Almond Filled Stollen

About This Recipe

Whew, can you believe it took me almost 30 years to make this bread? Well, not the actual loaf you see in the photos, that only took a couple of hours. But the recipe for this bread was 30 years in the making.

As I’ve mentioned before, my first job out of pastry school was with a well-known and well-respected Austrian pastry chef. It was a year of very, very intense training and long hours, but I sure learned a lot.

I also collected some wonderful recipes that I use to this day. Including my Sacher Torte recipe which is a top recipe on Google.

Well, I didn’t just collect the recipes, I had to earn them. Whenever we made a recipe for the first time we were expected to write down the ingredients and all the steps in our personal recipe book. The chef actually reviewed our books from time to time and made notes on the recipes. It really was an on-the-job learning experience.

Anyway, I worked at this bakery for one holiday season. We made stollen weeks before Christmas and set it aside to “ripen”. I’d never tasted Almond Filled Stollen before and I was immediately obsessed. I thought it was one of the best things I’d ever eaten and I really, really wanted the recipe.

The only problem was, the chef made the dough before we came to work that morning. We never actually put together the ingredients or had the chance to record the recipe. Arg!

My friend Suzie was able to write down a list of ingredients for the Almond Stollen. You can see my cryptic 30-year-old note in the photo below.

This is all I had to work from to recreate the recipe. A random list of ingredients, scaled to produce dozens of loaves.

You can see why it took me 30 years to buckle-down and recreate the recipe.

I reviewed stollen recipes in my favorite books and on the web. After comparing them to “the random list” I had a pretty good working recipe and I had a few memories to work from.

The very first test-loaves were really good and just got better over the course of a week. With a few more tweaks I had my stollen recipe, finally!

I honestly can’t say how close it is to the original, but at this point I don’t think it really matters. What matters is, this is a good stollen recipe.

I think it was worth the wait and I hope you do to.

Oh, and by the way, if you’ve got an active sourdough starter I’ve developed a great recipe for Sourdough Stollen especially for you sourdough bakers.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

• Active Yeast – I don’t recommend using rapid rise yeast for this recipe. You want a slower rise for this bread to develop a full depth of flavor.
• Bread Flour – High protein bread flour makes a dough with enough gluten to hold in the dried fruits while it rises in the oven.
• Raisins/Orange Peel – You can use any mix of dried fruits. If you use larger fruits chop them into 1/2″ bits.
• Rum – The rum is optional. But remember that alcohol enhances other flavors. You can use apple juice or water in place of the liquor.
• Almond Paste – Use almond paste and not marzipan for the filling. Marzipan has a lot of added sugar and will not give the same result as almond paste.

• The dough will be quite sticky just after it’s mixed.
• After kneading 5 minutes the dough should cling to the hook and clear the sides of the bowl.
• Knead the fruit into the dough either on the mixer or by hand. Use plenty of flour if the fruit makes the dough very sticky.
• Set the dough aside to rise for 1-1 1/2 hours. After the first rise the dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or you can proceed with shaping and baking the loaves.

• Divide the dough in half. Roll each piece to a 9″x7″ oval. Spread half the almond paste filling over the dough, leaving a 1″ border.
• Fold the dough over the filling, leaving a 1″ border in the front. Use your fingers to seal the seam of the dough.
• Set the loaves aside to rise for 1 hour.

• Bake the loaves until the internal temp reaches 190F. Cool 10 minutes then generously brush the entire surface of each loaf with melted butter.
• Generously sprinkle the entire surface of each loaf with superfine sugar. Tightly wrap the loaves in 2 layers of plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 2-3 days before serving. At this point the loaves can be frozen for up to a month.
• To serve, brush or scrape away the granulated sugar.
• Sprinkle each loaf generously with powdered sugar.

• The texture of the bread will change over a week or so at room temperature.

Work Ahead

Almond Stollen is even better a few days after baking so it is the perfect make ahead recipe. The dough can be held in the refrigerator for up to 2 days before shaping and baking.

Storage

Almond Stollen can be stored, well-wrapped, at room temperature for up to a week. The baked loaves can be frozen for up to a month. Freeze the loaf with the butter/superfine sugar coating. Remove the coating and sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

More Austrian/German Recipes

• Apple Strudel
• Vanilla Kipferl
• Rumtopf
• Lebkuchen
• White Chocolate Sacher Torte