Recipe: Stollen

Do you know, I've not baked or eaten a single mince pie this year. But this morning I baked a delicious stollen and by FLIP it is lush!

I used a mish-mash of several recipes and I heartily recommend a slice of this delicious cakey-bread with a cup of tea and a lovely Christmas film; I opted for A Muppet Christmas Carol.

Stollen

Ingredients

100ml milk

1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast

Good pinch of salt

1 teaspoon caster sugar

225g strong white bread flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g mixed dried fruit*

25g flaked almonds

50g unsalted butter

1 free range egg

250g marzipan

*I used a mix of sultanas, currants, raisins, dried cranberries, candied peel and quartered glace cherries

To finish:

25g melted unsalted butter

40g icing sugar

Method

Gently heat the milk and 50g butter in a saucepan.

Mix the dried fruit together with the vanilla extract and the mixed spice.

In a large bowl mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar and make a well in the centre. 

Your milk and butter mixture should be warm but not hot. You should be able to hold your finger in it comfortably. When it is at this point crack the egg into the milk and butter and beat well with a fork.

Add your milk, butter and egg mixture to your flour mixture and stir to combine. Add your dried fruit, vanilla and spice mix and combine everything thoroughly. If you've got a swanky electric mixer you can do all this mixing with a dough hook. If you haven't, use a spoon and your hands like I do.

Turn your mixture out onto a well-floured surface and knead it well for about ten minutes. Yes, it is sticky. Yes, you will need to add more flour to stop the dough sticking to the kitchen. Yes, you will get messy hands but heck, enjoy it and have fun!

Transfer your dough to an oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Put the bowl in a warm place (an airing cupboard or your oven on the defrost setting is good) and leave to prove until the dough has doubled in size. This can take anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour and a half.

When the dough is all puffed up, knock it back (squish and knead the air out of it) and then turn it out onto a floured surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to a rough rectangle shape about 9 inches by 7 inches.

Roll your marzipan into a sausage slightly shorter than the long side of your dough rectangle. Dust the work surface with icing sugar whilst you shape the marzipan.

Place your marzipan sausage on the dough and fold the dough over it and seal the ends and the long edge by dampening them with a little water and squidging them together.

Put your stollen, seam side down, on a baking-paper-lined baking tray and gently pat back into shape if needs be. Cover the stollen with oiled clingflim.

Leave it to prove again for about thirty minutes. You don't want it to double in size but you want it to puff up a bit.

Heat your oven to 180°C (160°C for fan ovens) and then bake your stollen for about 25 to 30 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Whilst the stollen is still hot, brush it with the 25g of melted butter and then immediately sift the icing sugar over the top.

Leave to cool (but for quality control purposes do try a slice whilst it is still warm and the marzipan is all oozy) and serve sliced.

Best eaten by the twinkling light of the Christmas tree.