Bless Us, Every One

Last year, I 'ruined Christmas'. At least, I did get on an airplane and fly off to East Africa. Wearing a Santa hat. This year, I tried to make it up--with a sugary, boozy, Stollen recipe courtesy of Jörg at Kiss  + Cathcart, who made a lovely one a few weeks ago and inspired my first tangle with candied peels of any kind. Christmas Eve, Jill has told me many times, is for cookies, but I think Stollen will do. Especially as I hear it was a favorite with Freud. 


I've left the recipe largely in the form I received it in, because it has nice little bits of German and very direct instructions. I did make a few adaptations, which are noted. Can't vouch for its keeping qualities yet, but it was very nice out of the oven. Maybe I'll wrap one up to give to my landlord, who just sent me a mass Christmas text with more words than I've ever heard him say at one time.

Stollen
Jörg's sister, lightly translated by Jörg Thoene.
(half of this recipe made two of respectable size. all notes except those marked with my initials, are original)


Zutaten (Ingredients):
500g Flour
250g Butter
250g Sugar
250g Quark – or that yogurt cheese we talked about (I used plain yogurt-KS)
3 Eggs
200g ground Almonds
125g Korinths - Raisins
100g Lemon Peel (candied)
100g Orange Peel (candied) (Lemon and orange peel can be replaced by dried, cubed apricots)
vanilla extract ( 1tablespoon?)
baking powder (1.5 tablespoons)
Rum
almond extract (1 tablespoon?)
lemon extract or simply lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
some pinches of mace


Soak dried fruit in enough rum to cover for at least 30 mins (I used a mix of whiskey and Campari -KS), make dough out of all other ingredients and add the fruit+rum (just realized I left out the mace--I think it should go in -KS).


Enough for 2 large Stollen but can also split into 3-4 smaller units.
Preheat oven to 250 C (480 F), put in the Stollen and reduce heat to 180 C (350) and bake for 45 mins - 1h.
Brush the Stollen immediately with lots of melted butter and cover with a thick layer of confectioners sugar.
Tastes good once cooled off, but even better after storing in aluminum foil for about 2 weeks in a cool environment.
"Viel Spaß beim Backen und Essen!"