Stollen

A traditional German Christmas fruitcake which contains yeast and is baked like bread. Stollen is often dusted in icing sugar or frosted, and decorated with dried fruit. Rum, nuts, candied fruit, and marzipan are all popular additions.

This is my family recipe for Stollen. Note that there a lot of different flavours around, so there are many ways to make it.
You need:

• 3 kilogram (wheat) flour
• 240 gram yeast
• 400 gram sugar
• 1.25 kilogram butter
• 1 liter milk
• 5 gram cardamon, if you don't like this spice: you don't really need it.
• either:
  • 400 gram candied lemon peel
  • or 200 gram candied lemon peel and 200 gram candied orange peel
• 300 gram hacked almonds (sweet ones, not bitter !)
• 30 gram salt
• 250-200 gram currants
• 1000-600 gram sultanas
• about 20-10 centiliters rum
• one peel of a lemon (of one not treated with pesticides etc)
• some additional butter for covering baking tins
• For icing the Stollen:
  • some butter (20-50 gram)
  • a clean brush
  • a fine sieve
  • dust sugar (? dictionary error ? "Puderzucker")

And you make them this way, it's better when 2 persons are doing this:

1. Put the sultanas and the currants in the rum for one night. I never measure the rum, I do it by "feel", so the 20-10 centiliters are not exact. However, the sultanas and the currants should be soaked with rum the next day.
2. Take some of the milk (about 20 centiliters). Make it warm. But beware ! Not too warm. Stick your finger in it and when it feels comfortable warm then it's right. (Should be about 30 degree celsius)
3. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. (If it's too hot, the yeast fungi are killed and the recipe would fail.)
4. Put the flour in a very large bowl (10 liter bowl or more).
5. Make a deepening in the flour. Put in milk with the dissolved yeast in.
6. Add the rest of the milk and start to knead.
7. Add the butter while kneading. The butter should be soft. Put in the warmth or make wise use of a microwave. The second person comes here in handy.
8. Add the salt and the sugar. You could dissolve the salt and the sugar in the rest of the milk. I'm not sure which way is better.
9. Add cardamon and lemon peel. Still keep on kneading.
10. Add the almonds and the candied lemon peel (and candied orange peel if you use it).
11. Add the sultanas and the currants, but don't add the rum !
12. Knead until you get a decent dough. Make sure that all ingredients are uniformly distributed.
13. Put the dough in a warm place to let it rise. I use the oven at 30-40 degree celsius. The dough should rise at least to 150 percent of it's original size. This take about an hour or a little longer.
14. Cover a baking tin with butter. (You need 10-20 gram for this)
15. Make a bread like body out of some of the dough on the buttered baking tin. You get usually several pieces out of the dough. About 6 medium seized Stollen.
16. Bake it 20 minutes at 220 degree celsius and 40-60 minutes at 180 degree celsius. (First 220 then 180) Heat the oven before you put the dough in. It's done when it's brown. (Not too dark, but not too bright)
17. Let the Stollen cool down. Before they can be eaten they must be iced with sugar:
    1. Heat the butter until it's liquid.
    2. Cover the Stollen with the butter, use a brush. The cover should be thin.
    3. Scatter the dust sugar over the Stollen. Use the sieve. Use so much sugar, that it's not soaked with the butter and goes loose when you touch it. It's not possible to use too much.

Stollen is eaten in slices.
Fresh Stollen don't taste so well, let them rest some days.
Ice them before you eat them (but wait until the butter cools down). When they are not iced you can keep them for some weeks (up to 4). Store them dry and a cool place. A refrigerator is not the right place.