Christstollen: German Christmas Bread with Marzipan
Christstollen is the Christmas bread from Dresden: a heavy yeasted dough with rum-soaked fruit, a log of marzipan through the middle and a thick coat of butter and icing sugar that preserves it. It is baked well in advance and matures for at least two weeks — that wait is not ceremony: it is what spreads the moisture from the fruit through the whole loaf.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 100 g sugar
- 250 g soft butter
- 2 eggs
- 150 ml lukewarm milk
- 25 g fresh yeast (or 8 g dried)
- 1 tsp salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom and 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- For the fruit: 200 g golden raisins
- 100 g candied orange and lemon peel
- 100 ml rum
- 100 g flaked almonds
- 200 g marzipan
- For the coating: 150 g melted butter and 200 g icing sugar
Method
- 1
The day before, soak the raisins and candied peel in the rum, covered. They fill up with liquid and stop pulling moisture out of the dough later.
- 2
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk with a spoonful of the sugar and leave 10 minutes until foamy.
- 3
Mix the flour with the remaining sugar, the salt, the spices and the zest. Add the eggs, the activated yeast and the soft butter.
- 4
Knead for 10 minutes into a smooth, heavy dough. It is not looking for the elasticity of bread: with this much butter it stays short.
- 5
Fold in the drained fruit and the almonds by hand, without kneading further so they do not break up.
- 6
Prove for 2 hours somewhere warm. With this much fat it rises slowly — do not push it with strong heat, which melts the butter.
- 7
Roll the dough into an oval, lay the marzipan shaped into a log down the middle and fold the dough over itself, leaving the edge slightly offset.
- 8
Bake at 170 °C for 55 to 60 minutes. If it browns too fast, cover with foil.
- 9
Brush generously with melted butter the moment it leaves the oven, while it still absorbs, then cover with a thick layer of icing sugar. That layer is not decoration: it is the barrier that keeps it.
- 10
Wrap in baking paper and foil and store somewhere cool for at least two weeks before slicing. It keeps up to two months and improves with time.