Homemade bread studded with dried currants, golden raisins, blanched almonds, candied citron and orange peel is a delicious German Christmas treat.

Growing up, my mother made stollen every Christmas, but used a non-traditional, more pastry-like recipe.  When I saw the traditional stolen recipe in the December issue of Martha Stewart magazine, I knew I had to make it.

The hard part was kneading the dough.  Just think of it as your arm workout for the day, as you’ll be kneading dough for about 10 minutes!  It’s much easier if you have a helper to sprinkle more flour as needed.  As you push on the dough, make sure to use the heel of your palm, and turn the bread dough a quarter turn each time you knead.  In addition, you must sprinkle in the dried fruit as you push on the dough.  Knowing this, I took all the dried fruit and mixed it up into one big bowl.  That way, I simply put my sticky hands in the bowl and sprinkled the dried fruit into the dough, one handful at a time.

Since you have to let the dough rise two times, about two hours each time, this is a great recipe to do on a lazy afternoon. Despite the lengthy prep time, it’s worth the wait.

Christmas stollen

Based on the recipe in the December 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients:

• 5 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface  (I used about 6 ½ cups total.  I did not sift my flour.)
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground mace
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup whole milk, warmed
• 5 ounces (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon active dry yeast (from two ¼-ounce envelopes), dissolved in ¼ cup warm water
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 7 ½ ounces golden raisins (1 ½ cups), soaked in ¼ cup fresh orange juice (I used orange juice from a carton)
• 5 ounces dried currants (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) soaked in ¼ cup Cognac
• 5 ounces blanched almonds (1 cup), coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces diced candied citron (2/3 cup)
• 2 ounces diced candied orange peel (1/3 cup)
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 lemons (for their juice)
• Vegetable oil, for bowl
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, mace and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Stir in milk and melted butter.  Add dissolved yeast and the eggs.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth.
2. Drain raisins and currants.  Add raisins, currants, almonds, citron, orange peel, and lemon zest to dough, and continue kneading until incorporated, about 10 minutes. If dough is sticky, knead in more flour.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl.  Cover with plastic, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours.  (Note:  I put the dough in an unheated oven to rise.) Punch down dough, divide into 6 even pieces, and roll each piece into a 15-inch-long log.  Braid 3 logs together, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Repeat with remaining 3 logs. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake stollen until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.  Ice the stollen while it is hot.  Put wax paper underneath the cooling rack holding the stollen.  To ice, beat together confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. If icing is too thick, add more lemon juice.  It should be a little thinner than pancake batter, not as thin as maple syrup, but not as thick as waffle batter.

The stollen tastes like delicious homemade sweet bread, reminiscent in texture to challah bread.  It is taken to the next level with the delicious dried fruit and the currants soaked in cognac. Drizzle the baked treat with lemon icing while it is still hot for an unconventional but tasty twist.  The lemon icing will soak into the stollen as it cools.  However, if you prefer the traditional stollen icing, mix up 3 cups 10X sugar with 5 tablespoons milk and drizzle when the stollen is cold.

Your family will love this traditional Christmas bread.  I know mine did!

What are some traditional Christmas treats that you make?