts, poppy seeds. Sometimes even curd stollen is prepared.
The first written mention of Stollen dates back to 1329. It is prepared from heavy yeast dough in compliance with
certain proportions (for 1 kg of wheat flour - 300 grams of butter and 600 grams of candied fruits), although, of course, every pastry chef and every German housewife has his own recipe for Christmas stollen. After baking, the still hot Christmas cake is coated with melted butter with a brush and sprinkled with powdered sugar. A properly prepared stollen can be stored in a cool place for up to two to three months.
About German traditionsIn Germany, they are very sensitive to the preparation of stollen, there are several types of Christmas muffins, the recipes for which are strictly prescribed in a special manual for the production of baked goods. This guide has been produced by the German Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Rights. Confectioners who produce shtollens for sale must strictly adhere to the established recipe. The most famous is the Dresden Stollen, it is even a registered geographic trademark with a special seal. Nevertheless, creative German confectioners come up with new Stollen recipes and take part in the federal competition "Stollen Zacharias", which is held annually. The winners are awarded a special prize - "Stollenoskar". Many pastry bakers are now offering new versions of Stollan dough with lower calorie ingredients. They also experiment with fillings, using, for example, cranberries, dried apricots and various other ingredients.
Ingredients:
For the filling you will need:
Preparation:
Here is a traditional stollen recipe. In the evening, prepare chopped candied fruits and washed raisins, fill with rum and leave overnight. In the morning, prepare a dough: put fresh yeast in a large bowl, dilute with warm milk, add some of the sugar and gradually add half of the necessarily sifted flour. Cover the bowl with a towel and put it in a warm place for 20-30 minutes. When the dough is right, stir in the rest of the flour and sugar a little. Add vanillin, lemon zest and salt a little. Mix and add softened butter. Knead the dough thoroughly, cover the bowl with a towel and put it back in a warm place for about an hour. The dough should approximately double in volume - wrap it up, knead it and leave it warm again.
Add the fillingWe put the raisins soaked in rum in a colander. After the dough has approximately doubled for the second time, roll out 2 round flatbreads approximately 2 cm thick. On top of the dough, place the soaked raisins, chopped almonds and candied fruits. We wrap the edges of the cake and We will knead until the filling is evenly distributed over the dough. With our hands we blind a rectangle from the dough, tuck the edges along the long side to the center, while slightly shifting one edge further from the middle (this shape of the stollen is due to the fact that it symbolizes the swaddled Christ baby). We round the edges a little.
Put the shtollen on a greased baking sheet, cover with a napkin and leave to stand for about an hour. We bake in an oven heated to 180 ° C for about 1.5 hours. Lubricate the hot stollen liberally with butter and generously sprinkle with powder. Serve stollen well with fresh tea or coffee.
"Etc., we recommend that you take note of this step-by-step recipe with a photo of Stollen - a traditional German muffin. It is prepared 3-4 weeks before the holiday, and then calmly waits in the wings. During this time, spices and all additives develop their aroma to the maximum, and Stollen acquires a complete balanced taste. Of course, no one forbids you to eat a cupcake right away, but it's better to be patient and evaluate the final result!
For Christmas Stollen, yeast dough is kneaded with a huge content of almonds, as well as candied fruits, dried fruits and raisins soaked in rum. Freshly baked muffins are oiled and sprinkled with sweet powder.
Ingredients:
For the test:
For registration:
Christmas Stollen is ready! Happy Holidays and Bon appetit!
I caught the sun in the morning
Stollen is cooked in the same conditions and with the same mood as our Easter cakes. Finished shtolls are wrapped in foil and stored for two months or more, so they can be baked in advance. Powdered sugar and rum serve as a preservative.
If you want to make stollen with marzipan, then you need to mix 150 gr. marzipan mass with 2 tbsp. l. your favorite liqueur, roll it into a "sausage" and roll it up in the middle while forming the stollen. Or roll the marzipan mass into a rectangle smaller than the dough, put it on top of the dough layer and form a stollen.
