Sourdough Stollen Bread

Stollen bread is a traditional German bread that is made with dried fruit. Made with sourdough and covered with icing and cherries you'll enjoy this lovely bread.

We've Christmas-ified our Stollen because December 25 is still a long way away and we want a little Christmas now!

For this big treat you will need a lot of ingredients so here they all are:

• 500 grams of flour
• 300 mls of Sourdough Mother Culture
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 150 grams of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 ground cardamon
• 90 grams of butter plus 2 tablespoons melted
• 120 grams of sultanas
• 120 grams of currents
• 60 grams of chopped apricots
• 2 eggs

Dump the flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom into a mixing bowl. Then use a whisk to mix it all together.

Pour the melted butter into a separate bowl and add the eggs. Mix these together.

Make a well in the dry ingredients then pour in the sourdough starter and mix with a dough hook.

The main dough has been mixed, however it still doesn't remind me of Christmas. We need fruit to get us closer to a Christmas treat. Add the currents, raisins and apricots then thoroughly mix into the dough.until the raisins are have all stuck to the dough.

Use your hands to kneed the raisins into the Christmas dough. Is it too early to decorate that tree?

Put the dough into a bowl and cover with a wet cloth then leave overnight for the ferment to work through.

Next day remove the dough from the bowl and start stretching it into a dough 20 mm (3/4 in.) thick. Use a rolling pin to keep the thickness consistent.

Ahhhhhhh the aroma of glazed cherry reminds me of a great Christmas feast.

Melt the butter and pour it onto the dough, then use the back of a spoon to rub it into the dough. Get the almonds and sprinkle them on top then sprinkle on the chopped cherry pieces.

Use your fingers and the baking paper to help roll up the dough. Here I have pushed in the ends so that those special cherries don't fall out.

Bake your Stollen bread in the oven for 55 minutes at 180C (360F) or until cooked. Remove the bread from the baking tin and allow to cool.

This thing is so full of fruit it weighs about 2 kg.

Pour a little bit of water into a bowl of icing sugar and add 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix this up and add water until you have a good consistency.

Dollop the icing onto the cool loaf, then use a butter knife to spread an even coating over the top. We decided to only ice the top of the bread with just a little to run here and there.

Place the walnut halves in a line down the center of the bread then on either side of it place a row of half cherries. You have now finished this delicious Stollen bread. Whether for Christmas or a mid year celebration, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

"We wish you a merry Christmas, we *pause*...wait, where is every body?"