While learning German in high school, I was gifted an old set of Dr. Oetker cookbooks from a caring neighbor who not only happened to be a native German speaker, but also the German Professor at the local university. Within the pages, there were numerous recipes similar to what I had grown up with when visiting with family in the Washington D.C. area as well as new ones leaping off the pages at me to try! One of the recipes that stuck with me the most is for Weinachtsstollen (a.k.a. Christstollen or Stollen). It gave me my love of marzipan, which, I admit, I hated as a child and has since become a tradition to have in my home every winter around Yule and/or Christmas. The recipe below has been modified over the years as I’ve translated it, converted it into US measurements, and carefully played around with the measurements and ingredients to get it the way I like it. This version of the recipe is fairly close to the original, but I have tweaked it in the past to use orange instead of lemon, skipped the marzipan, swapped out the raisins for other dried fruits, and changed out the rum for other alcohols among a few other things. This sweet treat is one of my favorites to enjoy with a cup of coffee in the morning or with a glass of toasty Glühwein or Eierpunsch as a nightcap.
Christmas Stollen
Disclaimer: As stated above, this recipe has been modified from the one found in my Oetker cookbook. However, as some of these ingredients are not easy to find in stores, we recommend checking out international markets as well as Amazon if you need to order them. There are also other amazing recipes available to try on the Oetker website!
Dough Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Raisins (I use a mix of golden and regular)
- 4 tbsp Rum
- 2/3 cup Milk
- 3 cups Wheat Flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. Dry Yeast
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1 pkg. Dr. Oetker Vanilla Sugar
- 1 pinch Ground Cardamom
- 1 pinch Ground Mace (Nutmeg can be used as a substitute)
- 1 dash Salt
- 1 Egg
- 2/3 cup Butter or Margarine, softened
- 1/2 cup Lemon Peel
- 1 cup Chopped Almonds
- 1/2 lb. Marzipan (or 1 8 oz. package)
For Brushing & Sprinkling
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
Directions
- Mix the raisins with the rum and let it steep overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line the baking sheet with triple parchment paper.
- Gently warm the milk in a small saucepan. Do not boil.
- In a mixing bowl, mix the flour and yeast. Add warm milk, sugar, vanilla sugar, spices, salt, egg, and butter or margarine and knead everything with a mixer using a dough hook attachment. starting on the lowest speed and then on the highest speed for about 5 minutes until dough is smooth.
- Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until it has visibly risen; almost double in size.
- In the meantime, finely dice the lemon peel and set aside.
- Once the dough has risen, sprinkle it with flour, take it out of the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Knead in the lemon peel, rum raisins, and almonds. Roll out the dough into a rectangle (approx. 8 x 12 in.).
- Add the marzipan.* Roll the dough fairly tightly from one long side to the other and shape the stollen.
- Place the stollen on the baking sheet and let rise again.
- Bake on the lower oven rack for 40-45 minutes.
- Melt the 1/2 cup butter in a small saucepan. Immediately after removing the stollen from the oven, brush it with half of the butter and sprinkle half of the powdered sugar on top. Allow to cool for about 5-8 minutes before repeating the process.
*There are several ways to add the marzipan and they all have their pros and cons. Some people cut it up into pieces, some leave it in a log-like shape and just roll it up inside, and others roll it out flat before forming the loaf so it is more prevalent throughout the entire stollen.
All photos for this article were taken and edited by Krista.