Easy German Fruit Bread for Christmas (Easy Stollen Recipe)

Name: Easy German Fruit Bread for Christmas (Easy Stollen Recipe)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 195 min
Ingredients: 357 g Flour (or 2 3/4 cup); 165 ml Warm Milk (or 3/4 cup + 1 tsp); 1 Egg; 3 g Instant yeast (1 tsp(Active dry yeast 1 and 1/4 tsp)); 5.9 g Salt (1 tsp); 42.6 g Melted Butter (or 3 tbsp); 32 g Sugar (or 2 1/2 tbsp or more according to your preference); 170 g Raisins ( around 1 cup); 90 g Candied citrus peel (around 1/2 cup); 80 g Glaze Cherries ((optional) around 1/2 cup); 56 g Roasted slivered almonds (around 1/2 cup); 1/4 tsp Cinnamon Powder; 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder; 1/4 tsp Nutmeg Powder; 1 tsp Vanilla Sugar or Extract (or vanilla seed from 1 vanilla pod); Zest of one Lemon

German Fruit bread “Stollen” or “Christstollen” is one of the most favorite Christmas breads of all time.

Stollen, German Fruit bread is a delicious yeast bread with lots of juicy fruits and nuts in it with a heavenly aroma of spices.

Stollen bread is dusted generously with powdered sugar and it reminds us of the snowy winter and we add ground spices into the bread, which spreads a divine, comforting aroma and warmth to the Christmas bread.

Aromatic sweet fruit cakes and fruits breads made with dry fruits ,candied peels and nuts are enjoyed all over the world during Christmas season.

If you love fruit cake, I am sure you will love our “Boiled Fruit Cake Recipe” that will help you make Super moist fruit cake which is full of the smell of Christmas in the easiest way!

WHAT YOU WILL LOVE ABOUT THIS EASY GERMAN FRUIT BREAD RECIPE

This easy stollen recipe will help you make moist, flaky, delicious stollen with the least effort.
This Christmas fruit bread does not require long hard kneading of the dough
We don’t need to use a stand mixer or any other equipments
We can make this easy stollen bread dough in less than 4 minutes!

GERMAN FRUIT BREAD : INGREDIENTS

For the Stollen Bread Dough

Flour: 357 g or 2 3/4 cup
Warm Milk: 165 ml or 3/4 cup + 1 tsp
Egg :1
Instant yeast: 3 g or 1 tsp(Active dry yeast 1 and 1/4 tsp)
Salt : 1 tsp or 5.9 g
Butter: 42.6 g or 3 tbsp
Sugar : 32 g or 2 1/2 tbsp or more according to your preference

For the Dry Fruit Mix

Raisins :170 g around 1 cup
Candied citrus peel :90 g around 1/2 cup
Glaze Cherries :80-90 g(optional) around 1/2 cup
Roasted slivered almonds :56g around 1/2 cup
Cinnamon Powder :1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder :1/4 tsp
Nutmeg Powder :1/4 tsp
Vanilla Sugar or Extract :1 tsp or vanilla seeds from 1 vanilla pod
Zest of one Lemon

To brush the baked stollen we will also need 50 g of melted butter.

To dust the surface of stollen we will need around 1 cup of powdered sugar as well.

Soak the dry fruits in rum the day before for more flavor.

The weight of dry fruits may vary according to the moisture content.We don’t need to be strict on the measurements ,you can use your preferred dry fruits like cranberries, currants etc.I recommend you to use total weight of dry fruits anywhere between 300 g -340 g.

If you don’t want to add any nuts you can skip adding almonds.But German Fruit Bread Stollen is usually made with almonds in it.Stollen bread has a subtle almond smell to it and some even add almond essence to the dough, to bring out that almond aroma.

I love adding spices in my stollen Christmas bread.Adding Cinnamon and cardamom adds a nice aroma to our bread.

