Merry Christmas!

I hope that each and every one of you, my readers, has a wonderful day.  Whether you’re celebrating with friends, family, or by yourself, may it be full of joy, fun, laughter, great presents and amazing food!

This gloriously festive stollen comes from the Christmas issue of BBC Good Food Magazine ‘08.  It was the cover recipe and looked so deliciously enticing that I just had to make it.

Unlike traditional stollen, this one incorporates jewel-like dried cranberries and jade-green pistachios.  It really is worth the bother of peeling loads of fiddly little nuts as they look so wonderful dotted through the crumb and scattered over the top of the finished stollen.  The cranberries also lend a slight sharpnes to the stollen which is quite refreshing and delicious, too.

It’s a welcome addition to any Christmas table and I’m sure that after one taste it’ll become a new family tradition.  Merry Christmas!

Festive Stollen Wreath

Note: If you don’t have a 12cm cake tin (and frankly, who does?) then use a clean large food tin.  I used a very-well washed large tuna tin that was 10cm in diameter.

Source: BBC Good Food Magazine, Nov 2008

• 85g dried raisins
• 50g dried cranberries (& extra to decorate)
• 100g mixed peel
• 4tbsp of dark rum
• 550g strong white bread flour
• 2 x 7g sachets of easy bake (instant) yeast (In the UK this is the Allinson ones I think, not sure about availability anywhere else)
• 50g golden caster sugar
• good grating of nutmeg (about 1/4 of a nutmeg)
• 1/2 teaspoon of fine (table) salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• 85g unsalted butter
• 250ml milk
• 1 large egg, beaten (& extra to glaze)
• 50g pistachios, peeled & chopped (& extra to decorate)
• 300g marzipan
• 100g icing sugar

Mix the raisins, cranberries and mixed peel in a bowl, pour over the rum, then leave to soak while you make the dough. If you’re particularly organised, do this the night before, so that all the booze is absorbed.

Tip the flour into a large bowl and stir in salt, the yeast, sugar, nutmeg and lemon zest. Rub the butter in until the mix is like fine crumbs. Warm the milk to hand-hot, then mix into the egg. Pour the milk into the flour mix, then stir with a round-bladed knife to make a soft dough, adding a drop more milk if needed to mop up any dry crumbs in the bottom of the bowl. Gather the dough into a ball, then knead for 3-4 mins on a lightly floured surface. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave until the dough has risen to double the size (about 45 mins-1 hr).

Knead the dough 2 or 3 times, then roll out to a rectangle about 37cm x 17cm. Stir the chopped pistachios into the soaked fruits, then spread one-third of the fruit mix down the centre of the dough, leaving all the edges uncovered. Fold each side into the centre to overlap slightly. Press the edges with the rolling pin to seal, turn the dough, then repeat the rolling out and spreading of the fruit twice more. Roll out to a final rectangle that is 55cm x 16cm. Roll the marzipan into a sausage shape, so it’s slightly shorter than the length of the dough. Place it down the centre. Roll the dough over the marzipan, then turn the dough over so the join is underneath. Lift onto a buttered baking sheet, then curl the dough round a buttered 12cm round cake tin, brushing the ends with a little beaten egg and pinching them well together to seal.

Cover and leave to rise for 30-45 mins or until puffy and doubled in size. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/ gas 5. When the dough has doubled, brush with beaten egg and bake for about 25 mins until golden. Cool on the baking sheet briefly, then transfer to a wire rack.

Make up the icing. Stir 2-3 tsp water into the icing sugar and, when the stollen has cooled, drizzle the icing over. Scatter over the extra cranberries and pistachios and decorate with holly.