German Christmas Bread

Name: German Christmas Bread
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 80g milk; 100g High-gluten flour; 4g Yeast (dry); 80g butter; 40g Sugar; 2.5g salt; 50g egg; 1g Almond extract; 1g lemon peel; 1g Vanilla extract; 1g Cinnamon powder; 60g raisin; 70g Mixed dried fruit; 30g American almonds; Some Rum (for soaking dried fruit); Some Powdered sugar

by Junzhi

5.0 (1)

Favorite

Difficulty

Easy

Time

1h

Serving

2

Stollen (also known as "Stuolun" in Chinese) is a famous German bread. It has spread to this day, and there are more and more recipes. Many recipes claim to be the most authentic, but what kind of stollen is the most authentic , I am not sure. But what can be known is that basically all the stollen made with the recipes will not taste bad, have a strong buttery aroma, and rich dried fruits.
So basically, every year I make stollen, I will change the recipe, and the result is also very pleasing to me. I give it to my friends around, and they all like it. This time, I used the recipe from "Professional Baking". However, the original recipe did not contain cinnamon powder and almonds. I didn't think I was used to it, so I changed it. It is said that after stollen is made, sealed and stored for one week, the taste is best. Yesterday, when I took out the stollen that I had kept for a week, the cabinet was already full of its rich aroma of bread. I cut a slice of it and it tasted just as good. I strongly recommend everyone to try it.

German Christmas Bread

1. Soak the raisins and mixed dried fruit with rum for 1 night, mix the milk, dry yeast and 100 grams of high-gluten flour, knead into a dough, cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap, and leave it in a warm place to ferment to twice its size

2. Other materials can be prepared during the dough fermentation process. After 80 grams of butter is softened, add sugar and salt and mix; add eggs in three times and mix well

3. Then add almond extract, vanilla extract, sliced lemon zest, cinnamon powder, etc., and mix well; at 28 degrees, wait for about 30 minutes, the dough can be fermented to twice as large (if the temperature is lower, the time will be extend)

4. Tear the fermented dough into small pieces, throw it into the mixed butter paste, and mix it evenly into a paste; add another 100 grams of high-gluten flour, knead it into a dough (it will be very sticky at first), knead and knead until The surface of the dough is smooth; if you knead it by hand, it will be OK for about 10 minutes

5. For the kneaded dough, add the almonds, the drained raisins, and the dried fruit. Continue to knead for a minute or two to make them evenly distributed in the dough; for the kneaded dough, let it rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then divide into two parts, knead into a circle, and relax at room temperature for 15 minutes

6. After relaxing, you can shape it. Take a piece of dough, roll it into a circle on the chopping board, and fold the dough in half. The bottom side is about 1.5cm more than the top side, as shown in the picture.

7. There are many ways to shape stollen, here is another way to roll the dough into a circle and fold it in half (this time the upper and lower sides should be aligned), and press it on the dough with a rolling pin.

8. Just lift the rolling pin (the rolling pin needs to be pressed a little deeper, after the dough is fermented, the indentation will become shallow)

9. Put the shaped dough on the baking tray, and carry out the final fermentation at a temperature of 38 degrees and a humidity of 80% or more. When the fermentation reaches 3/4 of its volume, brush a layer of melted butter on the surface and put it in the pre-fermented dough. Heat the oven at 190 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes until the surface becomes reddish brown; after taking out the baked Stollen, immediately brush a layer of melted butter on the surface; sprinkle with a thick layer of powdered sugar after cooling; Keep sealed, best to eat after 1 week

Tips:
1. This dough does not need to be kneaded to the expansion stage, as long as the surface is smooth. Blessed friends who are afraid of kneading;
2. When the dough is finally fermented, it does not need to be fermented to 2 times as big as ordinary bread, and it is enough to ferment to 3/4;
3. This bread is very storage-resistant, even if it is brushed with melted butter after baking, it can moisturize the bread, and it is not a problem to store it for 1 month. It is said that after stollen is made, it tastes best after being sealed and stored for 1 week;
4. There are many methods for stollen plastic surgery. You can choose one of the two methods introduced here according to your own preferences;
5. Cut into slices of stollen, eat together with coffee or red wine, do not have a flavor.