Whole Grain Christmas Stollen

Christmas Stollen is a wonderful German baking tradition this time of year. A sweet loaf that is studded with dried fruit, spiced with cardamom and a special treat of almond paste runs through it. Once it comes out of the oven it is traditional to slather the warm loaf in butter then roll it in sugar, but we skip the extra butter and dust it with a thick layer of confectioners’ sugar to look like the snow outside. This loaf actually holds up very well for a couple of days and that makes it a great gift for the holidays.

100% whole wheat Christmas Stollen from The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes cookbook.

Simply dump all ingredients into a bowl or food storage container. Mix using dough whisk or wooden spoon. Cover loosely and let rise on counter for 2 hours; refrigerate up to 5 days.

For a version that is a little more decadent, you can use the Brioche Dough – replace 1/4 of the water for the brandy, and add the cardamom and dried fruit fruit.

On baking day take a 1 1/2 pound (small cantaloupe-size) piece of dough from the bucket.

Using plenty of flour roll out the dough into a 1/4-inch-thick oval. Form the 1/2 cup almond paste into a rope and lay it onto the dough about a 1/3 of the way from the end.

Fold the dough over the almond paste in thirds, so that it forms an S-shape, when you look at it from the end.

Place the loaf on a sheet pan with parchment or a nonstick silicone baking mat and loosely cover with plastic and let it rest for 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F, with rack in the middle of the oven.

Once it has rested use a pastry brush and cover lightly with egg wash, then bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Let the loaf cool for about 20 minutes

and then sprinkle it with confections’ sugar…

until it is completely covered and looks like snow!

Whole Grain Christmas Stollen

A sweet loaf that is studded with dried fruit, spiced with cardamom and a special treat of almond paste runs through it. Generously dusted with a thick layer of confectioners’ sugar to look like the snow outside. This loaf actually holds up very well for a couple of days and that makes it a great gift for the holidays.

Yield 1 loaf

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Ingredients

Whole Wheat Dough

• 6 cups white whole wheat flour (see note)
• 1 tablespoon Platinum Yeast
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup brandy (orange juice or black tea can be substituted)
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped dried and/or candied fruit (Choose your favorites. I used cherries, raisins, craisins, and  apricots.)

Stollen

• 1 1/2 pounds (681g) whole wheat dough
• 1/2 cup almond paste
• Egg wash: 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon water (beaten together)
• Confectioners' sugar for the topping

Instructions

Make the dough

• Dump the flour, yeast, salt, cardamom, and vital wheat gluten in a round food-storage container with lid and stir them together with a spoon or Danish dough whisk. Add the water, butter, honey, eggs, brandy and dried fruit, mix until well incorporated. No kneading! Cover loosely and let stand on the counter for 2 hours. This dough will be sticky, but much easier to handle after it has been refrigerated for several hours. It can be stored in the refrigerator for 5 days. This makes enough dough for three 1 1/2 pound loaves.

Make the Stollen

• On baking day, take a 1 1/2 pound dough piece (small cantaloupe-size, 1/3 of refrigerated dough recipe from above) from the bucket. Put remaining dough back in refrigerator.
• Using plenty of flour, roll out the dough into a 1/4-inch-thick oval. Form the 1/2 cup almond paste into a rope and lay it onto the dough about a 1/3 of the way from the end.
• Fold the dough over the almond paste in thirds, so that it forms an S-shape, when you look at it from the end.
• Place the loaf on a sheet pan with parchment or a nonstick silicone baking mat and loosely cover with plastic and let it rest for 90 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350°F, with rack in the middle of the oven.
• Using a pastry brush, cover risen dough lightly with egg wash. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
• Cool on wire rack for about 20 minutes.
• Sift confections' sugar over top until it is completely covered.

Notes

Artisan Bread in Five recipes use the scoop and sweep method for measuring flour.

Recipe by Artisan Bread in Five.

Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François met in their children’s music class in 2003 and have written bread cookbooks with more than 715,000 copies in print. Jeff, a doctor by training, is a self-taught baker who grew up eating great bread and pizza in New York City, and longed to recreate it himself.  Zoë is a pastry chef and baker trained at the Culinary Institute of America. Her work appears in blogs all over the United States, and her dessert menus grace fine restaurants in the authors’ hometown, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jeff and Zoë were among the very first cookbook authors to support their readers with personal responses on their website, BreadIn5.com, beginning in 2007, where they blog about their super-fast yeast breads.