Christstollen

Excellent and durable Christmas cake with traditions in Germany. The bread is baked 2-3 weeks before Christmas so that it has time to “mature.” I can highly recommend this excellent Christstollen!

In the 70’s I got a book where there was a recipe for this bread. I baked it for Christmas and fell in love. Since then, it has become a tradition for me to bake Christstollen. The recipe has developed over the years with us;

The bread represents the blanket wrapped around the baby Jesus, and a thick string of almond paste represents the baby, Jesus.

Every year I promise myself to make fewer loaves of Christstollen next year, and every time I forget about it. This recipe gives three large loaves of Christstollen.

I could just as well have made six smaller loaves.  That’s good enough because you slice the cake quite thinly. Again, I promise to bake fewer loaves of Christstollen and make these smaller for next year. Well – I got the opportunity to please a friend who has German traditions – to surprise her with a loaf of Christstollen was worth the effort. Another Christstollen is a gift, and we will keep one ourselves.

If you want to bake just one big loaf of Christstollen (or two smaller ones), you can divide the ingredients by three. At the end of this post, I state the exact amount of ingredients for one big or two smaller Christstollen.

I bake this bread traditionally, but nothing prevents you from doing as you like 😊 , for example, mixing in the saffron in the dough or even nuts of the kind you want. I, myself, keep it the traditional way 😊.

Ingredients for 3 large loaves of Christstollen
720 grams (25,40 oz) of wheat flour
210 grams (7,40 oz) of milk
35 grams (1,23 oz) of fresh yeast (for sweet bread)
340 grams (11,99 oz) of butter
70 grams (2,46 oz) of sugar
270 grams (9,52 oz) of almond flour
8 – 10 grams (0,28 .0,35 oz) of spices for Christstollen
8 grams (0,25 oz) of salt
70 grams (2,46 oz) of eggs
570 grams (20,10 oz) of raisins (different varieties)
170 grams (5,99 oz) of candied orange peel
70 grams (2,46 oz) of rum
500 grams (17,63 oz) of almond paste

Garnish
 Plenty of clarified butter
Plenty of icing sugar

Method:

1. 24 – 48 hours before you start baking:Wash the raisins thoroughly – let them rest in cold water for about 5 – 10 minutes. Strain off the water and dry the raisins thoroughly. Then mix the raisins with pickled orange peel in a bowl and pour in the rum. Cover and let stand for at least 24 hours.
2. Take out the butter, measure it out, and let it room temperature; it is not a disaster if you miss it. If you are short of time, take out the butter, measure it out and then grate it on the coarsest side of the grater; let it stand for a while (10-15 minutes).
3. Heat the milk to 37 ° Celsius. Crumble the yeast in a bowl, pour the milk over and start the baking machine process until the yeast dissolves.
4. Pour in the sugar and spices, eggs (see note), almond flour, and mix for a short while – just under a minute.
5. Pour in all the flour and let the machine run for about 5 minutes in the baking machine. First slowly and then increase the speed gradually.
6. Add the salt and knead for another 3 minutes.
7. Add the fruit mixture and mix well.
8. Take the dough on the kitchen counter and process it so that the dough comes together.
9. Divide the dough into the desired number of loaves, shape each loaf and then place it on parchment paper – cover and leave to rise for 35-45 minutes. (This recipe gives 2450 grams in total, which I divided into three loaves – 816 grams each).
10. Meanwhile, you can roll the almond paste like a sausage, about as long as the bread itself. Cover and set aside.
11. Preheat the oven to 365° Fahrenheit (convection oven 329 ° Fahrenheit.
12. Roll the bread into an oval shape, place a string of almond paste in the middle and then fold over the almond paste’s dough. Important detail: do not let it go all the way; it should represent the blanket in which the baby Jesus was wrapped. Press with the rolling pin over the end of the almond mass (see video). Place the bread on parchment paper, cover with a baking sheet, and leave to rise for another 30 – 45 minutes.
13. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, take out the bread, brush on shredded butter, put back in the oven for another 20 minutes or until the bread has a lovely color. I baked the pieces of bread for 50 minutes because the loaves of bread were quite large.
14. Take out the bread and brush on plenty of clarified butter again both over and under the loaves. Pour plenty of icing sugar to cover both sides. Pat it. Then let the loaves of bread cool under a baking sheet. Leave it overnight.

The next day, sprinkle on additional icing sugar without clapping! Then wrap the loaves of bread in plastic wrap and package if you want to give it as a gift.

Enjoy!

Hiints regarding eggs in grams or oz:

• It is difficult when you specify the exact number of grams of eggs.
• One way to do it is to crack the egg in a glass and beat it.
• You can measure it.

For a large or two smaller loaves
240 grams(8,46 oz) of wheat flour
70 grams (2,46) of milk
12 grams (0,42 oz) of fresh yeast
114 grams (4,02 ox)of butter
24 grams (0,85 oz) of sugar
90 grams (31,89 oz)of almond flour
3 – 4 grams (0,10 – 0,14 oz) of spices for Christmas stollen
3 grams (0,10 oz) of salt
25 grams (0,88 oz) of eggs
190 grams (6,70) of raisins (different varieties preferably)
60 grams (2,12 oz) of pickled orange peel
25 grams (0,88 oz) of rum
170 grams (5,99 oz) of almond paste