Christmas stollen

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   In the evening we soak raisins, peeled nuts and zest in brandy and vanilla tincture (if you use vanilla sugar, then you add it to the dough). If you bought almonds in the peel, then it needs to be cleaned, otherwise the shell of the nuts will give bitterness. To do this, pour hot boiled water over the almonds and let stand for 10-15 minutes. The shell will swell and easily be removed by hands. You can throw the nuts on a metal sieve and rub lightly, the shell will fall behind.

2. Step 2:

   

   The next day we prepare the dough.

3. Step 3:

   

   Add butter to the milk and gradually heating the milk, melt the butter (this can be done either on the stove or using a microwave).

4. Step 4:

   

   Add sugar to the milk mixture and stir until completely dissolved.

5. Step 5:

   

   When the mass cools down a little, add the yolk and mix.

6. Step 6:

   

   Sift flour. Add fresh pressed yeast and grind them with flour into fine crumbs (if you use yeast new to you, activate them better to check for germination, to do this, dilute the yeast in 100ml of warm milk, add 1 tsp sugar, leave the mixture for 15 minutes if a foam cap appears on top after this time, so the yeast is good, if there is no cap, then there is a high probability that the yeast is either weak or already bad)

7. Step 7:

   

   Pour the well-cooled milk mixture into the flour mixture and knead the soft dough.

8. Step 8:

   

   Now it is very important to knead the dough well. Knead it for 7-10 minutes. We send the kneaded dough to a bowl and let it rest and increase in volume.

9. Step 9:

   

   The dough that has come up is well kneaded.

11. Step 10:

    

    We put it on the table and begin to mix our dried fruits soaked in cognac into it

12. Step 11:

    

    And again we leave it for the approach.

13. Step 12:

    

    Divide the dough that has come up into 2 equal parts and form a stollen.

14. Step 13:

    

    To do this, we stretch each part into a rectangle and cover the second half with one half (a very simple action, but it's a bit difficult to explain :)),

15. Step 14:

    

    But we don't cover it completely, but we leave a small gap

16. Step 15:

    

    And in this form we transfer it to a baking sheet (the easiest way is to form it immediately on a baking sheet). We also form the second stollen and let them come up for 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 175 C oven for about 40 minutes.

17. Step 16:

    

    Ready-made stollens are still hot, lubricated with melted butter (lubricate generously, without regret) and sprinkle with powdered sugar (and you don't need to regret it either). Let it cool completely.

18. Step 17:

    

    According to tradition, the stollen is carefully wrapped in foil or parchment, placed in an airtight container and kept in a cold place for at least 2 weeks (I got 4 days, after which it was found :))