Wisconsin Dutch Stollen Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, butter, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, salt and 3 cups flour. Add the raisins, candied fruit and almonds. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. , Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours. , Punch dough down and divide in half; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll or press each half into a 12x7-in. oval. Fold a long side over to within 1 in. of opposite side; press edge lightly to seal. Place on greased baking sheets; curve ends slightly. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 1 hour. , Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Combine confectioners' sugar and enough milk to achieve desired consistency; spread over stollen.

Steps:

• Add crumbled yeast and 1 cup of flour to the warmed milk.
• Beat well and allow to stand in a warm place until light.
• Cream butter and sugar together, reserving 3 tablespoons of the butter for brushing on top of the loaves.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time.
• Add yeast mixture, rum, lemon rind, salt, almonds, raisins and remaining flour.
• Knead on a floured board until smooth and elastic.
• Cover and let rise until double in bulk.
• Divide into 3 loaves.
• Roll out slightly; press down center with a rolling pin.
• Brush with reserved melted butter, fold over and brush top with butter.
• Place in greased bread pans; let rise until double in bulk.
• Bake at 350F for 45 to 60 minutes or until golden and done.
• Cool slightly; brush with frosting.
• **Variation: Napfkuchen; use half recipe above, increase sugar to 3/4 cup and use only 3 cups flour. Omit rum; bake in a tube pan or bundt pan.

Steps:

• The 4 hour prep time includes the doughs rising time.
• Place the candied and dried fruits in a bowl. Pour the rum over the fruit, mix well, and let soak for 1 1/2 hours.
• In a small bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and 1/2 teaspoons of the sugar. Stir and allow to stand for about 5 minutes or until frothy.
• Drain the fruit, setting the rum aside, and dry it on a paper towel. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons flour and allow the flour to become absorbed. Set aside.
• Heat the milk, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and salt in a saucepan, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Add the rum, almond extract, and lemon rind. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before adding yeast mixture.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the 4 1/2 cups of the flour with the milk/yeast mixture. Beat the eggs until frothy and add to the dough. Mix in the softened butter. Form the dough into a ball and turn out onto a board sprinkled with the remaining flour. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes or until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and elastic. Gradually add the fruit and almonds, kneading just enough longer to incorporate them. Place the dough in a buttered mixing bowl. Cover with a towel and let stand in a warm place for 2 hours or until doubled.
• Punch the dough down and divide in half. Let stand 10 minute Roll the halves into 12 x 8-inch slabs approximately 1/2 inch thick. Brush each with 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter and sprinkle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining sugar. Fold each strip by bringing the edge of one long side to the center of the strip and pressing down the edge. Repeat on the other side, overlapping the folded edges by about 1 inch.
• Place the loaves on a buttered baking tray and brush the tops with the rest of the melted butter. Let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until doubled in volume.
• Bake the loaves on the baking tray at 375°F for 45 minutes or until they are golden brown and crusty. Let cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into 1/2-inch slices before serving.

Steps:

• Soak the raisins, black currants, almonds, candied citron, and orange peel in the rum. Set aside.
• Get a large bowl, the largest bowl you have. Measure and sift the flour into the bowl.
• Dissolve the yeast in 400ml warm milk.
• Make a well in the center of the flour. Add a pinch of salt to the yeast mixture, stir, then pour the yeast into the well.
• Form into a very dry dough and allow it to rise for 10-15 minutes.
• Cut the vanilla bean down the center and scrape out the vanilla seeds. Add the sugar to the seeds, then add the zested lemon peel, salt, and eggs. Beat together and (once the 15 minute rise is done) knead into the dough.
• Allow the dough to rise another 15 minutes.
• While the dough is rising, knead the remaining 200g of flour into the butter.
• Once the rise is finished, knead the butter into the dough. Allow to rise another 15 minutes.
• Once the rise is finished, preheat the oven to 390°F.
• Quickly work the rum-soaked fruit and nuts into the dough until they are evenly distributed.
• Form the dough into two 30cm (about 1 foot) long loaves. Traditionally, the middle is thicker than the sides. Place the dough onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets and allow to rise until doubled in size (about 20 minutes).
• Bake the loaves for about an hour (you may need to rotate the loaves halfway through). The bread is done when a toothpick comes out clean.
• Coat the bread with the melted butter, then, using a sieve, dust with powdered sugar.
• Allow to cool, then slice.

Steps:

• Stollen:.
• Combine the yeast with warm water (110 F). Note: If you're using compressed yeast, the water needs to be at 85°F.
• Combine the milk, butter, sugar, salt and cardamom; cool to lukewarm.
• Stir in 2 c of flour; beat well. Add the softened yeast and egg; beat well.
• Stir in the fruits, peels and nuts.
• Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.
• Turn out on a slightly floured surface. Knead for about 8-10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
• Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the entire surface of the the dough.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until double.
• Punch down; turn out on a lightly floured surface.
• Divide into 3 equal parts.
• Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Roll each of the 3 sections into a 10 x 16 inch rectangle.
• Without stretching, fold the long side over to within 1 inch of the opposite side; seal the edge (you can pinch it together, or brush with a bit of beaten egg or warm milk if you wish).
• Place on a greased baking sheet.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until almost double again.
• Preheat the oven to 375 and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown.
• Let cool slightly and place onto large pieces of wax paper, plastic wrap, platters, etc, each loaf on it's own separate surface.
• You don't want to get the glaze everywhere.
• Glaze:.
• Note: You can easily half the glaze. My family doubled it because of our huge sweet tooth. (It's really pretty too. It has a daisy on it. :D).
• Combine the sugar, water and the butter. Brush or pour over the stollen.
• It will be runny at first so you may have to spoon any that gooped onto your platter or counter back up onto the loaf.
• You can leave it as it is or decorate it however you wish.
• I always make pretty flowers out of bits of fruit and cherries or sliced almonds. Such as a flower made with slices of almonds for the petals, bits of candied cherries for the center and citron or green candied cherries for the leaves and stems. Very pretty.
• Let the loaves sit until the glaze has set (it will still be slightly squishy to the touch) and then wrap in plastic wrap to keep them fresh until it's time to serve them.
• That's another reason we add so much glaze since it helps keep the bread moist.
• Place the loaves in a cool dark place or they even freeze well.
• I put the serving size at 24, which would be 8 generous slices per loaf but you will probably get more out of it.
• Note: Yeast equivalents are One package = 2 1/4 teaspoons = 1/4 ounce = 1 compressed cake.