Stollen is one of my favorite breads of all time. The bread is a bit laborious compared to most breads, but the end result is amazing. I remember being a child in Germany and my mom bringing home a loaf of stollen from the bakery. The bread was sweet, fruit, and firm on the outside and moist on the inside. It was my favorite German bread.
You can imagine how excited I was to log onto to Daring Bakers to see that Penny from
Sweet Sadie’s Baking challenged us to make stolen this month. I have never made stollen before, but I was so excited to give this recipe a try. For an even better treat, my mom was visiting us for Christmas, so I got to show off my baking skills to my mother. I modified the recipe for my mom’s taste since she is not a fan of raisins. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins. I also used brandy instead of rum because I did not have any rum on hand. I used homemade maraschino cherries instead of glacial cherries in the bread because that is what I had on hand. Instead of orange extract I used homemade orange sugar. Lastly, I made my own candied orange peel for the stolen which was an unexpected treat. I have always wanted to make candied orange peel, but I had never gotten around to making it. I finally made it a priority, and they came out wonderful. The kids loved the candy. They tasted like the orange gummy candies that are coated in sugar that you find in a generic bag at a gas station.
The homemade candy melds perfectly with the bread. Everyone in the family loved the bread. It was even better the next morning as leftovers. I highly recommend anyone to make stollen. The bread is well worth all the effort. All of my changes made the stollen better than I remember as a kid.
Ingredients modified from Peter Reinhart in
Bread Baker’s Apprentice 
and
Martha Stewart’s design technique for the wreath shape
¼ cup lukewarm water (110º F)
2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast
1 cup milk
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
5½ cups all-purpose flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)
½ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 teaspoons (very good) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange sugar (
see recipe below)
¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) candied orange peel (
see recipe below)
1 cup firmly packed dried cranberries
3 tablespoons brandy
12 maraschino cherries (I used
homemade)
1 cup chopped almonds
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath
Directions
1. Soak the dried cranberries in brandy and set aside.
To make the dough
1. Pour ¼ cup warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.
2. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup milk and 10 tablespoons butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.
3. Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add orange sugar and vanilla extracts.
4. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.
5. Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
6. Add in the candied orange peel, maraschino cherries, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate.
7. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes. The full 8 minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.
8. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
9. Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.
Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath
1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches and ¼ inch thick.
5. Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.
6. Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.
7. Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.
8. Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
9. Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
10. Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
11. Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
12. Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
13. Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
14. The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
15. Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!
16. When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.
Ingredients for orange sugar
Peel of 2 oranges
1 quart sugar
Directions
1. Cut the orange peel into thin strips and let air dry for 2 days.
2. In an air tight container (I use a quart mason jar) add ½ cup sugar and a few orange peels. Continue to layer sugar and orange peels until all the sugar and orange peel are used. Cover the container tightly.
3. Let the sugar rest for 2 days before use. Orange sugar can be used in place of orange extract or regular sugar in recipes to add a touch of orange flavor to your baked goods.
Ingredients for Candied Orange Peel modified from an
about video
Peel of 3 oranges
4 quarts of water (more or less maybe used depending upon the size of your pot)
¼ cup of water per 1 cup of peel
½ cup sugar per 1 cup of peel
1 cup sugar for coating the peel (more or less maybe used)
Directions
1. Cut the orange peel into thin strips.
2. Add the orange peel to a pot and add enough cold water on top to fully cover the orange peel.
3. Bring the water to a simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the water.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 three more times.
5. Add ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water per 1 cup of orange peel to a pot. Let the solution come to a boil. Stir frequently to help the sugar dissolve.
6. Place the orange peels in the sugar solution and let boil for 30 minutes.
7. Drain the orange peels on a wire rack for 2 minutes.
8. Roll the orange peel in sugar.
9. Allow the orange peels to dry on a wire rack. Once dry put the peels in an air tight container or use in a recipe. The peels will keep in an air tight container for 1 week.
by Claudia Fleming and Melissa Clark. I was instantly in love. This sweet dish can be served as a breakfast or as a desert. A clafouti is French desert from the central region of France including Burgundy, Nivernais, Berry, and Bourbonnais (Grigson ed., 1974, pp. 128-131). Traditionally, this desert is made with black cherries that contain their pits. The cherries are placed in a butter pan and covered in thin layer of batter. In this twist on the usual dish pumpkin is used instead of black cherries. 
. London: Exter Books.
