There is 20 inches of snow on the ground here in Minneapolis and the temperature has dipped WAY below zero. This is why we Minnesotans are such bakers, it warms up the house and makes everyone happy. Christmas Stollen is a great tradition this time of year. A sweet loaf that is studded with fruit, spiced with cardamom and a little treat of almond paste runs through it. Once it comes out of the oven we dust it with a thick layer of confectioners’ sugar to look like the snow outside. If there is any left the next day it makes amazing French toast.
To celebrate the holidays and this frigid weather we are doing a giveaway with Red Star Yeast! They are giving a package of these fabulous baking items to 6 lucky winners.
Danish dough Mixer
Two Pound Loaf Pan
An extraordinary Pizza Wheel!
Yeast and a Bread in 5 Minutes recipe booklet to get your started!
**This contest is finished!**
100% white whole wheat Christmas Stollen from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
Makes enough for three 1 1/2 pound loaves
6 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated Red Star Baking Yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (see the book for other alternatives)
1/2 cup honey
4 large eggs
1/4 cup brandy (OJ or black tea can be substituted)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped dried and/or candied fruit (you choose your favorites. I used cherries, raisins, craisins, and apricots.)
1/2 cup Almond Paste
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)
Confectioners’ sugar for the top
Mixing the dough: Dump the flour, yeast, salt, cardamom, and vital wheat gluten in a 6-Quart Round Food-Storage Container with Lid and stir them together with a spoon or dough whisk. Add the water, butter, honey, eggs, brandy and dried fruit, mix until well incorporated. No kneading! Cover loosely and let stand on the counter for 2 hours. This dough will be sticky, but much easier to handle after it has been refrigerated for several hours. It can be stored in the refrigerator for 5 days or frozen for 2 weeks.
For a version that is a little more decadent, you can use the Brioche Dough (page 189, ABin5) and add the cardamom, the dried fruit fruit and replace 1/4 of the water for the brandy.
On baking day take a 1 1/2 pound (small cantaloupe-size) piece of dough from the bucket.
Using plenty of flour roll it out into a 1/4-inch-thick oval. Form the almond paste into a rope and lay it onto the dough about a 1/3 of the way from the end.
Fold the dough over the almond paste…
in thirds, so that it forms an S-shape…
when you look at it from the end.
Place the loaf on a Sheet Pan
Preheat the oven to 350F degree, with rack in the middle of the oven.
Once it has rested brush with the egg wash and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
Let the loaf cool for about 20 minutes and then Sprinkle
Until it is completely covered and looks like snow! Watch us make Stollen on ABC’s The View From the Bay in San Fran ABC.
**This contest is finished!**
Can’t wait to see the next book you’re working on!
Finally something easy, healthy, and delicious. Going shopping now for your books.
Looks Yummy!!
YUM! That brings me back to my childhood memories! My German mother would make beautiful Christmas plates full of German cookies and stollen. We’ deliver them to friends and everyone who helped us througout the year! Dentiss, doctors, auto mechanics! And we always enjoyed stollen every advent when we would sing Christmas songs! I think I’ll make some and mail to my siblings! Thanks for the recipe and pics!
Wow! Beautiful! And I want the Danish dough mixer Sooo bad!
Awesome! Can’t wait to try it.
I am completely new to the world of bread making! I have dabbled in it maybe 3 times, but it always seems to be more work than it’s worth! I hate that too, fresh home made bread is unbeatable! My mother in law makes homemade sourdough bread often and it is wonderful! I just found this blog and I am really looking forward to exploring more!!
That looks yummy! I am going to pick up the fruit while at the grocery store today. I will have to come up with a different story for the sugar though. Since we live in south Florida, my kids have never seen snow!
Checking out the dough mixer, and there’s no cord…I’m surprised!
This recipe looks so much better than my ‘traditional’ rock-hard recipe. My family will thank you!
Just sat down with a hot slice of bread for breakfast, came to check on the site for more ideas…and you blew me away. I should have mixed up a batch of stollen last night! Ah, well, time to get the dough bowl out…
Thank you for writing your amazing books. I had a bread machine, but half the time it didn’t turn out, and the recipes are complicated (1 and 7 tablespoons of water? Uck). Now I have the Master recipe memorized (so easy!) and bake all the bread my family eats. So good!
I lost my recipe. Yours looks great and I have almost all the ingredients. Will try today. Thanks for the beautiful recipe.
