This delicious brioche is usually served on Christmas Eve in Austria
[makes 4 logs about 22 cm long]
The marzipan and brioche dough are best made the day before and refrigerated.
600g blanched almond meal
300g caster sugar
40g Cognac
40g bitter almond or 25g almomd essence or 40g finely grated lemon rind
280g room temperature egg white
Weigh everything except the egg white into a food processor or Thermomix and process until very fine.
With the motor running add the egg white and mix thoroughly.
This batch size requires a Kenwood Major, if you have the smaller Kenwood do a half batch.
150g glacé cherries – can be a mix [1]
100g coarsely minced or chopped citron
100g sultanas, dried cranberries or currants
50g chopped arancia or mixed peel
50g brandy
225g full cream milk
20g dry yeast
100g natura Greek style yoghurt
170g unsalted butter…very soft + about 15g to grease the bowl
130g powdered sugar
4 eggs…room temperature or slightly warmed in hot water
1 vanilla pod scraped seeds only
550g flour + about 100g for rolling the dough
150g blanched almond meal
40g caster sugar – 60g boiling water
about 250g icing sugar for dusting
Marinate the fruit with the brandy overnight.
[1]We use glacé fruit from Bottega 1995 and Australian dried fruit ….don’t be precious about what combinations of fruit you use, but, PLEASE, don’t use mixed dried fruit from a supermarket.
Weigh the yeast and milk into a bowl and whisk. When the yeast is dissolved add the yoghurt and mix well. Set aside until it bubbles.
Using the creamer paddle of your Kenwood, cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time. Add the almond meal, vanilla, and flour, and when combined, slowly add the yeast mix, allowing it to work in before adding more. Add the fruit and mix in. Scrape into a greased bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Prepare the sugar syrup and allow to cool at room temp…do not refrigerate.
Cover two baking trays with silicon mats. The dough is quite sticky but use as little flour as possible. Divide the marzipan into four. Divide the dough into four. Flour your work surface, put ¼ of the dough onto the surface, and shape it into a thick rectangle with floured hands. Cover with Freezer-go-Between or baking paper and roll it into a rectangle of about 30 cm wide by 25 cm deep, roughly 1 cm thick.
Leaving a couple of centimetres at each end, lay ¼ of the marzipan in a log about 3 cm in from the long edge. Using a bowl scraper, scrape the dough up as you roll. Roll up the dough and pinch the ends together. Transfer to a baking tray.
Repeat the process with the remaining ¾ of the dough. Cover the stollen with Freezer-go-Between and a damp tea towel on top and allow to prove….at least an hour, more likely 90 minutes, even in our summer temperatures.preheat oven to 160°C
Depending on your oven you may need to turn your trays. Set a timer for 20 minutes, uneven turn, even set for another 20 minutes. Check with a skewer but they should be cooked.
Stand the cooked stollen on cooling racks. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TURN !!!! Brush the tops with the sugar syrup and heavily dust with icing sugar. Set a timer for 45 minutes. When the timer goes, very carefully flip them over. Brush liberally with sugar syrup and dust heavily with icing sugar. Flip them over again and re-dust the tops.
The stollen is best eaten after a couple of days, even longer.
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Christmas
stollen
This is a wondrous gift to give an Austrian or German a long way from home, or just anyone who has a sweet tooth…..there is nothing better than stollen with a good coffee and a glass of schnapps or even better [in my humble opinion] a great Cognac on Christmas morning for the opening of presents.
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