German Christmas Stollen with Spelt Flour

German Christmas Stollen with Spelt Flour | Accidental Artisan

One of the last things I went through of my Mom’s was her recipe book. Recipes are like little treasures to me so you can imagine how much my Mom’s recipes mean to me. In that moment I was on the hunt for a recipe I knew existed, but that no one has made for many years… German Christmas Stollen.

It didn’t take me long before I found it folded up and delicately tucked into a recipe card pocket labelled “desserts”. It was a little bit daunting to make this stollen as I felt like I was going into it blind since I hadn’t even seen my Mom or Oma bake it before. Fortunately I had my friend with Austrian background (we think so much alike it’s a little weird) helping me so we analyzed, tinkered and made this stollen twice just to get it right.

If you’ve made or had German Christmas Stollen before you may notice that this stollen doesn’t have that perfect, traditional shape. Want to know why? Because it’s jam packed with tasty goodies like almonds, currants, raisins and candied citrus peel! 😀 The stollen you can buy that have that perfect shape usually have a far higher dough to goodies ratio which I personally think is blah.

One more thing… if you have a psychotic oven like mine you must, must, must put another pan on the rack below for the entire time the stollen is baking. Otherwise all those goodies will make the bottom just a smidge too dark (like the bottom of mine in the photo below… hey, no ones perfect. 😉 )

Happy baking and Merry Christmas!

Two slices of german christmas stollen on a white plate

If you liked this recipe you are going to love these ones!

German Fruit and Nut Spelt Bread
Chocolate Hazelnut Swirl Spelt Bread
Bavarian Walnut Spelt Stollen

German Christmas Stollen with Spelt Flour


Course Dessert
Servings 2 stollen
Author Sophie

Ingredients

  • 500 grams organic, all-purpose spelt flour also called white spelt flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • pinch sea salt
  • 200 grams organic sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 tbsp golden rum
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • zest of one lemon
  • 2 large eggs
  • 175 grams cold butter
  • 250 grams quark or cottage cheese well drained
  • 125 grams currants
  • 170 grams golden raisins
  • 230 grams almonds finely chopped
  • 100 grams candied lemon peel or candied citrus peel mix
  • 50 grams butter melted and cooled
  • 2 tbsp icing sugar for decoration

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

  2. In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, cardamom, nutmeg and salt. Pour onto a pastry board or clean countertop. Make a large well in the middle. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, rum, lemon juice and zest, and the eggs into the well. Mix the ingredients in the middle together to break up the eggs first and then draw flour in from the sides and mix/knead together until you have a stiff dough.

  3. Mix together the currants, golden raisins, chopped almonds and candied lemon peel together in a medium bowl. Set aside. Flatten out the stiff dough. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add it on top of the dough evenly. Pour the fruit and nut mixture on top and then the quark or cottage cheese. Mix and fold the dough over with your hands until everything is evenly incorporated. It gets messy but it's fun!

  4. Use a knife to cut the dough into two equal amounts. Shape each into a long oval and fold it over once lengthwise to give it that traditional stollen shape. Use floured hands as necessary. Place each stollen diagonally on the baking sheet with lots of space between them.

  5. Bake for 50 minutes or until dark brown on top and a toothpick poked in the centre comes out clean. If you have a crazy oven like mine, place another baking sheet underneath on the lower rack to deflect heat and prevent the bottom of the stollen from burning.

  6. While the stollen is still hot from the oven, brush it with the melted butter, additional rum (optional), and dust thickly with icing sugar. Let cool. Before slicing and serving, dust with additional icing sugar.

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