Vegan Christmas Stollen, My Way!

Hey folks,

I just love the few weeks before Christmas, don’t you? It is my favorite time of the year,…ho,..ho,..ho,..!! How about you? T’s the season to be jolly,…falalalalaaaa,..la,..la,..la,..laaa! :) I put on some great old Christmas songs of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole of Ella Fitzgerald,…In Belgium, we didn’t grew up with these cool old-fashioned great Christmas songs! :(

Every year, my husband Peter & I get a real cool Christmas tree & we decorate it with gold & red balls of glory! Last year, we got this new wooden crafted Christmas Stable,…Just look at it: pretty cool, hey?

My new ecological wooden carved out Christmas Stall!

This fantastic home-made Vegan Christmas stollen was all invented by me, myself & I aka 2 years ago, but because it is so delicious & amazing, you all must make it this Festive Christmas Season! Even, if you are not a vegan, you will love it! It is a more healthy recipe with a bit of a twist! ;) A little bit naughty but nice,… Like you all know me!

An excellent food gift!

Normally, a Christmas stollen has dried glacé cherries, nuts, candied peel & dried fruit like sultanas in them. I don’t like a lot of these ingredients so I had to make & invent one, my way. Every Christmas, I have to make this for my hubby Peter & family members,…It is not a request, it is a necessity! I know that you all will love it too! :)

Normally, a Stollen is a fruit cake, more like a bread, containing dried fruit and often marzipan and covered with sugar or icing sugar. The cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices. Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season. It is made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus peel, raisins & almonds, and different spices such as cardamom & cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs, vanilla, other dried fruits, nuts and marzipan can also be added to the Stollen dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is quite low in sugar. :) The finished cake or bread is mostly sprinkled with icing sugar. The traditional weight of a Stollen is around 2 kg, but smaller sizes are now available. I didn’t add icing sugar on top! I did it this way:

Vegan Deliciousness!

Recipe: For 1 very large Vegan Christmas Stollen

Ingredients:

65 gr organic light spelt flour

435 gr organic white bread flour

1 flax egg (= 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water, whisk well together, leave to be for 10 minutes, to form a sort of gel-like consistency, to thicken a bit instead of 1 egg! )

100 gr vegan dried unsweetened cranberries

50 gr unsweetened coconut flakes

50 gr roughly chopped walnuts

100 gr dried soft apricots, finely diced

50 gr dried mixed tropical fruit, ( I used a mix of papaya, mango & banana )

50 gr dried dark sultanas

150 gr dark cane sugar

100 gr vegan butter, room temperature, cut into smaller knobs

225 gr warm soy milk, not hot!!

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt flakes, crushed + 1/8 teaspoon extra

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon of ground mace ( foelie in Dutch )

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

3 teaspoons of dried yeast

2 teaspoons of home-made pumpkin pie spice

200 gr of a good Vegan & Gluten-free almond marzipan

Method:

1. Take your Kenwood & attach the dough hook. Place the 2 flours into the Kenwood bowl & mix. Add dried yeast, flax egg, vegan butter, brown cane sugar, warm soy milk & sea salt into the bowl. Knead until you have a soft dough, for a few minutes on medium to higher speed. You can also do this by hand. Stretching & kneading the dough well until you have an elastic dough but still soft. I took the dough, with floured hands, out of the bowl & scattered some flour onto my Silpat. I kneaded the dough for a few moments extra with my hands. It was perfect. I put it back into my bowl. While the dough hook was o & working, I added the dried cranberries, the soft apricot pieces, the coconut flakes, the dark sultanas & the tropical mix too. I also added the chopped walnuts to the dough mix. Mix well until all is beautifully incorporated. Stop the machine from time to time, to add the dough that is on the sides of your bowl & mix again. Add cinnamon, ginger, mace & home-made pumpkin pie spice. Mix well into the bowl. Flour your Silpat or your kitchen counter & flour your hands a bit. Take the dough out of the bowl & knead a bit with your hands until ready. This took only 1 minute. See that the dried fruits are all well mixed into the dough. Place the dough back into the bowl & place cling film over the top of the bowl & place in a warm place or above your central heating. That’s what I did. Leave it there to rise for the 1st time. I needed 90 minutes. If you have a very warm place, you will only need 60 minutes or so. The dough must be risen 2 its size! Check often!!

2. Put the dough back onto your floured kitchen counter or floured Silpat & knock the dough back & flatten it out. See picture:

3. Shape your 2 rolls of marzipan, into a longer finer sausage shape & place them neatly in the middle of the dough, horizontally too. See picture:

4. Now, fold your dough around the marzipan pieces. Tuck, the ends of each dough side well over the marzipan pieces, like this:

5. Shape the dough like a bread. Place it on a special Silpat, especially for baking breads. Place it onto a baking tray. Place cling film over the top, loosely & place near a warm fire, to let it rise for the 2nd time.

You want it to rise for 45 minutes or a bit more. When the dough is nearly well risen, preheat your oven to 180°C (350 F ) for 10 minutes. Place the dough onto your baking tray, in the middle of your hot oven & bake for about 30 to 35 minutes. My Christmas Stollen was ready after 35 minutes. My Stollen baked for 20 minutes on 180°C ( 350 F ) & then 15 minutes on 175°C. Test with a little pin into the center of your Stollen, to see if it has baked properly. It was! Otherwise, put it back into the hot oven. Transfer carefully to a wire rack or 2, to cool off completely. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar or not! Your choice! :) Enjoy it too, my lovely ones! xxx