Stollen is a cake-like rich Christmas bread with marzipan filling from Germany. Its taste got just even richer as we also added matcha powder to it. The recipe yields two stollen breads – eat yourself and make a gift to your friend.
- 200 g raisins and 100 g dried cranberries
- 0.8 dl freshly squeezed orange juice, passionfruit puree or rum
- 100 g walnuts
- 0.6 dl water
- 12 g dried yeast
- 1.25 dl milk
- 450 g all-purpose wheat flour and 80 g rye or spelt flour
- 0.5 dl sugar
- 20 g culinary matcha powder
- Spices: 1.5 tsp ginger powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cardamom, 1 tsp grated nutmeg
- 225 g + 100 g butter
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 egg yolk (large)
- 50 g candied ginger
- 1 tsp grated orange peel
- 250 g marzipan paste
- 100 g powdered sugar + 1 tsp matcha powder
1. Chop raisins and cranberries if necessary, put into bowl and pour in orange juice. Leave for at least an hour.
2. Prepare the starter. Dissolve yeast in 40-degrees warm water. Add 140 g wheat flour, mix until smooth, cover the bowl with cling film and kitchen towel. Leave to rise for an hour.
3. Mix matcha powder, the rest of wheat flour, rye flour, sugar, spices. Melt 225 g butter and honey, take from heat and let cool until room temperature. Mix in egg yolk and pour into dry ingredients. Mix until smooth and then add the starter. Knead it to get as elastic and silky dough as possible. Pour in cranberries and walnuts (including the juice liquid), chopped walnuts, candied ginger and grated orange peel.
4. Cover the dough with cling film and kitchen towel, leave to rise for an hour. Knead a little and let it rise for another hour.
5. Half the dough and shape both pieces into thinner rectangular sheet. Divide the marzipan paste into two and roll into same length as the loaves are. Put marzipan roll in the middle of both dough and shape into loaves. Cover the oven plate with baking paper and place the loaves there. Make sure to leave space between these as they rise a little.
6. Cover the loaves with cling film and kitchen towel, leave to rise for one hour.
7. Bake in 175-degrees oven for 40-45 minutes.
8. Melt the rest of butter (100 g) and brush it into oven hot stollens generously.
9. Sieve, then rub in (with your hands) powdered sugar and matcha mix. It will be partly absorbed by hot loaves, be generous and sieve more. Let cool, then wrap into cling film and leave in the fridge for a few days or weeks.
10. Before eating, let it stay in room temperature for at least one hour. Sieve a few matcha-powdered sugar mix for final touch.
