Festive Stollen Bundt

I usually make a Stollen at Christmas which is tasty on its own, can be buttered and also toasted. Totally tasty but not much of a looker !  I have a beautiful bundt tin and thought about combining the two and as a result my stollen can show off along with all the other Christmas Fayre.

Makes at least 16 slices

Ingredients

You will need a bundt tin but if you don’t have one you can make this into a free standing loaf.

 

110ml warm milk

110g Soft butter

1 egg

40g caster sugar

10g dried yeast

1 tsp vanilla extract

350g Strong bread flour

7g salt

120g Mixed dried fruit and peel

40g Ready to eat apricots chopped into small dice (use scissors - much easier)

40g French morello flavour glace cherries (Tesco - chopped small)

1 tsp mixed spice

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

175g Marzipan

 

150g Icing sugar

Preparation

In the bowl of your table top mixer place the warm milk, very soft butter, egg, sugar, yeast and vanilla. I use a fork to give everything a good mix then add the flour and finally the salt.   With the dough hook attached mix until the dough comes together and is stretchy and smooth (about 5 minutes).

Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover with a shower cap or cloth and leave to rise until at least doubled in size. This can take about one and a half hours.

In the meantime place the fruits, spice and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set aside. Take the marzipan and roll into a long sausage making sure it is long enough to go around the bundt pan (about 50cm)

Take the dough from the bowl and roll out onto a work top to a large rectangle - 50cm x 30cm approx. Sprinkle over the fruit then roll up to a large long sausage.  Flatten the sausage with a rolling pin and roll it to the same length as the marzipan.  Place the sausage of marzipan in the centre of the flattened roll of dough then enclose.

Brush the bundt tin with lining paste then transfer the marzipan filled sausage into the bundt tin with the join uppermost. Cover with a cloth and leave to prove until it reaches the top of the tin - this may take 2-2.5  hours depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c (fan). Bake for 30 minutes, turning the oven down to 165 degrees after 15-20 minutes if the bread is over browning.

Turn out of the tin immediately and allow to cool before applying the icing.

Simply sieve the icing sugar into a bowl then add sufficient lemon juice to make a thick icing. Either spoon or pipe over the cooled stollen.  Alternatively just dust with icing sugar.

TIP You can even make this dough the night before and leave in the fridge and continue the next morning with the filling and shaping. Simply work up to *

TIP If you want to make a free standing hand shaped loaf make a shorter sausage of marzipan - about 30cm and incorporate into your dough in the same way, i.e. enclosing it in the centre before the final prove.

TIP - Any left overs will make a delicious bread and butter pudding.
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