Recipe Sourdough Stollen (with video)

 

Dough:

Bread Flour                             1000 gr

Whole milk                             650 gr

Stiff sourdough starter           300 gr

Butter                                     80 gr

Salt                                         20 gr

Sugar                                      20 gr

Egg yolk                                  50 gr

 

 

Filling:

Soaked raisins                        800 gr

Soaked currents                     200 gr

Roasted hazelnuts                  100 gr

Candied fruit mix                   100 gr

Dark rum                                20 gr

 

Almond paste                         160 gr for each bread

 

First you have to make sure you prepare your stiff starter. I used my pasta madre for this one but if you don’t have one you can always mix your regular starter in a 1:1:0,45 ratio. Leave this to ferment in a warm spot for around 4 hours and you are ready to use it.

 

Add all the ingredients except the butter and the filling into a mixer and mix for around 5 minutes at slow speed till your dough comes together, then continue to mix in second speed for around 6-8 minutes till the dough gets nice and smooth, add the butter and incorporate well till you can do the windowpane test with the dough.

 

Mix in the fruits and nuts slowly so you don’t crush the soaked raisins and currents. Take the dough out of the mixer and put it in a container. Leave it for a bulk fermentation for around 2-3 hours, Time is not the most important factor here, look at your dough and make sure it has proofed nicely.

 

After bulk fermentation its time to preheat the oven at 180C, then cut the dough into 800-gram portions and shape them into a ball. Cover and leave them in a slightly warm spot for a 30-minute rest.

 

Shape the ball into a batard shape making sure you don’t push out to much air. Leave the dough to rest for another 30 minutes. While the dough is resting you can prepare the almond paste logs, take a piece of almond paste and gently roll it into a 18cm log and put aside. If it sticks to much on the table or on your hands you can always put a little vegetable oil on the table or your hands.

 

Take one piece of dough and turn it upside down on a table dusted with a little bit of flour. Push down in the middle of the dough with a thin rolling pin, then roll the pin forward and backwards to create a thinner surface in the middle part of the dough. Do this gently so the dough doesn’t lose all its air but still gets thinner. You want to keep the upper and lower part as thick as they are. These will make the “lips” on the stollen. Put the almond paste slightly out of the middle of the dough and fold over the longer side of the dough to close in the almond paste, put some pressure behind the almond paste to make sure it is fully closed into the dough.

 

Leave the dough for a final 30-minute proof and bake at 165C for around 30-35 minutes.

Brush the stollen with clarified butter when they come out of the oven and when they have cooled dust them generously with powdered sugar.