Christmas Stollen (no yeast!)

[hermanne]

Stollen

4 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspoon baking powder, heaping
1 cup sugar
1 pkg. vanilla sugar OR 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 drops bitter almond extract
4 drops lemon extract
1 teaspoon rum extract
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
9 tablespoons butter or oleo, cut up
2 tablespoons Crisco, heaping
1 cup cottage cheese, let drain
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried currents
3 oz slivered almonds
2 oz candied orange peel, diced
2 oz candied citron OR lemon peel, diced
  melted butter
  powder sugar

-Mix flour and baking powder, sieve on counter top
-Make indenture, fill with sugars, spices, and eggs
-Mix with part of flour to a paste
-Add rest of ingredients
-Mix and knead to a smooth dough
 Add more flour while kneading, until dough does not stick anymore
-Divide and form into stollen (flatten into a thick oval, fold over about 1/3)
-Bake at 325 F for 50 minutes (small stollen, reduce time)
-Brush warm stollen with melted butter
-Sprinkle with powder sugar

[OhHai!]

We're working on the cookbook now (though I think it's in a bit of a stall right now) - is this a Christmas bread?  Would you put it in the "bread" category, or in Christmas cookies?

(& with the name "stollen", what's the origin of the bread - German?  just being curious, though we are using sub-categories for ethnic/cultural foods)

[Bethalize]

Thanks for posting this, Hermanne, especially post the cooking disasters thread! I may just try this.

Yours,

The woman who can't cook stollen without the breadmaker.

[mechtilde]

I'd put it into the cakes section myself because stollen is effectively a yeast cake, like pannetone or gugelhupf.

[magdalena]

like mechtilde said, it's a cake. And yes, Stollen in German.

*wondering if it's too early to succumb and buy a nice marzipan stollen from my favorite bakery*

[hermanne]

Bethalize, good luck! Let me know if you (or anyone trying this recipe!) have questions. I've always found it fairly easy, but then again I've spent years watching my mom make it before I tried it myself.

Yes, it's German, and it's a translation from my mom's old cookbook. She would argue that it's more like bread, but cake describes it, too, albeit a rather dense cake. I've had it for desert, breakfast, and afternoon tea/snack.

[marcel]

We have them in Holland as well, though I know the were introduced from Germany in the early 1900s. We consider them to be bread though.

[Amava]

I see them in Belgium too and in my family they're considered something between cake and bread. Which is to say, you can offer them as an afternoon treat with your coffee, or eat them as a dessert after a light meal, but you could also eat it instead of bread at breakfast.