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Christstollen (German Christmas Cake)

Category:	Christmas baking
Difficulty/Costs:	medium / moderate
Number of people:	10
Ingredients:	1 kg flour 200 g sugar 1 tablespoon almonds, or almond flavour 10 g salt 450g butter 60 g granulated sugar 150 g candied orange peel 150g currants 150 g almonds cut ½ l milk 2 ½ cube of fresh yeast 100g butter 30g ginger 150 g candied lemon peel 500g raisins 4 tsp vanilla 70g icing sugar 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 1 pinch ground cloves 1 teaspoon mace 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tsp cardamom 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 grated rind of one lemon

Preparation:

Sift the flour into a large bowl, then make a small whole in the middle. Crumble in the yeast, mixed with a little warm milk and some sugar to a thick porridge. Knead, knead, then allow the dough to rest in a warm place for 45 minutes.

In the meantime, blanch the currants and raisins with boiling water and let them swell for 15 minutes.

Pour into a sieve and let drip dry.

Chop the candied lemon and orange peels into small cubes and cut into small pieces. Best you dip the knife in warm water before you begin. Next, heat some butter in a saucepan until it is liquid. Warm the milk until lukewarm.

Now mix the dough with the spices, the milk, butter and the sugar. Add the remaining flour. Beat until the dough comes off the bowl. This is best done with your hands. Again, let the dough rest in a warm place for one hour

Now add the candied fruit, and raisins and almonds into the dough. Knead well and let rest for another hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.

With the remaining butter grease the baking mould. Put the dough in and bake. About 10 minutes before finished check if the Christstollen is really done. Brush a bit more butter on top to get a great gold-brown colour then sprinkle the hot cake with vanilla sugar. If you want you can sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar as well, but only when completely cooled down.