Even though we add three different spice powder and vanilla into our easy stollen recipe, we cannot recognize any of those flavors in the baked stollen.But it will only add ,an uplifted comforting delicious smell to our Christmas stollen bread.

If you don’t want to add any spices you can skip adding them or you can add only those spices that you love.

It’s our personal choice.

Stollen bread is very different from other breads because of the unique smell and flavor that this German fruit bread has.

HOW TO MAKE STOLLEN BREAD: GERMAN CHRISTMAS BREAD WITH FRUIT

We can make this Easy Stollen Bread in five simple steps

1.Prepare the dough

Into a bowl, add in the milk (slightly warm ideally around 95 F) ,egg, sugar, salt, yeast and stir to dissolve the ingredients in milk.

Add in the melted butter.

Add the flour into the liquid mix.

Stir and combine.

Make sure there are no dry patches left behind.

If you happen to use volume measurements instead of weighing the ingredients, the consistency of dough may slightly differ.

In that case just make sure there are no dry patches left behind and it form a coherent mass.

We need to combine everything together to form a shaggy mass of dough.

If you are a fan of no knead bread recipes, then you will love these Easy to make No knead Bread recipes.

Light and Airy Ciabatta Bread recipe

Easy No knead Sandwich Bread

Soft and delicious No knead dinner rolls

No knead Rustic Dutch oven bread

2.First Proofing

Wrap the bowl with a plastic film and let the dough stand rise in a warm environment for 1 hour or until it gets almost doubled in size.

This proofing time may vary according to the ambient temperature.

If the room temperature is cold, it may take around 1 and 1/2 hours.

If you want to skip double proofing, you might love these Easy Faster One Rise Bread Recipes

Quick and Easy Dinner rolls recipe

Delicious One Rise Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

While the stollen bread dough is proofing ,prepare the dry fruit mix.

Prepare dry fruit mix for the Stollen

Into a bowl, add in the raisins, glaze cherries, candied citrus peel, slivered almonds.

Then add in the special ingredients that uplift the flavors of this Christmas stollen bread; ground cinnamon ,cardamom, nutmeg ,vanilla and zest of one lemon.

Mix it all together and our dry fruit mix for the German stollen bread is ready.

Cover it and keep it aside.

3.Shape the stollen bread dough

After One hour of rising, our stollen dough has risen slightly.

Now incorporate the dry fruit mix into the dough.

I pulled the dough from sides of bowl and folded it into the center.Thus we can incorporate the fruits into the dough and simultaneously can deflate the dough.

After deflating the dough and mixing the dry fruits ,let’s shape the stollen bread.

HOW TO SHAPE STOLLEN :GERMAN CHRISTMAS FRUIT BREAD

I divided the dough into two equal parts.If you like to make a bigger stollen bread you don’t need to divide the dough.(The baking duration for large stollen bread will be slightly more :around 8-10 minutes)

Shaping a stollen is not a very important step in making this Christmas fruit bread.

The word stollen in German refers to ” boundary stone for a city”.

Though it is a long bread with a thick coating of powdered sugar on the surface, the shape of every stollen is slightly different like as of we find it difficult to find two stones of same shape.

Because,I have made this German stollen bread shaping in many slightly different variations and it doesn’t make much difference in the final outcome.It may be because we dust the stollen bread with lots of powdered sugar on top.

We can shape this easy stollen bread by simply folding half of the dough over the other half, just like how we close an opened book.It will still come out great.

Or we can shape the stollen dough into a rectangle and then fold (length wise)the one third to the center and then the other one third to center.

Here I have shaped this German Christmas bread in such a way that, it resembles the shape of traditional German stollen bread.

Flatten the dough, roll and form the dough into two cylinders.

Press or roll each piece into a rectangle of approximately 1 inch thick.

Now press in the middle of the dough using a thin rolling pin and then go around 1 and 1/2 inches to one of the sides to create a trench.

