Today I’m sharing a recipe that absolutely had to be on Laura’s Bakery: the classic Christmas Stollen! This is the ultimate holiday bread and I’m sure many of you will serve it on your breakfast table during the Christmas season.
My dad is obsessed with this lightly sweet Christmas bread filled with almond paste and raisins, but I was never really a fan myself, until I took a bite of my homemade stollen.
This one I actually love! I’m the kind of person who wants a bit of almond paste in every bite and spreads it over the rest of the slice before eating it. Of course, that is totally optional but so tasty! Am I the only one who does this?
I’m listing the most important recipe ingredients below, but make sure to double-check quantities and full ingredients in the recipe card below. This recipe is easy to swap ingredients to your preference.
It’s really not difficult to make Christmas stollen at home. Still, I’ve noticed that bread recipes can intimidate a lot of home bakers.
That’s why I’m not only sharing this basic stollen recipe with you, but also a batch of frequently asked baking questions plus several step-by-step photos showing exactly how to shape the loaf and fill it with almond paste.
Just follow the instructions in the recipe card below and I’m sure you will make your own Christmas stollen for this holiday season!
The credit for this recipe goes to one of my favorite Dutch Bakers Levine. I did change the filling to my preference but the basic recipe is from her.
One more tip: try making mini stollens! This way you can easily leave the almond paste out for those who don’t like it or add an extra-thick layer for those who love it. And make sure to also check my other holiday recipes!
In most Dutch households, Christmas stollen is eaten generously during Christmas brunch or breakfast. Maybe you baked a delicious stollen yourself, but a family member also brings one along.
Either way, chances are you’ll end up with a few extra slices after the holidays.
I have the perfect solution: make stollen French toast! It’s incredibly delicious and a nice change from what you’ve been eating the past couple of days.
You can use this recipe for French toast but just change the bread for leftover stollen. Another great way to use extra’s is to make a bread pudding with stollen. I will soon be sharing that recipe too!
You can easily store Christmas stollen. Keep the bread in a plastic or paper bag. It might get a little drier after one or two days, but will still be delicious.
You can turn it into toast if it is too dry. If you want to keep the crunch of the crust, wrap the bread in a clean tea towel. It will stay delicious that way!
Absolutely. You can freeze the bread in slices for easy access and easier defrosting or you can freeze the whole bread. It will keep in the freezer for up to three months.
Absolutely. You can customize the filling to your taste. For example, I’m not a fan of candied citrus peel and I don’t like too many raisins, let alone currants. But if you love them, feel free to add extra raisins, candied peel, cranberries, or currants.
Yes, no problem at all. If you don’t like almonds, you could also replace them with nuts you do enjoy, such as hazelnuts or walnuts.
You can leave them out, make your own speculaas spices or replace them with gingerbread spices. Don’t add just cinnamon, too much cinnamon can negatively affect the rise of the bread (it interferes with the yeast). Instead of spices, you can also add an extract such as almond or lemon extract.
The bread was likely baked a little too long or too hot. Are you using a convection oven? If so, always reduce the temperature by 10–20% from what the recipe states (my recipes are based on a conventional oven).
Yes, I recommend it. It makes the almond paste smoother, richer, and more flavorful.
I haven’t tested it, but it should work. You might want to check out this post about storing bread dough in the fridge.
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