Three stollens (pictured) baked according to this recipe, but did not soak raisins and cranberries in orange juice, as this time. The juice option turned out to be a little softer.
On the picture:
on the left - stollen with marzipan mass, rolled into a layer;
in the center - stollen with marzipan "sausage" wrapped in dough;
on the right - stollen without marzipan.
P.S. In my diary () you can see Stollen recipes that I found on German sites
Now for some spiritual food
The story of the origin of the Christmas Stollen
The Dresden Christmas stollen (cake) is inextricably linked to the cultural history of the city of Dresden.
In the Middle Ages, the Dresden stollen, as a baked goods during Lent, was originally mentioned in 1474 in one invoice for payment at the Christian Hospital of St. Bartholomew. At that time there was no question of the exquisite taste of this pastry: the medieval stollen consisted only of flour, yeast and water!
As a symbol of complete renunciation during the pre-Christmas fast, the Catholic Church did not allow the use of either butter or milk.
Since the Saxons have always been famous as a people who love to eat, once the Elector (in our opinion, the prince) Ernst of Saxony and his brother Albrecht asked Pope Innocent VIII to lift the ban on the use of oil during fasting. The Holy Father granted this request by sending the so-called "letter about butter" ("Butterbrief") to the Elector of Saxony in 1491. Since that time, bakers were allowed to use various additional ingredients when baking stollen.
Already in 1500, the tasty Stollen was sold to the townspeople at the famous Striezelmarkt Christmas market in Dresden.
The Dresden stollen received its title of royal dish in 1560. Traditionally, at Christmas, every Dresden baker would give his prince one or two Christmas stollens.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
This recipe is a participant of the "Cooking Together - Culinary Week" campaign. Cooking discussion on the forum -
I caught the sun in the morning
Stollen is cooked in the same conditions and with the same mood as our Easter cakes. Finished shtolls are wrapped in foil and stored for two months or more, so they can be baked in advance. Powdered sugar and rum serve as a preservative.
If you want to make stollen with marzipan, then you need to mix 150 gr. marzipan mass with 2 tbsp. l. your favorite liqueur, roll it into a "sausage" and roll it up in the middle while forming the stollen. Or roll the marzipan mass into a rectangle smaller than the dough, put it on top of the dough layer and form a stollen.
Three stollens (pictured) baked according to this recipe, but did not soak raisins and cranberries in orange juice, as this time. The juice option turned out to be a little softer.
On the picture:
on the left - stollen with marzipan mass, rolled into a layer;
in the center - stollen with marzipan "sausage" wrapped in dough;
on the right - stollen without marzipan.
P.S. In my diary () you can see Stollen recipes that I found on German sites
Now for some spiritual food
The story of the origin of the Christmas Stollen
The Dresden Christmas stollen (cake) is inextricably linked to the cultural history of the city of Dresden.
In the Middle Ages, the Dresden stollen, as a baked goods during Lent, was originally mentioned in 1474 in one invoice for payment at the Christian Hospital of St. Bartholomew. At that time there was no question of the exquisite taste of this pastry: the medieval stollen consisted only of flour, yeast and water!
As a symbol of complete renunciation during the pre-Christmas fast, the Catholic Church did not allow the use of either butter or milk.
Since the Saxons have always been famous as a people who love to eat, once the Elector (in our opinion, the prince) Ernst of Saxony and his brother Albrecht asked Pope Innocent VIII to lift the ban on the use of oil during fasting. The Holy Father granted this request by sending the so-called "letter about butter" ("Butterbrief") to the Elector of Saxony in 1491. Since that time, bakers were allowed to use various additional ingredients when baking stollen.
Already in 1500, the tasty Stollen was sold to the townspeople at the famous Striezelmarkt Christmas market in Dresden.
The Dresden stollen received its title of royal dish in 1560. Traditionally, at Christmas, every Dresden baker would give his prince one or two Christmas stollens.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
This recipe is a participant of the "Cooking Together - Culinary Week" campaign. Cooking discussion on the forum -