Sourdough Stollen Recipe

Indulge in the festive spirit with this sourdough Christmas stollen, a cherished German Christmas bread. Packed with rum soaked fruit, butter and marzipan, this rich Christmas bread is a must bake this festive season.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Keyword Sourdough Bread

Prep Time 50

Cook Time 40

Fermentation Time 16

Total Time 17 30

Servings slices

Calories 501kcal

Ingredients

Stiff Sweet Levain

60 g Sourdough Starter
60 g Water
120 g Bread Flour
20 g Sugar (white, fine)

Dried Fruit

35 g Spiced Rum (Captain Morgan's, Kraken etc)
80 g Raisins (or sultanas)
30 g Mixed Peel
70 g Dried Apricots (roughly chopped)
30 g Dried Cranberries (or dried blueberries)

Stollen Dough

260 g Stiff Sweet Levain (as prepared above)
350 g Bread Flour (or all purpose flour)
245 g Dried Fruit (as prepared above)
1 Egg (approx. 70g)
75 g Buttermilk
75 g Milk
30 g Sugar
5 g Salt
100 g Butter (softened at room temp, I've used salted butter)

Other Inclusions and Toppings

250 g Marzipan (see notes)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoon Nutmeg
250 g Powdered Sugar (for rolling the baked Stollen in)

Instructions

Preparing the Levain

This levain should be prepared the night before. Add the flour, water, sugar and sourdough starter to a jar and mix thoroughly. Set aside to peak.

Preparing the Dried Fruit

Add all of the dried fruit to a mixing bowl and add the spiced rum. Stir well to coat all of the fruit. Cover with plastic and set aside overnight.

Preparing the Sourdough Stollen Dough

Add the sugar, buttermilk, milk and egg to a large mixing bowl and whisk well to combine and dissolve the sugar.
Now add the stiff sweet levain to the liquid and use your whisk to break up the levain as best you can, allowing it to soften in the other liquid.
On top of that add the bread flour and salt and bring together into a stiff dough. Cover with plastic and set aside for around one hour.
Tip the sourdough stollen dough out onto the counter top and add a little of the butter. Knead this in, before adding more, until all the butter has been kneaded into the dough. This can be difficult if you're not used to working with enriched doughs. You can use a stand mixer to perform this step if you prefer.
It is very similar to kneading butter into sourdough brioche dough.
Once the butter is fully incorporated in the dough, allow the dough to rest for around 10 minutes (you can leave it on the counter, just pop the bowl over the top so it doesn't dry out).
Now, gently knead in all the boozy dried fruit. The fruit should have absorbed all the rum, so there won't be any excess liquid to worry about. Don't worry if the dough tears a little, leave it to rest for 10 minutes, then knead again.
When you're happy that all the fruit has been incorporated into the dough, pop the dough back into the bowl and cover. Allow to bulk ferment at room temperature until the dough has risen around 50%.
Don't worry about the dough containing butter milk, egg, milk and butter. It's perfectly safe to leave it out at room temperature.
Once the dough has risen to around 50%, it's time to shape the dough and add the marzipan and cinnamon and nutmeg.

Shaping Sourdough Stollen

Tip the dough out of the bowl onto the counter so the sticky side is ontop. If you're making one large stollen, then leave the dough as is, but if you would prefer two smaller stollens, divide the dough into two equally weighted pieces.
Gently pull each piece of dough out into a rough rectangle. Mold the marzipan into two long cylinders, the same length as your dough and lay off centre on the long side of each piece dough.
Spinkle the dough with cinnamon and nutmeg if desired.
Roll each rectangle of dough into a long roll (similar to when you make sourdough cinnamon rolls). Start on the side where you've laid the marzipan and roll, tucking the bottom seam under, along with the ends. You want to completely conceal the marzipan so that it doesn't leak out in the oven.
Transfer each stollen to a baking tray lined with baking paper and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Allow the stollen to proof at room temperature until the dough has risen around 50% again.
When you're ready to bake the stollen, preheat the oven to 175C (350F).
When the oven is at temperature, bake the sourdough stollen for around 45 minutes (or until it is golden brown).
Remove the baked sourdough stollen from the oven and allow to cool for a bit before brushing it all over with melted butter (a pastry brush is perfect for this).
Once it's cooled for around an hour, brush it again with butter and then place into a container full of powdered sugar. Lightly roll the stollen around in the powdered sugar until it's completely and evenly covered on all surfaces.
Now, wrap your stollens in a piece of aluminum foil and allow them to mature for at least 24 hours before you try them (it's worth the wait I promise).

Notes

Marzipan - I have used store bought Marzipan in my sourdough stollen. You can omit the marzipan if you don't like it. Divide the 250g portion into 2 pieces if you're making 2 smaller stollens.

Rum - if you don't want to use alcohol, you can soak the dried fruit in the same amount of orange juice or apple juice.

Butter - I've used salted butter in this recipe, you can use unsalted if you prefer.

Nutrition