Fragrant Christmas Cupcake - German Stollen

Kitchen appliances and utensils:bowl - 2 pcs., teapot, knife, scissors, spoon, jar with a lid, sieve, towel, baking paper, foil, blender, rolling pin, rectangular molds, a baking sheet, oven.

Ingredients

Step cooking

Preparation of candied fruits and dried fruits

A total of candied fruits and dried fruits we need 400 g. Candied fruits are best used from citrus fruits, we have pamela and kumquat. From dried fruits we take 4 types of raisins and dried cranberries.

1. Dried fruits must be washed. First in cold water, then pour 500 ml of boiling water. When they swell, drain the water. We chop candied fruits with a knife or scissors to the size of raisins. Shredded candied fruits and washed dried fruits are transferred to a jar.
   
2. Add zest of 1 orange there. From the orange, remove only the upper orange part. Finely cut, fold to candied fruit.
   
3. Squeeze the juice from the orange. Pour dried fruit with freshly squeezed orange juice and 100 ml of rum. You can use light or dark rum, cognac or whiskey.
   
4. Close the jar tightly, shake well and leave the dried fruit to infuse. The longer they insist, the better. We leave a minimum for the night, better for a day. Periodically, the jar must be shaken.
   

Cooking dough

1. We prepare yeast dough in the sponge method. In a deep bowl we crumble 50 g of live yeast or 15 g of dry yeast. Add 1 tbsp. l Sahara. Pour 180 ml of warm milk. Mix everything until smooth.
   
2. Pour 150 g of sifted flour, mix. Cover the resulting dough with a towel and leave to approach in a warm place for 30 minutes. During this time, she should fit well. We settle the dough, after which we will prepare the dough.
   

Cooking dough

1. Add 60 g of remaining sugar. Put 1 large egg, but preferably 3 yolks.
   
2. Pour 50 g of almond flour or almonds, crushed in a blender. Add 1 pinch of salt and ground spices: 2 tsp. cinnamon, 0.5 tsp ginger, 1 pinch of clove, cardamom, nutmeg and allspice.
   
3. Mix well, then add the sifted flour. Pour 400 g of flour. Mix the dough with a spoon. Next, sprinkle the working surface with a sufficient amount of flour, spread the dough and knead it with your hands.
   
4. Now we interfere with 250 g of softened butter at room temperature. We interfere the oil gradually - in parts. Add the remaining flour. So we need to mix all the flour and all the butter in the dough.
   
5. The dough was soft. But due to the fact that a sufficient amount of oil has been added, it does not stick at all to the hands and to the working surface. We put the dough in a bowl, cover with a towel and leave to approach in a warm place for 40 minutes.
   
6. When the dough has come up, we upset it and leave it again to approach for 40 minutes in a warm place without drafts.
   

Adding toppings

1. We will need 200 g of roasted nuts, we have hazelnuts.You can use almonds or walnuts. And you will also need persistent dried fruits. During this time, they absorbed all the liquid and became very fragrant. We crushed the dough that came up a second time and spread it on the work surface. Now it is necessary to mix nuts and dried fruits in it. Spread the dough from the middle to the edges. Pour all the nuts and dried fruits onto the dough. You may think that there are too many nuts and dried fruits, but don’t be afraid, they all interfere with the dough.
   
2. Wrap the edges to the middle, covering the filling. Knead the dough. It's okay if the filling starts to get enough sleep and tear the dough. At this point, if the dough is too sticky, you can add a little flour, but not more than 50 g.
   

Stollen molding and baking

1. Sprinkle the working surface with flour, put part of the dough on it. Sprinkle with flour on top and roll into a small cake. Next, add this cake in half. This is one of the options for molding stollen. The remaining dough is divided into 3 equal parts and laid out in rectangular molds.
   
2. We cover the stollen with a towel and let it go a little while the oven warms up to 180 degrees. From this amount of dough, 4 stollen is obtained. You can divide the dough into 3 parts, and you can bake 2 large stollen. Baking time will depend on their size. Small stollen is baked for about 60 minutes, large - about 80. Bake until golden brown.
   
3. Melt 50 g of butter. From all sides we cools cooled stollen with melted butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar on all sides (it will take 50 g).
   
4. Wrap the stollen in baking paper and then in foil.
   
5. Then we send them to a cool place for 2 - 3 weeks to ripen.
   

Video recipe

Here you can see how the German Stollen is prepared for Christmas, how it is kneaded, shaped and packaged for storage.

Only after 2 weeks of ripening does the stollen acquire a truly unique taste and aroma. Even if you start eating stollen immediately after baking, you will feel the incredible aroma and how soft and gentle it is. Over time, it will become more dense, but from this no less tasty. Stollen can be a great Christmas gift that you can prepare in advance.

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