Stollen...my heart?

  Fröhliche Weihnachten!

The German Holiday Fruit Cake.

The fates conspired and I made Stollen.

Early in the fall I was thinking about making fruit cake so I order glazed mix peel, currants, nuts and poppy seeds (for a different item) from Nuts.com. They are amazing and please use them. They are worth your patronage.

I posted on Facebook what I was planning to make and asked who might eat my deliciousness and my page blew up! Folks are very opinionated about their baked fruit Christmas-time breads. I got an education and I think I will make Jamaican Black Cake at some point because of it. A few people said make Stollen. One friend made it recently and went out of her way to deliver some to my house. It tasted better than Christmas so much so it lighted my holiday spirit.

Today my workday got cancelled due to weather. I've worked in schools for 14 years and this is my first cold weather call off! I used to work at a residential school where the students needed fed regardless of the weather. So with a day in the house and the following to consider:

• I wanted to make a yeasty bread-it was snowing outside.
• It's December-the only month for fruit cake.
• I had nuts, candied peel, raisins, golden raisins, currents, almonds and hazelnuts in my house. 
• I had just had a Stollen wake up call. 
• I recently had extensive allergy testing to see if I was developing a nut allergy. Seventy-two or ninety-six (too many to remember) skin pricks later I was diagnosed with Oral Allergy Syndrome.  Which means I can eat nuts and continue to breathe. They just make my mouth itchy. While I won't sit down to a bag of walnuts, I will eat them here and there.

So today was Stollen Day. It was fun.

Tomorrow is Stollen Delivery Day.

I filled them with cinnamon and sugar, not marzipan, but if you are so inclined make or buy marzipan; roll it into a rope and put it down the middle instead of the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

STOLLEN

The Fruit:
1 cup raisins
.5 cup golden raisins
.5 cup currants
2 cups candied peel
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons dark rum
the zest of 1 orange

The Sponge:
.5 cup water, warm
1.33 cup milk, warm
2 tablespoons yeast
1 teaspoon honey
2 cups flour

The Dough
.66 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
the zest of 1 lemon
6-8 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
.5 cup hazelnuts, blanched and roast
.5 cup almond slivers, roasted

The Filling
5 tablespoons butter, melted
4 teaspoons cinnamon
.5 cup sugar

Powdered sugar for coating.

Combine the fruit with the juice and rum. Let sit.

In a large bowl combine the water, milk, yeast, and honey. Stir. Add flour. Let sit 20 minutes.

To the sponge add sugar, eggs, butter and zest. Add 4 cups of flour. Knead. Add the nuts and fruit. Knead and add more flour as needed. Knead 5 minutes until the dough has no streaks of flour. Push the fruit and nuts back into the loaf.

Oil a large bowl and put the bread into the bowl, flipping it to be sure the surface has a coat of oil. Cover with a towel and let rise 60-90 minutes.

Make filling by combining butter, cinnamon and sugar.

To make mini stolen divide into 8 portions, about 12 ounces each. With a rolling-pin roll the dough portions into rectangles.

Filled with cinnamon and sweet buttery sugar.

Put about 2 T. of the cinnamon mixture on the dough and fold in half. Place on parchment lined sheet. Continue with all the dough. Allow to rise again. 45-60 minutes. Bake at 350 for 25 to 35 minutes.

All snowy with powdered (confectioners') sugar.

When cool sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar. Be prepared to get covered with the sugar when you eat it.

So what holiday treats are you making in the upcoming weeks?