Paul Hollywood Stollen

This is the absolute best Christmas bake for a large gathering of family and friends to serve with coffee or even mulled wine! 

It may seem a little fiddly or daunting to make your own Stollen from scratch but to be honest it's the kind of recipe you can leave to it's own devices once you've mixed the dough. Although if you need a little extra encouragement, Paul Hollywood himself makes this exact recipe on the Great British Bake Off, season 4, episode 11(Time code 10 minutes 49 seconds in), I watched it myself on Netflix.  

So earn those extra kudos and get baking!

Serves 10-12

Ingredients

500g strong white flour
100g caster sugar
10g fast action yeast
10g salt
150g unsalted butter, softened
250ml whole milk
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 drops almond extract
55g blanched almonds, finely chopped
200g raisins
100g currants
125g mixed peel ( I added quartered glacé cherries instead)
25g butter, melted
225g marzipan

To serve
25g butter, melted
2 tbsp icing sugar

Method,
Place the strong flour into a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and yeast on the left-hand side of the bowl and the salt on the right-hand side of the bowl (never mix the salt with the yeast, the salt will kill yeast)

Mix the dry ingredients together, while the mixer is on low, add the milk and softened butter until everything is fully incorporated. Knead the dough for a further 6-7 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic.

In a separate bowl, add the ground nutmeg, ground cloves, vanilla extract, almond extract, chopped almonds, raisins, currants and mixed peel ( or in my case cherries) to a medium sized bowl.

Add the enriched dough to the dried fruit bowl and knead the fruit into the dough.  

Cover the dough with cling film and leave in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

Once the enriched dough has doubled in size, roll out on a floured surface. The dough should be roughly the width of a raisin and the length of your baking tray. Roll out the marzipan and place it in the centre of the dough, brush the dough with melted butter.

Roll the dough up and place it gently onto your baking tray, cover loosely with cling film or a clean plastic bag and allow to rise for 60 minutes or until it has doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 190 /170 FAN/ 350XXX.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until it is a rich golden colour, once out of the oven brush with melted butter to soften the crust and allow to cool completely. Once cool, dust liberally with icing sugar and serve.