Christmas stollen is a popular Christmas gift bread. This recipe makes 3 loaves of stollen: 1 for the dessert table and 2 for gift giving.
Yield: 3 small loaves
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1-1/2 cups milk, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp or 2 pkg. (1/2 oz.) active dry yeast
- 2 med. eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) soft butter
- 2/3 cup chopped almond slivers
- 1/8 tsp almond extract
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Grated rind from 1 medium orange
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cardamom and nutmeg
- 6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour, about
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Water
Preparation:
- In large bowl, mix warm milk and yeast. Add eggs, sugar, salt, butter, almonds and almond extract, vanilla, orange rind, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. Stir. Add 5 cups of flour and mix well. Add in enough remaining flour to make a dough that follows the spoon around the bowl. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed until the dough is smooth to the touch. Place dough in medium greased bowl. Turn dough over in bowl so that the top is also lightly greased. Cover with clean cloth and let rise in warm, draft-free place for 30 minutes.
- Punch down dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead for 5 minutes or until the bubbles are out of the bread. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each part into an 1-inch thick oval. Fold rolled dough in half, length-wise, so that the top half is a half-inch in from the bottom half. Place loaves on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise in warm, draft-free place for another 30 minutes.
- Bake bread at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes or until bread tops are golden brown and the breads sound hollow when top is tapped. Remove breads from sheets and let cool to warm on rack.
- Mix powdered sugar with enough water to make a thick icing. Spread icing over tops of breads. Let breads cool completely before wrapping.
