Stollen Prepartion Tips:

1) Use clarified butter to brush on baked loaves before coating with powered sugar

    a) Stollen is intended as a "coffee table" dessert that does not need to be refrigerated. If the preparer uses regular melted butter during the coating cycle, some milk solids will be transferred to the baked stollen and will, over time, cause the stollen to acquire an unpleasant taste and smell.

2) Incorporating almond paste, or marzipan, into the dough will make the finished product moister over a longer period of time

3) Nuts such as almonds, cashews, or pistachios provide a better taste, texture, and visual appear than walnuts, or pecans.

    a) Nuts should be lightly roasted, then cooled, before incorporating into the dough

4) Liquors such as dark rum, clear brandy, are preferable to highly flavored liquors such as Grand Marnier, Cointreau, or flavored brandy

5) Spices that go well with stollen are cardamon or ginger. Traditionally stollen should not include spices such as cinnamon, mace, or nutmeg

6) After baking, and coating with clarified butter, loaves should be allowed to rest for two or three days before coating with powered sugar.

    a) The butter "wash" should be fully absorbed by the loaves, otherwise it will leech out and make the sugar coating less attractive

7) Marinate the glazed fruits at least overnight in the liquors. Longer is better. If using orange or lemon peel, cut into very small pieces.

8) When mixing  the fruits into the batter, do not overmix, especially with dough hooks, or commercial grade paddles, as overmixing breaks up the fruit, and turns the dough into a greyish mass instead of the light egg color which is typical of well made stollen.

Notes provided by: Richard Pressl - Pressl's Pastries/La Patisserie, Atlanta/Highlands - 2005