19 December 2018

Continental Christmas Baking - Part 2

Delicious recipes for making your own spicy German Stollen, marzipan and candied peel.

For this blog post I must thank Kimberly Killebrew of www.daringgourmet.com for her fabulously authentic German recipes. I simply set out to make a delicious marzipan-filled stollen but through her enthusiasm I ended up making my own marzipan and candied peel to go with it!

German stollen dates back to the 15th century although it wasn’t the delicious buttery, fruit and marzipan filled creation that we enjoy today. The most famous ones come from Dresden with different varieties on offer across the country depending on the proportion of ingredients: almond, nut, poppy seed and butter are all popular variations.

Stollen is a traditional Advent bread and it is said that the rounded shape of the stollen is meant to represent the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, with the candied fruit inside as gifts and the heavy coating of icing sugar on top to serve as a reminder of the snowy winter landscape.

The recipe I used was marketed as The Best German Stollen Recipe and I must say that it turned out to be very delicious: cakey and bready at the same time with a citrus tang and mellow warming spice notes. Perfect with a cup of coffee! I followed the recipe apart from the fact that instead of using Kimberly’s spice blend I substituted the Steenbergs Stollen Spice Blend which adds a fragrant hint of allspice and clove as well.

It was definitely worth making my own homemade marzipan which was incredibly simple and delicious. The addition of rose water, as well as the traditional almond extract, gave it a sweet fragrant taste that worked very well in the stollen.

The inclusion of homemade candied orange and lemon peel meant that the candied jewels actually tasted of real fruit, with a fabulous citrus hit in every bite.

The recipe made 3 good sized stollen cakes: one which was instantly devoured and two which were wrapped in greaseproof paper to give as homemade presents.

We hope you enjoy making, baking and eating all of your festive goodies!