It looks quite yummy. Can it be made without the almond paste, as we are not keen on that flavor?
Christmas Stollen, one of my favorite childhood memories, something I want to start as an annual tradition.
I’ll try the stollen recipe next! It looks absolutely delish!
I am a wanna be bread maker. I started today – my first loaf is in the oven. Yummm
Thanks to you for another wonderful treat and to Red Star for the best yeast products available.
Looks great!
I am so excited to find your site. I’ve been reading snippets about your bread and wow! I can’t wait to get started making my own. I like that I can make it for my 2 person family, or a bunch to take to work.
Thanks!
Please please please pick me! I am fairly new to making bread and would love to have all this stuff to help me make more yummy breads for my family! Looks great and I have added this blog to my favorites!
I cannot wait to make this recipe over the weekend….have all ingredients and gift containers ready! Happy, Happy!
Is it possible to make a gluten-free stolen with the GF Brioche dough? I’m wondering if all the fruit would weigh the bread down too much. Love all the GF recipes. More please! Thanks!
Hi Jenn,
Our Pizza and Flatbread book has more g-f recipes and we have written the entire book to reflect their use.
You can try adding some fruit and cardamom to the brioche dough, but do it sparingly or it probably will be too heavy!
Thanks, Zoë
Yum! I have to try that Stollen recipe!!!
I just got the two, Five Minutes a Day books love your Breads can’t wait for the Pizza and Flatbreads book I just put in a wood Fired Pizza oven and Bbq in back yard . Will put it to good use Thank You for your help in making Bread !
OOOoooh, I hope I win, I hope I win, I hope I win.
Oh I can’t wait to try this recipe!! I love making bread and my family is reaping the benefits and loving every loaf of it!!! Thanks!
Just bought some more Red Star yeast today — I wouldn’t want to run out with my baking for Christmas!
I love everything about your Breads!! I have both books!! Thanks!!!
I love the bread I make from your books. My bread making with your books made it into our Christmas letter, and I am now asked to bring bread whenever there is any sort of gathering! Thanks so much!
This looks delicious. Now, I can make it instead of buying it.
Holiday baking is so much fun!
This looks and sounds delicious. Can’t wait to try it.
Oh, yummy! Gotta try this for Christmas morning!
beautiful! I have just baked some pannetone from your post…it came out great! So, this sounds wonderful as well. Thank you, too, for a great give-away!
The stollen recipe made me smile. Honestly, it’s not the treat for me, but it brings back happy memories of my time in Germany.
Beautiful!!! LOVE almond paste!
I’ve always been afraid to try stollen because I think it will be like fruitcake. But I suppose the only way to know for sure is to try it.
Thanks for hosting the giveaway! Very neat
Hi, thank you for the Stollen recipe posting. I’ve been looking for a different Christmas bread recipe where I can use cranberries. Each photo helps so much too, thanks.
MB
just baked my first loaf from your book & it got rave reviews!
The stollen looks amazing! I’ve never tried anything like that, but I think I might try this. We’ve loved just about everything that I have made from your book. Thanks!
Found you on the web by accident. Have made my hubby your bread and we cannot stay away from eating it. I even used bread flour with many flours and seeds that I brought home from the Netherlands this summer with great success. Now I am going to do m0y Christmas breads your way this year! I am in love with this style and found a Danish dough mixer on a trip to Maine while visiting my daughter in November. LOVE it!!
What a wonderful way to help celebrate the holidays! Thank you.
The Stollen looks just like the one I had for the first time in Germany in 1993. Haven’t been able to replicate it, but maybe I can now. Thank you.
love the breads, love the books, and can’t wait for the new one.
I will definitely be making this bread soon–looks delicious!
I’ve been looking for a good stollen recipe for a long time, and this looks great! This will be Christmas breakfast.
Gorgeous!! But I’m going to make the stollen from the Healthy Bread in Five book instead, because I’ve got hypoglycemic friends who do better on whole grains.
My husband absolutely loves the wheat rolls I make with the healthy bread master recipe… And I love that it’s got a gluten-free brioche recipe that I can eat, so we’re both happy. I might try to mix stollen ingredients into the gluten free brioche recipe to see what will happen…
Hope it’s not too late to enter into the contest. Love making your bread!
Hey, Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! Especially, if the “snow” is confectioner’s sugar and has fresh stollen beneath it.