Ingredients

The following ingredients have 20 Servings
  • 5 cups all purpose flour (divided 4 + 1 cups, plus a bit more for kneading and coating the fruit.)
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup candied citrus peel ((I used lemon and lime citron from Bulk Barn))
  • 1/2 cup Gran Marnier ((or orange juice if you don't want alcohol))
  • 3 tsps active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup luke warm water
  • 1 cup milk (divided 1/2 and 1/2 cup)
  • 1 1/4 cups butter (at room temperature)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup almond slices
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup icing sugar

Instruction

  • Heat Grand Marnier or liquid you are using to luke warm. Soak the raisins and candied citrus in the liquid for at least 30 minutes. It can be more. Reserve the liquid when you are finished soaking.
  • Mix the yeast with the lukewarm water in a large bowl and set aside for 10 minutes to proof. Add 1 cup of the flour and a 1/2 cup of milk. Stir until smooth. Seal the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for at least one hour and up to four hours. This creates a 'sponge' as the basis for the stollen.
  • After the sponge has stood, stir it and add the rest of the flour, remaining milk, butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar and salt. Stir all together till ingredients are well mixed.
  • Transfer the dough to your bread machine and start the Dough Cycle. Mine does a 5 minute knead, 5 minute rest and 2nd knead is 20 minutes. Check the dough after the first knead. If the dough is too dry add some of the liquid from the fruit soaking liquid. If it is too sticky or shaggy add a bit more flour. I removed the dough at the end of the 2nd knead because this is a big recipe and there won't be enough room in the bread machine container to allow the full rise. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl. Cover and allow to rise until doubled. Mine was done after 60 minutes but you can go up to 2 hours.
  • Drain the raisins and dried citrus. Toss in a zip lock bag with a Tbsp of flour to coat them. This will prevent them from dropping to the bottom of the loaf.
  • Punch the dough down. Add the fruit and the almonds and work the dough with your hands to distribute the fruit and nuts evenly through the dough.
  • Turn the dough out to your work surface. My dough was soft and not sticky so I didn't need to flour the work surface. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Roll each portion out to a rectangle about 1 inch thick.
  • Fold the long edge of the dough about 3/4 of the way over to the other long edge. (The unevenness is meant to represent the baby Jesus in a swaddling blanket.)
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the loaves to the baking sheet and cover loosely with a towel or plastic wrap. Let the loaves to rise until doubled (about another 60 minutes).
  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the cover from the baking sheet. Bake loaves about 45 minutes. The crust should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.
  • While loaves are hot out of the oven, brush melted butter all over (including the bottom of the loaf). Sieve the icing sugar over all sides of the loaf. Once you have coated all sides once, wait till the loaves have cooled and sieve remaining icing sugar over loaves again till they are uniformly covered.
  • Wrap tightly in foil and store in a cool place for at least 24 hours and up to 2 weeks. You can freeze loaves well wrapped in plastic and foil for several weeks.