#Christmas Fabulous German delicacy! Christmas bliss! Loose, light, fluffy curd makes the dough tender! Dried fruits and nuts add aroma and exquisite taste to baked goods! Cooking Stollen is not at all difficult, but interesting and very exciting!!! And how many emotions, pleasure and joy... beyond words! 🤩
Ingredients: dried fruits (coconut, dried cherries, candied fruits and light raisins), cognac, or brandy or dark rum, cottage cheese 9-20% fat, soft creamy butter, sugar, eggs at room temperature, lemon, flour, nuts (hazelnuts and almonds or others), baking powder, salt, melted butter, sugar powder
Cooking method:
Place dried fruits and coconut (if available) in a bowl and add alcohol to them. Mix everything and send the composition for 2 minutes in the microwave on the usual heating mode. So you will not insist the components for 1 day. Then the mixture must be allowed to cool completely, stirring occasionally. I insisted in the refrigerator for almost 2 days, since I don't have a microwave
Pour flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Mix everything and sift the mixture through a sieve into an empty bowl. This must be done in order to saturate it with oxygen. In this case, the baking will be more magnificent.
Place the nuts on a board and chop them into several pieces. Stir in flour. If possible, use different varieties of nuts. So the filling will come out richer, and it will look more beautiful.
Pass the zest of a whole lemon through a fine grater. Use only the yellow citrus portion. Note that the white shell is bitter. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze out the juice and strain. Toss the juice with the zest.
Transfer the soft butter to a bowl and add sugar to it. Rub the ingredients together with a spoon. Then beat the mass with a mixer until a light cream.
Add warm eggs (room temperature) to the cream and continue beating the mixture until smooth. If you add cold eggs to the mass, then its texture will be lumpy, and the dessert itself will not be very tender.
Send cottage cheese to the cream and work with a mixer again, mixing the components. Then add lemon juice with zest to them and beat again.
Pour a dry flour and baking powder mixture into the oil composition. Be sure to mix everything with a spoon, not with your hands. Otherwise, the butter will start to melt from their heat. Never add excess flour to the dough, despite its stickiness. Otherwise, the dessert will turn out to be rough.
Transfer the mixture to a floured table. Flatten it slightly and pour the mixture of cooled candied fruits and alcohol onto the dough.
Stir the filling into the dough quickly. You don't need to knead it for a long time. Then form a ball out of it. Form an oval out of the ball and divide it into 2 parts. Make oval cakes about 3 cm thick from them. Step back from the edge by 1/3 and draw a line along the shape with the edge of your palm.
Place the smaller portion of the cake on top of the larger one and round the sides with your hands. So the diaper has turned out. When baking, the dough will go in breadth, so shape it in height.
Place the treat on a baking sheet with parchment paper. And send it to the oven preheated to 150-170 degrees. Bake the dessert for 70-80 minutes. Check the readiness of the shtoll with a toothpick. If it remains dry after immersion in the dough, then the treat is ready.
Brush hot stollen with melted butter. Then generously sprinkle the surface and sides with powdered sugar. Sprinkle until the butter is no longer exposed to sugar.
Let the baked goods cool in the sweet dusting powder at room temperature. Then wrap it in parchment, it will help to distribute moisture in the dessert, then in foil and a bag. They will not let the treat dry out. Keep it in this position in a cool place for 3-4 weeks. Can be stored on the top shelf of the refrigerator. Checked! After 3 weeks, the stollen has become even tastier and more aromatic!
We ate on December 25 and January 7 🎄