Stollen

Stollen is a delicious raised fruit bread that—when baked and blanketed in a covering of white sugar—is thought to represent the infant Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. It contains less fruit and has a lighter texture than regular fruit cake. Both its appearance and its taste make it a delightful addition to the open-house Christmas table.

Stollen is no more difficult to prepare than any other yeast dough. Because it is a heavy dough, don’t expect it to rise as quickly or as much. As with all yeast doughs, the ingredients and the utensils as well as the kitchen should be warm in order that the necessary rising take place.

For a more even distribution throughout the loaf, the fruit and nuts should be kneaded into the dough rather than stirred. (Incidentally, if you can buy unpackaged nuts and dried fruits in just the amounts listed in the recipe, you will save a lot of time in not having to weigh and measure.)

Bitter almonds lend a special taste, making very much worthwhile the effort to find them. If you can’t find them at a fruit-and-nut or spice shop, ask for them at a good pharmacy.

I prefer to make one large stollen with this recipe rather than two separate loaves, as I find that when all the spices and fruit are sealed into one loaf the texture and the fruits are less dry and more tender. After baking you can cut it into smaller gift-size pieces.

• 2 pounds all-purpose, unbleached flour plus 1 cup

• 2½ ounces yeast

• ⅔ cup super fine sugar

• 1¼ cups warm milk

• 1 scant teaspoon salt

• 6 sticks butter

• ⅓ cup Jamaican rum

• Grated rind of 2 lemons

• 3½ ounces sweet almonds in the skin, finely chopped

• ⅓ ounce bitter almonds in the skin, finely chopped

• 1¼ pounds seedless raisins

• 5 ounces currants

• 6 ounces citron, thinly sliced and diced

• 2 cups vanilla sugar

1. Two or three days before you make the stollen, fill a pint jar with sifted confectioners’ sugar and stick a fresh vanilla bean in the center. Cap tightly.

2. Begin the stollen by placing the yeast, 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and the warm milk in a large bowl. Let it set for about 20 minutes or so until the mixture appears foamy and bubbly.

3. Stir in the 2 pounds of flour, the remaining sugar, the salt, and 4 sticks of butter. Because this is such a heavy and unwieldy dough, don’t attempt to blend these ingredients with a spoon. Turn the dough onto a board, and making fists with your hands, knead with a rocking motion for about 30 minutes, turning the dough and from time to time folding it over on itself. Add the grated lemon rind and sprinkle in the rum, a little at a time. Knead a few minutes more until they are well blended, then set again in a warm spot to rise for 1 hour.

4. While the dough is rising, chop the nuts and cut the citron slices into small dices.

5. Again, turn out the dough onto a board. Knead it into a wide circle of about 18” across and ½” thick. Sprinkle with the nuts, raisins, currants, and citron and press them into the dough. Knead until they are evenly distributed throughout.

6. Fold the dough in half in a quick flip and knead it back into a circular shape. Again, fold the dough over, not all the way, but to within 1” of the edge of the lower half. Round off the top edge with your hands.

7. Slide the stollen onto a heavy cookie sheet and let it rise another 30 minutes. After 15 minutes preheat the oven at 300 ° F.

8. Place a 10” pie plate in the bottom of the oven and pour in 2 cups of boiling water.

9. Set the stollen in the middle rack to bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

10. Remove the pan of water after 45 minutes.

11. Toward the end of the baking time, look to make sure that the stollen is not getting too brown. If it is, cover it loosely with brown paper.

12. Remove the stollen from the oven after it has baked the full hour and 45 minutes, and with 2 wide spatulas lift it onto a rack to cool.

13. When it is just cool, brush with the 2 sticks of soft butter. Let stand about 5 minutes before topping with the sifted vanilla sugar.

NOTE: Store the stollen in a tightly covered tin or wrap it in heavy waxed paper with an outer wrapping of foil or cellophane. Stollen will keep well for 3 weeks to a month.