Christmas Stollen

My mother-in-law made stollen for breakfast on Christmas morning when my husband grew up.  I had never had it until we were married, but I decided it was a good tradition.  I was hesitant for some reason to make it gluten free, but one Christmas a couple of years ago, I decided to try it and we all thought it was a great success.  The freezing works well for making it for Christmas (or any) breakfast.  The original called for candied cherries, citron and raisins.  I much prefer candied orange peel, so that is what I used.  Feel free to put in your favorite candied or dried fruit. 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

¼ cup warm water

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 egg yolk (keep the white for an egg wash)

½ cup soft butter (or needed alternative)

3 ½ cups GF flour mix

1 tablespoon xanthan gum

½ cup chopped almonds

½ cup chopped candied orange peel (and/or other dried fruit, like cranberries, raisins, cherries, etc)

Zest of one lemon

1 can (12.5 ounce) almond cake filling (made by Solo, not the almond paste) OR 3 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1.  In a larger mixer bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water.  Add the sugar, salt, eggs, yolk, butter and mix well.  Add the flour, half at a time and beat on medium-high for three or four minutes.  Mix in the almonds, orange peel and zest. 

2.  Line two baking sheets with parchment and grease the parchment. I often put some flour on the parchment as well.  Pour half of the dough onto each sheet and spread into about a 10 X 7 inch oval.  I do this with wet fingers.  Smear half of the can of almond filling onto each oval. (OR spread the 3 tbs of butter over the oval.)  Using the parchment to help you move the dough, fold in half the long way. 

3.  If you want to bake it on the same day you make the dough, make sure you floured the parchment well and gently remove the parchment from the top of the stollen.  Beat the reserved egg white with one tablespoon of water and brush over the stollen.  Let the stollen rise until it doubles in size.  It will take about an hour.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 375*.  It should be a nice golden brown color.   

4.  While warm, frost with white icing (1 ½ cups powdered sugar and 1 ½ tablespoons of prefered milk).

If you want to freeze the dough for another day, then do this:

3.  To freeze the stollen, leave the dough in the parchment and wrap well in a few layers of plastic wrap and freeze.  The parchment will easily come off the frozen dough when you pull it out of the freezer to use it. 

4.  When you are ready to bake the frozen stollen, remove it from the freezer about 10 hours or so before you want to bake it.  It works well to pull it out the night before you want to serve it for breakfast.  Beat the reserved egg white with one tablespoon of water and brush all over the top of the stollen.  If you didn’t keep the egg white, just skip this.  No one will notice.  In the morning (or after 10 or so hours), bake at 375* for 20-25 minutes.  Frost with white icing as shown above.