This version of the traditional Christmas Stollen is absolutely delicious!
If you make just one thing this Christmas let it be this ‘Chocolate & Hazelnut Stollen’ bake filled with the colourful sweetness of cranberries, apricots, chocolate chips and the delicious blend of Christmas spices.
We enjoyed a slice of this warm with some delicious warmed spice apple juice. It’s so quick to pop on this delicious warming drink while you wait for the dough to rise and it makes the perfect accompaniment with a slice of Stollen by the fire. I have included the recipe below for you.
Spiced Apple Juice Recipe
4 liters of apple juice
1 sliced apple
1 handful of dried cranberries
2 cinnamon sticks or 4tsp of cinnamon
2 tsp of ground cloves
2 tsp of allspice
Pour all of the juice into a huge pot, I love my huge cast iron pot for this with the lid. Add all the spices, apples and cranberries and adjust to your tastes. Simmer for an hr or so and leave on a low heat to serve all evening.
This lasted us a few nights but you could also half the recipe. Its also important to use good quality pressed apple juice instead of concentrate which tends to be too sweet.
Stollen Recipe
100g of dried cranberries
30g of chopped hazelnuts
50g of dried chopped apricots
200ml of warm apple juice (you can use the drink above too, it works really well just make sure its not too hot)
1tbsp of dried yeast
250g of strong white flour (an additional 50g when fruit is added)
2tsp of cinnamon
2tsp of allspice
1/2tsp of ground cloves
80g of chocolate chips
10g of coconut oil
2tbsp of icing sugar
100g of chocolate chips (for melting)
Soak the dried cranberries, hazelnuts and dried apricots in 100ml of hot water and set aside (you can increase the quantities of fruit if you prefer it sweeter).
Add the warm apple juice to a small jug and sprinkle in the dried yeast. Stir gently and set aside to bubble and activate for 15-20mins.
Add the flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and coconut oil and mix together. I use the dough hook on my kitchen aid for creating the dough but you can, as described in this recipe, knead by hand.
Once the yeast has been left to activate add it into the flour and spices in the bowl. Mix together to create a smooth dough, adjusting the flour or adding a little water if necessary. You should have a relatively non sticky dough which can be handled without feeling too sticky in your hands. If its too sticky add a little extra flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl for kneading. Add a little vegetable oil to your hands to reduce sticking whilst kneading. Knead for 10 minutes until completely smooth and pliable.
Place in a bowl which has been lightly oiled and cover with a clean dish towel and leave to rise somewhere warm for one hour.
Remove from the bowl again. Drain the soaked dried fruit, nuts and chocolate chips and add to the dough. You might need some additional flour at this point so that the dough doesn’t become sticky due to the extra moisture. Knead for a further 10mins.
Leave to rise again for another hour in the same warm place.
Shape into a rounded loaf shape and bake at 180oc for 30-40minutes or until lightly brown and when tapped on the bottom it should sound hollow.
Leave to cool on a wire cooling rack for around half an hour.
Add the icing sugar into a small bowl with a little water to create a thick but runny paste. You can either paste this onto the whole top of the loaf and finish with a dusting of icing sugar or you can drizzle it as I have in the image above.
Melt the chocolate and drizzle across the loaf. Sprinkle with some additional chopped hazelnuts and slice to serve.
Enjoy!