So that when we fold the dough one over the other, the top part will stay closed smoothly and not completely overlapping the one under.

Now, using rolling pin or using the edge of your hand, press down along the length of the stollen.

This will help the dough to stay intact while proofing and baking and will also help to create that characteristic hump that we see in a typical German stollen.

If you like to make fruit bread in a loaf pan ,this Easy no knead fruit bread recipe will help you make the fruit loaf in a regular loaf pan.

Now our Christmas fruit bread is ready for the next step.So cover it with a cling film and let it sit and rise in a warm environment.

4.Final rising

Let the dough sit and rise in warm environment for 70-80 minutes.

As this Christmas Stollen bread contain lot of dry fruits, it take a little longer than regular breads to rise.

So after 80 minutes, our dough has risen well.(If your place is cold, then it may take 10 more minutes to rise)

Remove any raisins that stick out of the dough as they will burn during baking.

It is ready to go into the oven for baking.

5.Bake the Christmas Fruit Bread :Stollen

Bake the Fruit bread at 350 F or 180 C preheated oven for 40 minutes.

The top of the fruit bread or fruit loaf will start browning at around 30 minutes of baking.It doesn’t mean our dry fruit bread is done.

At this point if we take it out, the center of the fruit yeast bread will have a doughy texture and it will smell very “yeasty”

So wait for until the fruit bread is baked properly.

When the fruit bread is done, take the tray out from the oven.

How to treat the baked stollen/German Christmas fruit bread

Let the Christmas fruit loaf sit for 2-3 minutes in the baking tray itself.

Then take the stollen and place on a wire rack.

While it is still warm, smear the whole surface of baked stollen generously with melted butter.

Immediately sprinkle with granulated sugar (if we use powdered sugar it will easily dissolve with the butter).

Let the stollen cool completely.

When it is completely cooled, dust the surface of stollen generously with powdered sugar.

dust stollen generously with powdered sugar

The stollen can be sliced and eaten at this point or wrapped tightly (I like to wrap in parchment paper and then in aluminum foil) and left to “ripen” in a dry and cool place for two weeks.

When you eat them on the same day or next day, the stollen will have a lighter and softer texture like a fruit bread but when we take it after 2 weeks it has a dense texture but deep flavor more like a Christmas pastry.

Just before serving you can warm the slices in microwave so that the crumb will be soft again.

Watch the video to see How easy it is to make Stollen / Christstollen

HOW LONG WILL STOLLEN LAST

Stollen will last for up to 2-3 weeks if kept covered in a cool and dry place.
This Christmas fruit bread is brushed with melted butter and then dusted with a thick layer of powdered sugar. We also use rum soaked dry fruits in it. Thus it will keep for longer than any other yeast bread.
For best results ;It is better to store it as a whole loaf of German stollen bread than individual slices.

HOW LONG WILL STOLLEN LAST IF I USE DRY FRUITS NOT SOAKED IN RUM

The Stollen Loaf will stay good for 2 weeks(even when we don’t use rum soaked dry fruits) when properly stored as described below.
I have made this Christmas stollen using dry fruits that are not soaked in rum and they stayed good for up to 2 weeks.

HOW TO STORE STOLLEN

Brush the baked stollen with melted butter.
Let the baked stollen to cool down completely.
Dust the stollen generously with powdered sugar.
Cover the stollen with parchment paper or plastic film and then with aluminum foil.
Store it in a cool and dry place.

CAN I FREEZE THE STOLLEN FOR USING IT LATER

Yes, this stollen bread can be frozen.
Wrap the bread air tight in freezer wrap or foil.
Thaw the stollen bread slowly by keeping it in refrigerator first and then by storing in a cool place.
If we thaw it in the oven, the stollen may dry out or if we use microwave, it could make it soggy. Leaving it to thaw on the countertop will preserve the natural texture of the bread.
For Best taste and flavor, use it within 3 months.